Indonesia and Thailand's most comprehensive resort property magazine showcasing the largest range of luxury homes land for sale along with features on all things lifestyle and property related in the unsurpassed tropical climes of Southeast Asia.
Edition : April - June 2012
A small development of quality apartments in the south of Phuket island at an affordable price.
By Michael Travers
Richard is renowned for his stonework but his talents are far reaching. In his own words he is a freelance art director. “Whether hotel, house or airport arrival hall, it’s all the same to me. I’m an ideas man and I know what will and won’t work.”
He spends a lot of time out of Bali and has worked in many countries including Singapore, Thailand, and England where he designed Chinawhite, one of London’s most successful and fashionable nightspots.
But Richard is perhaps best known for his large stone sculpture in Singapore’s Changi Airport T3 arrival hall, which was completed in 2008, a 360m long by 3m high colossus adorned with a stunning series of images from nature with an intricate play of textures. Birds in flight, breeching dolphins, flowers blooming, dragonflies on the wing; images to lift the spirit and senses of visitors released from the cooped-up and artificial environment of the plane’s cabin. Architect Vincent Lim described it as, “an artistic task that can only be described as magnificent.”
Changi was a massive jigsaw puzzle. The stone was quarried in Central Java and Richard had to make sure that the blocks were roughly the same colour. He built his workshop near Borobudur temple, so he could have an excuse to lunch at Amanjiwo each afternoon. He and his 30-strong team of Javanese artisans built it all in the studio and moved it piece by piece to Singapore. “We built the wall twice,” he explains. “We put it up, dismantled it, photographed it, shipped and then reassembled it. It took five years from concept to completion and two years just to set it up. It weighs about 3000 elephants,” he says confidently. A friend of his worked it out
It wasn’t all plain sailing however, “We had all sorts of troubles; there was the Yogyakarta earthquake and then Mount Merapi kept erupting. One morning I woke up and my whole studio was covered in grey ash. The show must go on however, but it wasn’t without its share of drama,” he recalls.
The precursor to Changi Airport was the entrance at Bali’s famous nightspot, Ku De Ta. He did it for virtually nothing but it has gone on to become somewhat of a classic. “I made a collage using calligraphy and symbols in many languages,” he says, “The Changi designers had seen the piece and loved it and wanted me to take that feeling and run with it.”
“Sculpting and stonemasonry are hard work, very physical work. It’s not walking around with a Gin & Tonic in your hand and directing proceedings. It’s getting your hands dirty and getting everything to match. I am lucky I still have all my fingers,” he says putting down his glass and showing his hands. “The thing about stone is that it lasts forever. It is the literally the building block of civilization. The Sphinx, Borobudur, The Great Wall, Stonehenge, they all have a wonderful lasting feeling that give people a sense of security,” he says.
What drew him to stone was that he was surrounded by it and its traditions all his life. He grew up in the Cotswolds in southern England, where there is so much use of stone. His grandmother had a 16th century stone inn. “It wasn’t that I loved stone per se, I loved all art,” he says. “I loved painting, I loved design and stuff and studied the classics. I also grew up in Cyprus and lived in an ancient walled city called Kyrenia which had a 12th century Crusader castle, so that obviously had an effect,” he says.
When he first came to Bali he was amazed by the craftsmanship amongst the local stonemasons. “I could see this extraordinary talent, but couldn’t believe the row upon row of people doing exactly the same thing. Therefore as a rank opportunist I saw a direction to take my small team of stone carvers and point them in a new and bold direction,” he says with a sly grin.
Richard is not a materialist. He works for love and all with a healthy dose of gravitas and humour. “Art is very subjective. I like to create artwork for the masses. Art should not be elitist,” he insists. “I can’t survive unless I have patronage. To this day artists still rely on the kindness of strangers to give us the opportunity to work. I am very grateful for the patronage I have had. I am hopeless at marketing myself.”
Richard is very much a patron of the arts himself and likes to collaborate with other artists when he works. “I was very fortunate to have the help of sculptor Pintor Sirait with the Changi project. He helped with the design and he is a great sculptor in his own right,” he says. He had friend and fellow artist Steven Henry decorate his studio with intricate thatched grass matting paintings over all the walls, replete with knotted details, “just for fun,” he says.
Richard is influenced by all art, not just the classics. He gave himself and his family a crash course in the appreciation of modern art in 2008. “We visited the Pompidou Centre in Paris, the Tate Modern in London and the Museum of Modern Art in New York. “I must confess,” he whispers, “I knew bugger all about modern art but came back from the trips blown away. I think it’s important to keep your brain alive.”
His own home is a tribute to the things he loves best. “My pool is a replica of that of Emperor Nero’s private summer palace in Pompei,” he enthuses. In his living room there are intricate Islamic carvings, paintings from Indonesian artists that sit alongside Picassos, Middle Eastern prints of Ottoman-ruled Damascus in the time of Sir Richard Burton, all mixed in with the things that make a home; soft and comfortable sofas, chairs, a dog, children, books and a wide-screen plasma TV.
His love affair with the Orientalists is obvious in his house and one could almost imagine turning a corner and seeing T.E. Lawrence attempting to seduce one of the servant boys in between sips of Scotch. “Just because you live and work in Asia doesn’t mean you are limited to Asian styles,” he explains.
“I am happy to do Egyptian, Byzantine, Olmec, etc. My guys love it. It’s the skill, not only the design that counts. I love Alhambra, I love Tunisian courtyards and the whole Islamic aesthetic. Thank God we have got away from minimalism. If the best we can come up with in stone is pebble pots and those ghastly dribbling water features that look like a public urinal then it’s all a bit pathetic,” he says referring to a recent trend in Balinese stone design.
“One problem with tropical architecture when it comes to interior design is trying to find the space!” he muses. “With all this open living, it’s like people have forgotten what a wall is.”
“It is very hard to hang a painting when there is no wall. No walls, no art!” he exclaims. “Art is often the last thing people think about when building. I built this house around two grey suede sofas”
There is a lot of feminine energy in his life and home. He has three daughters Jessica 13, Annabel 11 and Caitlin 7 along with his lovely wife Anjar. The only male in his life is his dog, Jackie Chan. “My kids are my greatest critics,” he surrenders. “I have a house full of ballet shoes and tutus, lots of dance, music and make up and I have to fight to get into the bathroom of a morning. It has made my work more rounded, more curvaceous, more sensual,” he reflects. “My girls have also made my work more lyrical.”
Richard has a new company called Canvas, an art consultancy based in Singapore. The aim is to create paintings and artwork in general for corporate clients, hotels as well as individuals. “I am very excited about Canvas. No disrespect intended, but a lot of people get confused by art so I help people get through the torturous journey and nurture them along,” he humbly opines.
“Creativity isn’t easy. The artist is very much like the author; there are many days when you can be staring at a blank piece of paper or canvas or stone. I was months late with Ku De Ta and only got my inspiration a few weeks before. Once you get that inspiration you have to run with it and run hard. You have to bash on regardless, have faith in your own talent and the feel of the project,” he says.
“I have a wonderful life,” he reflects. “I have been out here a long, long time and have had a ball. I didn’t invent the hammer and chisel. The one thing I have going for me is that I like to think I have good taste, which incidentally, doesn’t cost any more than bad taste.”
For more information:
Email: info@rnl.cc
www.richardnorthlewis.com
