The Seventh Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art

FOOD AS THE SOURCE Networking is very important in my art practice. I need others to help me do things that I don’t know how to do; it makes my work more like a collaboration. I call the people I collaborate with ‘superfriends’. They work with me in many different ways, from very technical to very personal things. My work is about going deeper into the layers of who people are. It’s about seeing people’s ways of life from a different point of view. What has happened to people is reflected in their energy, and you need energy to think, to choose how you express yourself, and energy comes from food. Our roots are reflected in our choice of food. In 2010 I started to interview people around the world on the internet, about why they buy certain products. It was normally because their mum buys them, because they trust their roots. RETURNING TO KELANTAN I have a nice studio in Kuala Lumpur (KL), but in 2011 when I was in Korea for a residency I decided that I was going to close my studio and go back to Kelantan. I realised that living in KL was not meaningful for me anymore, because I can work anywhere through the internet. I also really wanted to spend time with my grandma, who is an expert cook. There is one particular recipe using goose, which was my favourite meal when I was a child. I wanted to go back to Kelantan to ask my grandmother to cook that recipe for me again, before she passes away. When I told my grandmother about this project, I had to give her a presentation about my previous work and how it led to this project, so it was like giving a presentation to a curator. With the next conversation she saw the project in the larger context of my practice. She is always cooking but it’s about how it will be used within the project to create something else. My work uses common things, but it’s about seeing them in different contexts. I left Kelantan 19 years ago, and have gone back once a year to visit family. Because it was always during celebrations, all the shops were closed, and my brothers and sisters would be there, so I haven’t seen the real Kelantan. The first challenge was moving into my parents’ house — which no one has lived in for many years — alone. In Malaysia we believe that a house has a soul. When people live there it is lively, but when no one has been there for many years it is dead. My mum was a very bubbly person, she was always cooking in her kitchen and the neighbours would always come over, so the place used to be super lively, but when she passed away, and then my father passed away, the house suddenly became a dark place. So the kitchen has to be the first place I clean, because I really want it to be lively again. THE PROJECT When I started going to the local markets, at first people were curious: who is this guy with the camera? They are always surprised that I speak fluent Kelantanese and that I was born in Kelantan, probably because of my specs [Ise wears distinctive glasses], and this starts the conversation. My research is just talking to people. My friend and I were eating at the traditional market and he asked, ‘How are you going to get people?’ Then a guy sits down next to me and we start chatting. He asks why I am returning to Kelantan, so I tell him about the project, and he says he is a cousin of the royal family. He said ‘Why don’t you come and see the royal kitchen, I can take you’. My friend was astounded. People are always sceptical about how I come across the people that I end up working with on my projects. I also met this architect who is working on a project on Langkasuka, which is the old kingdom in the area of Kelantan and southern Thailand. Part of my project is also about Langkasuka, because I want to go deep into the recipes of the area, deep into my background. The food is different from the rest of Malaysia; if you go to Penang they might just have a Laksa Penang for dinner, but in Langkasuka, because it is an old kingdom, we have starter, main, and dessert. I think this work is about relationships with people, because Brisbane and Kelantan are far from one another. I am in Kelantan searching for the recipe, then it appears in the book and you can see the photo, but you cannot taste it. So the book is only one part of the project; another is how people share the food. I really want to encourage people to taste the food of Kelantan. Interviewed by Ellie Buttrose, May 2012. ROSLISHAM ISMAIL (aka ISE) An interview OPPOSITE AND FOLLOWING PAGES ROSLISHAM ISMAIL (aka ISE) Malaysia b.1972 The Langkasuka Cookbook (process images) 2012 Commissioned for APT7 / Images courtesy: The artist / Photographs: Magnus Caleb 127