CLAUD

Monday, May 23, 2011

SAM, Outing and Cupcake icing….

So Cathleen and I, upon Shangyi's request, went to the Singapore Biennale to snap some pictures. We were debating whether it's free entry for NUS students for the Biennale event and the lady overheard us and said it was. LOL! Embarassing much. In any case, we caught the guided tour just in time and she gave us a very efficient tour around the Biennale events.

I'm just going to highlight some of my favourites =)

This is modern art, so although the art may seen trivial, like "My kid can do it", but rest assured, your kid cannot have thought about the ideas and process that goes into a body of work. So it's not a question of "I can do it too!" but rather, "If you can do it, why didn't you?"

This work is called My We. It's a play on the Phillippino tradition in villages, where they would rent Karaoke machines to sing and the most popular song that is sung is called "My Way", hence the title of the work. However, as men get drunk or high, they each have their own opinions about whose rendition is the best and others would get violently angry if another accused him of not singing the song properly. This would escalate to the point that someone often gets killed. Therefore, this artist makes a point in poking fun at the machismo of Phillippino men and this seemingly irrational phenomenon of fighting over a song.

This is by an Indonesian artist (i didn't take down his name!) and he has three of these busts. The bust is shaped from his son's head and the tour guide explained that gesture from the hands can either meet rejection, or surrender. This work is tied to the increasing Islamic fundamentalist military movement in Indonesia where young children are recruited as soldiers. Therefore, the artist is making a statement that will the future of Indonesia actually reject, or surrender towards this movement due to its pervasiveness? Most political, and I daresay, having the Koran on the bust gives one pause.

This one is called Secret Affair. The artist is Roslisham Ismail aka ISE.

He gave 6 (not sure leh, shud be this number) families the same amount of money and asked them to buy food that they would normally buy for the week. They were to then pack them into these fridges at the Biennale and he filmed the entire process and the videos are on the doors of the fridge. It's pretty interesting because we often hesitate to open fridges at our friend's houses because it somewhat is revealing about your family (WALAO! YOU HAVE SO MUCH BEN AND JERRY'S FOR WHAT?!). However in this space, a public space, it seems somewhat more permissible to gaze. Pretty social geog. HAHA…the Gaze, public/private dichotomy etc.

Like i said, this fridge reminds me of my fridge after my mum fell ill. Convenience food that are easy to cook. Oh well….still trying to break the habit.

The next art work I didn't manage to get the artist's name. But he's definitely local and he collected all news articles regarding about art in all languages since the 1980s. His flat is difficult to enter and so for this exhibition, he arranged them in a huge room. This chalkboard just caught my attention - like what does it mean for an artist to be featured in newspapers, and what are the implications that the artist is not.

Interesting question.

This artwork is my personal favourite and it's called Wings by Alfredo and Isabel Aquilizan from the Phillippines. They collected all the prison-issued flipflops of incarcerated Singaporeans and arranged them into these giant sets of wings. Their message (like most SEA art) is political. The flipflops are of differing gradations of yellow, with the white being the prisoner being in there for a short period of time, to those that are almost brown, when the prisoner is in there for years and years. It's a pretty touching message, that prisoners are also like us, having hopes and dreams etc. Gonna send Dr. Gana this picture =D

So after two hours of walking and being very hungry, decided to just take a break at food for thought =) the light was nice so why not do some camwhoring. LOL Cat was eager to go shopping that day and so we went bras brasah to get something for Bowen since she's meeting him. Cat Socrates is a place I'll definitely visit to get presents =)

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So a couple of days later, met with Xinyi and Kris to have dinner at Loy Ah Thai. It's awesome thai food and I couldn't wait till 28th May when I'm heading there again with my primary school friends. We ordered so much that we were all bloated. In any case, the lemongrass drink is awesome nice. Must try!

After that, we walked around Shaw Towers to find that there are a lot more shops inside. Mostly facials and audio equipment shops, there was a lot of interesting shops that kept us going. Kris was quite distracted by the old film equipment that were encased behind glass in Shaw towers and the bust of Run Me Shaw, one of the Shaw Brothers.

We then headed to a shop that was kinda ineresting. They sold all sorts of stuff and kris found this box of rings that were 1 for $1. CHEAP NOT?! If i had a penchant for rings (which i don't), I would have bought the box!

Aren't they pretty?!

We later headed to Bugis street to find me a belt and some fake eyelashes for the concert. It turned out I didn't get either, and the girls got 3 bags between them. LOL…I totally suck at spending money.

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So another holiday craving satisfied! I baked cupcakes! Been itching to try this recipe for a long time. The buttercream was fantastic and if not for my lousy oven, the cupcake would also be awesome…=D

I wanna open my own cupcake shop!

The YJC 25th Anniversary concert deserves it's own post…=) Will be updating soon!

18:54