The Remembering Forest: Rattan Stories, 2025

Performance Workshop

Presented by The Everyday Museum and StoryFest, in collaboration with Kamini Ramachandran, Isa Pengskul and Hafiz Rashid

In Southeast Asian folklore, rattan appears as more than a simple vine: it is a living thread that connects the earthly realm with the ethereal, the human world with the more-than-human. In response to Zen Teh's Rattan Eco Sprawl—a public installation that highlighted the ecological interconnections present within urban environments—this workshop drew upon storytelling and embodied experience as methods to explore ecological mythology.

The workshop created an immersive setting where regional tales were interwoven with tactile, hands-on activities. As Hafiz Rashid shared stories researched and written by Kamini Ramachandran, participants engaged in a sensorial exploration, weaving with materials that Isa Pengskul thoughtfully curated and crafted to correspond with each narrative. This multisensory approach brought the stories to life, fostering an immersive and meditative experience that deepened engagement with the material.

Following the storytelling component, participants were given time to independently explore Spottiswoode's surroundings, discover more about the diverse plant life within the park, and encounter Zen Teh's sculpture. This self-directed exploration allowed participants to develop their own affective connections with the materials and environment around them.

The session concluded with a facilitated discussion led by Isa, where participants reflected on how they might cultivate more meaningful and reciprocal ways of living alongside their more-than-human kin. Throughout the experience, participants engaged with rattan as both a medium and a metaphor for growth, resilience, and relationship-building, and each departed with their own woven object-journal—created from materials both used in the artwork and sourced from the site itself.

Images courtesy of Singapore Art Museum