Through the eyes of beholders I

Azri Through the eyes of beholders I (2020) Split screen video This project is an exploration into the collective experience of divers. Using words, footage and other visual material from Uncle Benny, Nicholas, Justin, Junyao and Celine (my friends and fellow divers), I hope to share the deeply personal and yet unified experience of nature that diving offers. While this piece looks at diving, it is not  about  diving. It is about the personal, two-way relationship between each of us and nature. Through the eyes of beholders I  is meant to be a meditative piece, simulating the immersive solitude of diving. Of course, the best way to actually do this is to take you on a dive trip (usually places with spotty wifi, the constant sighing of waves and starry night skies). With the One Night Only exhibition this year taking place online, this piece takes the form of a blog. I invite you to enter this piece in your own comfortable, solitary spaces. Grab a warm drink, open the win...

60 IT services (retired) Diving since 2000 Well it all began when I was a teenager. I was always attracted to the sea, spent a lot of holidays on the beach with family and when I got old enough to go on trips of my own I started snorkelling. Islands off Johor especially, in those days it was Pulau Rawa, Pulau Tioman. Those were probably in the early 80s, when diving was just too expensive for the common man on the street to get involved, but snorkelling was cheap. A pair of fins, a snorkel and a mask. So I started snorkelling for many years, with the intention to go into diving eventually. I didn’t start diving until I was in my late thirties. There were a lot of memorable moments but the one that stuck in my mind was when I was lost at sea for about four hours. I drifted out into the Indian ocean off Phuket and was rescued about four hours later. If you ask me, that is the one that will stick to my mind all my life. Because of my affinity for the sea, I brought them to a lot of snorke...

 29 Marine biology Diving since 2013 Nicholas Chew Photography Before long I also got hooked. Did my course and never looked back. I remember my first dive. It was really life-changing, as soon as I put my head in the water I knew I wanted a big part of my life to be underwater.  So I think very early on, I fell in love with diving. The year or two after getting certified I wanted to look for sharks, look for manta rays and all that. I think there was this particular trip where we were on the Similan islands and then the whole trip we were pretty much looking for whale sharks which never turned up. And you know, that is the way with nature. Sometimes things don’t go as planned, but sure enough during our safety stop these giant oceanic mantas were just circling us. And very often this one would just come really close and look me in the eye. There was this connection which was undeniable. It was as interested in me as I was in it. So that struck a chord in me and I felt like wo...

28 Law enforcement Diving since 2011 I think it wasn’t by choice, fortunately or unfortunately. I think fortunately. When I was doing my NS back in 2011, I was posted to the Naval Diving Unit and so that was actually my first encounter with diving. So I actually got to learn diving as a vocation, in the diving unit, but prior to that I was always wanting to learn diving so I guess everything just fell into place. R ight before starting NS I was doing triathlon, so being out at sea, swimming in the sea is something I am familiar with as well. I guess it came quite naturally, as a second nature, I feel quite at home in it . At Komodo, in Indonesia, I think back in 2018. For me, it was the first time seeing mantas. And not just one, but there were at least six or seven of them, like swimming together. That was quite nice, and that came maybe seven years after I first started diving, so after seven years of diving and not having anything eventful happen - I mean every trip is eventful, but...

 28 Impact investment Diving since 2012 It was my first time diving in the water. I had no idea how it was gonna be like or what to expect, so I was totally not prepared for it. And the first time I released the air and start going down I was absolutely overwhelmed. Mind blown. Have you been to another dimension? It feels like I had just entered another dimension. Like this whole new world underwater... The corals like trees, you start to see the fishes around you, and all your perceptions and senses are absolutely different as compared to the land. So I was totally not prepared for that. I admit that I got a bit overwhelmed. But I managed to “Okay, okay,” like just chill and slowly get my heartbeat back on track. So that was the in-your-face kind of moment, which was also a great experience in itself. My third or fourth dive within the same trip, where I saw a turtle. It was my first time seeing a live turtle just swimming. We were in this area where it’s just...empty. Not much go...

 25 Ecological design and research Diving since 2016 It was just a casual conversation with a friend. We were both taking the bus back home from a party, and she was like, “Eh you want to learn diving?” And I was like, “Yeah sure, why the hell not?” Because at that point in time I guess I was a fresh student in uni and you just wanna try everything. I just wanted to do something crazy every summer. So that’s how it started. Didn’t expect for me to become who I am today because of diving, I suppose, but it became a big part of my life and who I am today. So it was a pool session and the instructor was teaching us how to clear our mask and I think I didn’t take the instruction well the first time. What you’re supposed to do is tilt your head up and blow into your mask to let the bubbles out. I was just keeping my head down the whole time when I was underwater. I couldn’t see and I started to panic, but then I recalled what he said right before we went down: “If you forget everything ...