Borneo Laboratory

“Nothing is truly gathered unless it is also allowed to return.” A quiet thought that stayed with me throughout this making process. This work is part of “And Then” at the Museum of Fiber Art, Taichung, Taiwan April 22– July 31, 2026 It begins with an almost forgotten object, the dustpan. Something once close to the body, now slowly fading from our daily gestures. From there, the work moves through material. A plant-based leather grown from pineapple waste, developed with Bioeconomy Corporation and 4tify. A material that is not fixed, but responsive. It shifts, it ages, it carries within it the possibility of disappearance. What you see here is not a finished object. It is a moment within a longer cycle. Folding, adjusting, listening, waiting. In this process, I am not shaping form as much as I am staying with it. Holding certain conditions, allowing something to emerge, and knowing it will one day return. This video captures a fragment of that in-between. A work still becoming.

4–6 March, Kuching. At @thinkandtink.kch For three days, we gathered across disciplines, places, and ways of knowing. Walking, listening, mapping, and questioning what it means to work with rather than on. This workshop was not a conclusion, but a beginning. A space where relationships were seeded, where stories surfaced, and where practices of reciprocity started to take form. To everyone who joined us, thank you for your presence, your openness, and your willingness to stay with complexity. The conversation continues. Next stop: Chiang Mai. Video edited by @eugene_chin_ #RegenerativePractice #Reciprocity #BorneoLaboratory #Kuching #ProcessOverOutcome

On Reciprocity 2.0: An Exhibition in Transit An exhibition that does not settle. Set along a staircase above a kopitiam, this chapter unfolds through fragments, encounters, and field notes gathered in movement. What began as a journey across cities and conversations now returns as an evolving reciprocal archive. Photographs, annotations, documentation, and traces from On Reciprocity 1.0 and 2.0 are brought into relation here. Not as a conclusion, but as a pause. A space to reflect on how community, climate, and cultural practice intersect across geographies. This is not a fixed display. It is an exhibition in transit, continuing to shift, respond, and deepen over time. The Reciprocal Archive from On Reciprocity 2.0 will open to the public for the first time on the 7th and 8th. Wendy Teo will be present to host and share more about the journey behind the work. More programme announcements will follow in April, including outreach events and conversations at the space. Please note: the exhibition is closed on Mondays. 📍 Think and Tink 1a, 230, Jalan Ang Cheng Ho Kuching 93100 Sarawak, Malaysia 🗓 1 March – 31 June 2026 Climb the stairs above the kopitiam. Engage with the archive. Be part of how this work continues to evolve.

As part of our ongoing collaboration with Goethe-Institut and basis e.V., we are opening up Think & Tink to residency applicants who are curious about working through presence, process, and reciprocity. Think & Tink is not a neutral container for production. It is a lived space, layered with exhibition-making, daily rhythms, food practices, and long-term relationships. Situated above a four-generation kopitiam, the space constantly negotiates between public and intimate, structured and informal, planned and emergent. Developed by Borneo Laboratory, the space brings together a gallery, kitchen, library, workshop hall, material archive, and live-work residency rooms. These are not separate functions, but interconnected conditions that shape how work unfolds over time. Here, exhibitions can be assembled and dismantled within hours; meals can become sites of inquiry; conversations extend into shared making. Our residency does not begin with a fixed outcome. Instead, it invites you to situate your practice within an ecology of people, materials, and contexts, where attention, care, and responsibility are as important as production. Through this collaboration, we are interested in practitioners who are willing to engage across disciplines, cultures, and ways of knowing, those who can hold space for uncertainty while contributing meaningfully to a shared environment. The following images offer a glimpse into the spaces you may inhabit, activate, and reshape during your time with us.

“To gather is not to take, but to enter a cycle of return.” Another Mode of Gathering Post-use regeneration, calculated use of off-cuts, and allowing disappearance. Now on view at the Taiwan Museum of Fiber Arts 📍 Museum of Fiber Arts, Taichung, Taiwan Invited by curator @weilin1869 , my journey for this work begins with the dustpan (插箕 / chā jī), a familiar object that is slowly disappearing from our daily lives. Through it, I reflect on how materials come into being. Not as resources to be extracted, but as relationships shaped by time, environment, and use. The material used here is a plant-based leather grown from pineapple waste, developed with Bioeconomy Corporation and 4tify. It is formed through fermentation, can be used, and will eventually return to nature. In this process, form is not created, but allowed to emerge. I act as a coordinator of conditions, working with material, time, and intention. This work is not a fixed object, but part of a cycle, from generation to transformation, and back again. Thanks to @Hsiu Ju Wang's assistance during one afternoon stitching session 🙂, and 賴黑黑 for the beautiful work in progress photos earlier. Exhibition Photos by 介宇 #AnotherModeOfGathering #RegenerativeMaterials #MaterialTransformation #BorneoLaboratory #TaiwanMuseumOfFiberArts

