DAY 1

Once upon a time, thirteen artists got stranded on an island with unusually long palm trees, in the sunny Maldives.

That is not exactly how the story goes, nor is it accurate – except for the unusually long palm trees bit.

Emmenge gathered thirteen artists, who use different mediums to create their art, at Dhoores in Dhaalu Atoll to create stories. The concept was simple enough. I dived in to the project without having much knowledge of what it was really about; I just liked the idea of creating stories.

Prior to the trip, we had all met once for a meeting. Maldives being the small place it is, most of the artists knew each other, or knew of each other through social media (because liking each others’ Instagram posts constitute as being “friends” in these modern times). We had an interesting mix of artists from photographers, painters, animators, illustrators and even musicians.

We arrived on the island of Dhoores at around 2:30pm on Saturday and we were welcomed by a man who introduced himself as “Pine” (henceforth referred to as Mr Pine). After being introduced to the manager and a few of the staff who were at the jetty when we arrived, we headed straight to the dining hall for lunch, which was followed by a tour of the island.

MR PINE

Dhoores is a unique island. The island is being developed in to a resort – “Aaaveee” – and is in its final stages of completion. When you take a look around the island, it is fairly obvious what the key concept or identity of the island is: it is Maldivian.

According to Mr Pine, all the furniture on the island from the chairs, tables, the bar, and even the frame around the lights, are made from locally sourced materials. Ironically though, majority of the wood used to make the said furniture was sourced from nearby atolls. However, we were told that the trees that were cut down for building purposes were utilised to make the roofs and the structure around the main bar. This means that none of the trees that had to be cut down went to waste.

Despite the wraths of Hei Nakaiy being unbridled upon us, we managed to navigate through the island, mostly by hopping over puddles and trying not to get too drenched under our umbrellas that were graciously provided by the management of the island. Everyone walked around the island together, asking Mr Pine questions to which he had very tasteful answers. “Do you grow your own vegetables as well, for the kitchen?” someone asked Mr Pine after seeing a vegetable patch. “We’d like to. Of course this isn’t enough for the entire resort. This is just the initial stage. We plan on having a hydroponics system as well!” Mr Pine said.

After exploring the island with fellow Mr Pine, we grouped together in the conference area of the island at around 7pm to discuss what we saw and potential story ideas. As a journalist, I am used to getting stories out of people and what they tell me, or out of an event that transpired. Which is probably why I was so awestruck when the artists started speaking. They were brewing stories from the things they saw and felt, like the texture of the wood, the movements of the carpenters on the island and the aesthetics of the shadows whilst they worked, they found stories in patterns, and even shells and the migration of the birds. I found out that artists have a very curious perspective on things that you and I may pass off as normal every-day things.

The very eventful day came to an end in an official sense after the meeting was over. We had dinner and everyone sort of started gathering at the lounge near the conference room. Despite everyone knowing each other in the 21st Century way, we were relatively new to each other (in person). We played a game made popular by Ellen DeGeneres – Heads-Up – which proved to be a very efficient icebreaker as the game required us do the silliest of actions, which at one point involved two of the artists rolling around on the sand, which was obviously required to mime “Stop, Drop & Roll”.

If you have ever wondered who comes up with the really cool and moving snippets of stories you see being passed around on social media, or how they come up with these things, that is the story I am going to tell you. It is absolutely fascinating to watch how their minds work and how they come up with these things that, in the end, seem so simple. However, as you will see, despite the common misconceptions about artists, they do so much work just to tell someone else’s story and to bring someone else in to the limelight . I am hoping to tell the story of the story tellers.