If you are in the Publika Leisure and Shopping Complex today and tomorrow, do drop in at the White Box on Level G2. I have 4 panels of giant prints shot in Ethiopia being exhibited there, in conjunction with the 2014 Asian Coffee and Art Festival. Publika is located at #1 Jalan Dutamas 1, Solaris Dutamas, Kuala Lumpur 50480. Some of the photos are shown below, and I am in the picture only to give a sense of scale to the size of the prints. I plan to be at the White Box from around 12.30 to 2.30 today (Saturday) and from 8 to 10 pm tomorrow (Sunday) in case anybody wants to know a little more about Ethiopia, that mysterious and much misunderstood country. We tend to identify Ethiopia with famine, with extreme poverty, with frightening diseases and dangerous wars. Which is an outmoded perception. Which is a great pity, but in some ways, a good thing. Because Ethiopia is surprising. Ethiopia is delightful. Food is plentiful. And Ethiopians are a beautiful and intriguing people. Ethiopia is not dangerous. You can get preventive vaccinations for almost all health risks. You can travel freely and safely throughout Ethiopia. And because of this mistaken perception, Ethiopia thankfully, still has very few tourists, so they will make you feel very welcomed. There are 75 million people in Ethiopia today, and they belong to more than 80 different ethnic groups, some of which have as few as 10,000 members. I shot these photos during the course of several PhotoSafaris to Ethiopia. They are but the tip of that intriguing and mysterious mountain of native tribal diversity that is Ethiopia. You must include Ethiopia in your bucket list, and you must visit Ethiopia quickly, before traditional Ethiopia vanishes as modernization progresses. The practice of lip piercing for plates, for example, are already being rightly discouraged by the government. Ethiopia is also the tree where Man was born. The skeletal remains of the earliest upright walking hominids, were discovered in Ethiopia. And these have been carbon dated to be at least 4.5 million years old. And the recent discovery of the remains of the 120,000 years old Kibbish Man, who has DNA similar to the DNA of modern man, gives weight to the belief that modern Man migrated to the rest of this planet, from Ethiopia. This means the Ethiopian natives in my exhibition, may well be your distant cousins 120,000 years removed Ethiopia is also the birthplace of coffee. Arabica coffee, has always grown wild in the Kaffa and Buno districts. In the 10th century, Ethiopian nomadic mountain people may have been the first to recognize coffees stimulating effect, although they ate the red cherries directly, and did not drink it as a beverage. It was the mystic Sufi pilgrims of Islam who spread coffee as a drink, throughout the Middle East. From the Middle East Coffee spread to Europe, and their colonial empires. Today Coffee is Ethiopia’s most important export, and coffee has been part of Ethiopia’s indigenous cultural traditions for more than 10 generations. If you visit Ethiopia, you will find that even in small road side coffee shops, the preparation and drinking of coffee, is almost akin to a religious ceremony. The Exhibition and Festival runs for only 3 days till Sunday 28th. Sep. And theres also a section for acrylics and another for street photography and instagrams. Joshua is also exhibiting his tribute to the MAS tragedies. My prints at the exhibition are for sale and are available at any size you want, and the entire proceeds will be donated to charity. If the spirit should move you, do drop by at Publika today and tomorrow. Oh, dont forget to bring along a puke bucket ..... just in case
Posted on: Sat, 27 Sep 2014 02:26:41 +0000
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