CineLAB takes over Kuching! In its second edition, we bring together two films from Vietnam and Indonesia, circling gender, history, and ecology. Saturday 18 April 2026 4-6 PM @ Think & Tink 1a, lot 230, jalan Ang Cheng Ho 93100, Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia Amar Haikal MY PLASTIC MOTHER (ANAK MACAN) (2025, 19m, fiction) My Plastic Mother tells the story of a boy living by the Bantar Gebang landfill, the largest and ever-growing landfill in Southeast Asia, as he searches for an everyday item to represent his deceased mother to his classmates. At the same time, the rainy season triggers landslides in the landfill, threatening the graveyard where his mother lies. The film moves along two parallel axes—environmental threat and a child’s emotional journey. Lê Ngọc Duy BEFORE THE SEA FORGETS (2024, 17m, fiction) A gay couple’s magic realist odyssey into Da Nang’s war-scarred peninsula. When searching for a Vietnamese soldier’s lost grave, they find their intimacy and family secrets fracturing amidst the skeletal ruins of deserted resorts. What is the true purpose of their quest—for a portrait of affection or a bygone love? Beneath the rustling canopy, the wind whispers an answer of hope, while a mysterious skate crew carves new stories over the ghosts of history. CineLAB is an initiative independently run by curators Amanda Ariawan and Ivan Gabriel, bringing moving images into spaces where it can be held and encountered with attention—against its marginalisation as a niche within the art world. Initiated by Wendy Teo, Think & Tink operates as a space for gathering, experimentation, and reciprocity. Wendy is also the founder of Borneo Laboratory; this collaboration is held in conjunction with the launch of the collective’s new publication, Our Climate Glossary, a result of the On Reciprocity 2.0 programme. Identity and initial poster design by Hafiz, adapted by CineLAB team Free entry. Register via link in bio.

“Looks like you’re hanging a fragment of the sun… or a burning heart,” said my dear friend Chi when I showed her my work for the upcoming exhibition “And Then - a series of conversation with the museum collections” at the Museum of Fibre Art in Taiwan. On view from 1 April 2026 onwards. Material: Bio-leather by Regenerative Material Common, a collaborative effort by Borneo Laboratory, CAST Foundation, Bioeconomy Corporation Malaysia, and 4tify. Photo credits to 賴黑黑

Our Petanak Market in Regenerative Fellowship Wet markets are often seen simply as places of transaction, where fish, vegetables, and meat change hands in the rhythm of everyday life. But they are also archives of place: holding the knowledge of seasons, rivers, coastlines, and the people who have worked with them for generations. For our Urban Wild Food Experience, we invited Chef Alex from Kyujin Restaurant to begin not in a fine dining kitchen, but in our own neighbourhood, the historic Petanak Market, just a five-minute walk from our space. Completed in 1988, Petanak Market (Pasar Besar Petanak) occupies a 1.74-hectare site along Jalan Petanak, housing around 385 stalls across two levels. The ground floor remains a vibrant wet market where fish, meat, vegetables, and herbs arrive fresh each morning, while the upper floor hosts a beloved food court with stalls that have been operating for decades. Some vendors have been here for more than 35 years, continuing culinary lineages that stretch even further back. Long before the market building existed, this neighbourhood was already a working landscape. The area was once home to Henghua fishermen and blacksmiths, with traditional kotak boats docking along the nearby riverbanks. What we see today is therefore not just a market hall, but the continuation of a long culture of livelihood and food exchange. Through this walk with Chef Alex, we wanted to reveal something simple yet profound: the ingredients of an extraordinary meal are often already present in the everyday market. What appears ordinary, a fish freshly landed, a bundle of greens, a handful of herbs, carries within it the potential for transformation. The Urban Wild Food Experience begins here, among the sounds of vendors calling out, the scent of fresh produce, and the quiet knowledge held by those who have sustained this market for decades. Sometimes the most unexpected culinary journeys start just five minutes from home. Video by Kyujin team

