In a Port Dickson beachside house, a show about printmaking and climate change

Sharon Chin's printmaking art exhibition and community programme in Port Dickson this weekend. Photo: Handout

The idea of an art exhibition, supported by a local community, outside the confines of Kuala Lumpur and Petaling Jaya is always an appealing one. A road trip and a new out-of-town place to experience art is most welcome in these post-pandemic days.

I Like This Place, a printmaking art exhibition and community programme by Sharon Chin, is one such rare show. It is a project about a small mangrove beach located in the Jalan Rumah Rehat area in Batu 1, Port Dickson in Negri Sembilan.

Many of Port Dickson’s beaches are now reclaimed land but this is a small stretch of unreclaimed mangrove beach, away from the tourist beaches around Teluk Kemang in Batu 4.

Chin stumbled upon this beach just before the pandemic, in 2019, and it quickly became a place she returned to again and again.

“It is behind my regular local restaurant, Eating Point. I started spending a lot of time at the beach, enjoying the atmosphere. I found it therapeutic to be there, especially after the lockdown,” she says.

Sharon Chin's 'Side By Side: Mermaid Fan Seaweed' (Intaglio print on Saa (Thai mulberry) paper, 2021). Photo: Sharon Chin

This beach doesn’t exactly make for a postcard-perfect picture, but this is part of its charm to her.

Chin moved away from the Klang Valley to set up a new home and art studio in Port Dickson nearly 10 years ago.

“This beach speaks to me because it is not perfect. As with most beaches these days, there is trash everywhere. A few hundred meters out on the water, there is an oil and gas company’s docking platform that’s been there since the 1960s. There is noise pollution from the power plant nearby. In spite of this, life and beauty continues to exist there.

"I remember the thrill of looking closely into a grey-brown colored tide pool for the first time, and discovering that it teems with life! Snails, crabs, fishes, mudskippers, shrimp, seaweed - all moving in this amazing dance,” she shares.

The more time she spent on this beach, the more she came to care for it and all the creatures big and small that call it their home.

Sharon Chin's 'Big Law In This Place: Moon Phases And Tides For December 2021, Port Dickson, Negeri Sembilan' (installation with collagraph prints on Saa (Thai mulberry) paper, 2021) is installed in a horizontal row on the outside of the house. Visitors can refer to the tide chart to determine if it is low or high tide during their visit. Photo: I Like This Place

“Whenever I am there, I am at peace. I started to really care about the place, like I would a dear friend or relative. With climate change looming large, there is more awareness and talk about saving nature. That is urgent and necessary. However, I think the missing piece is seeing that we are part of nature, and that we need to come back into a relationship with the land.

"We need to listen and learn from the land. It doesn’t have to be a big, abstract thing. We just need to find and love one small place. As an artist, this exhibition is my way of expressing the relationship I started to build with this beach,” she adds.

I Like This Place is supported by the National Art Gallery and the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture (MOTAC) under their Rural Art Experience 2021 programme.

It comprises an exhibition of handmade prints about the landscape of the place, and community programmes that include a printmaking demo and workshop conducted by Chin, a soil and composting workshop by H of Ground Control, a beach walk and talk by John and Ting of PD Seashore Discovery, a film screening of Hayao Miyazaki’s Princess Mononoke, readings and conversations.

Sharon Chin's 'Side By Side: White-Collared Kingfisher' (Intaglio print on Saa (Thai mulberry) paper, 2021). Photo: Sharon Chin

These activities are held in a rented bungalow next to the beach, which allows visitors to experience the place directly, as well as through art.

On the beach, Chin has observed many delightful sights, like a swarm of tiny fish circling the roots of two mangrove trees during mid-tide.

Visitors are invited to forge their own connections with the space.

“There is a special mangrove tree right on the edge of the water. I think it is a wise tree of the area. I hope people will visit and say hello to this tree, whose roots reach out across the rock. Do show respect to the red and black ants that live on the tree, they can give a painful bite,” she offers.

To Chin, the exhibition segment of I Like This Place focuses on relationships with the landscape, while its community programme reflects on deepening relationships with people.

“Both humans and non-humans make a place what it is. So the events are guided by what and who is already here, I am just the one bringing them together for the weekend. Hopefully they will continue to be here, and so will I,” she says.

I Like This Place is showing at 294, Jalan PD Kemuning, Port Dickson till Dec 19. Opening hours: 10am-9pm (Friday-Sunday).

Entry is free and by appointment. Register here or Whatsapp [phone]. Fully vaccinated individuals only.

More info here.