Urban Wilds in Regenerative Fellowship Kuching 2026 With chef Alex Ting from Kyujin, we are reminded that the extraordinary often emerges from the ordinary. For this evening, the ingredients were sourced entirely from Petanak Market, our local market in our neighbourhood in Kuching, where the richness of Borneo’s landscapes unfolds through food, from forest harvests to the abundance of the sea. Together with our guests from across Asia, we invited them into a shared journey of taste that reflects the diversity, stories, and ecological connections embedded in the ingredients of this place

The Practitioners Behind the Regenerative Fellowship (Kuching Chapter 2026) The Regenerative Fellowship in Kuching brought together a group of practitioners from across Asia who are working in different fields, yet are connected by a shared curiosity: how might regenerative practices shape the future of our cultures, cities, materials, and landscapes? Each fellow carries a different inquiry. Hana from @mythinkcity brings experience in urban regeneration, exploring how cities can evolve while remaining attentive to history, community, and place. @bioeconomycorporation and @castfoundation.id , together with Borneo Laboratory, are interested in the idea of a bio-material commons, exploring regenerative materials that could gradually phase out conventional extractive materials. @sms0604 and Hsiu Ju from Taiwan Creative Nodes is working closely with Indigenous communities in Hualien, learning from ancestral knowledge systems and documenting these practices through drawings and publications. @perspective_kyoto Studio explores the symbiosis between forest ecosystems and craft traditions, asking how material cultures can remain rooted in living landscapes. @gmbb.kl brings insights from Kuala Lumpur’s evolving art ecosystem, reflecting on how creative communities can grow while supporting long-term cultural resilience. @tsutsumi_urushi from Japan investigates how urushi (traditional Japanese lacquer) might find new relevance in contemporary products without losing the integrity of its craft lineage. @release_kyoto works on regenerative tourism frameworks, advising both the Kyoto government and local communities. @localalike ’s ambition is to enable over their communities to adopt regenerative practices that strengthen both culture and ecology. Though their practices differ, the fellowship allowed these inquiries to meet in one place, creating a space where ideas could cross-pollinate and new possibilities could begin to emerge. Regeneration rarely begins with a single solution. More often, it begins with many questions held together in conversation. Photos by @eugene_chin_

Urban Pocket Storytelling, Voices from Kuching As part of the Regenerative Fellowship, we invited our participants to encounter Kuching through the people who care deeply for this place. Through our Urban Pocket Storytelling segment, several local practitioners shared their work and journeys, offering glimpses into how regeneration takes shape through everyday commitment. From Black Bean Coffee, we heard about their long-standing relationships with micro-farmers who cultivate coffee with care. Beyond sourcing beans, their work now extends into eco-tourism initiatives that bring visitors closer to the landscapes and communities behind each cup. Rosemarie shared her years of dedication to women’s communities in Betong, where she has been supporting weaving innovation in mat and basketry techniques, and upcycled crafts, enabling traditional skills to evolve while strengthening local livelihoods. We also learned from Kak Liza of the Brooke Trust, who guided our fellows through the history and ongoing regeneration of the Old Court House, a site that continues to hold cultural memory at the heart of Kuching. Through these encounters, our participants experienced regeneration not as an abstract idea, but as a lived practice rooted in relationships, culture, and place. Our heartfelt thanks to these generous storytellers for sharing their time, knowledge, and spirit with us. Their presence helped ground the fellowship in the living realities of Kuching. Photos by @eugene_chin_

Regenerative Fellowship in Kuching, 2026 Over the past few days, practitioners from Japan, Thailand, Taiwan, Malaysia, Indonesia, and China gathered in Kuching for the Regenerative Fellowship, hosted at the new Think & Tink space. With Kuching chapter hosted by Borneo Laboratory and supported by the Japan Foundation, the gathering brought together artists, designers, curators, and cultural practitioners who share a common question: how can our work contribute to regenerative futures? Rather than arriving with fixed answers, we came with inquiries. Through conversations, shared meals, walks through the city, and collective reflection, the fellowship became a space for listening across cultures, disciplines, and lived experiences. One meaningful outcome of the gathering was the collective development of a living guideline for regenerative practice. Shaped by the diverse perspectives of the fellows, this evolving framework reflects a shared commitment to reciprocity, longer-term thinking, and ethical collaboration with both human and more-than-human worlds. This moment in Kuching marks the beginning of a wider journey. The fellowship will continue in Chiang Mai, where the conversation will unfold further with new landscapes, communities, and questions. The vibrant response during our recent Open House reminded us how much curiosity and interest exists around regenerative practices today. Over the coming days, we will share glimpses from the fellowship, introducing the people, conversations, and practices that are shaping this collective exploration, and where this journey may lead next. photos by @eugene_chin_