SINGAPORE ARTS MUSEUM VISIT

SALEH HUSEIN – ARABIAN PARTY (2013)

I never really quite liked visiting museums as I find them to be boring. However, when I first saw this piece of work, it sort of changed my opinion about museums partially. I really do love the medium used (acrylic) and this medium allows myself to be more relatable(?) to the work due to my fondness for painting. Also, given its large scale and the different elements in the work, it intrigues me to find out more about it.

Initially, I thought the paintings were all about Singapore and its history and culture due to me having this mindset that Singapore Arts Museum displayed artworks by local artists or works relating to Singapore. Also, given that Singapore is a multi-racial society, the Bahasa Indonesia language depicted in one of the paintings did not make me doubt my thinking that it was not about Singapore at all.

After reading the description about the work, it was rather shocking to me that it was about Indonesia’s history of colonialism and her road to independence. Knowing that, some paintings were a little clearer to me in depicting what they wanted to tell, as I did study Indonesia’s history of colonialism and independence in my JC days.

All in all, I think that this is a really amazing piece of work and if I could I would love to take some paintings home.

SUZANN VICTOR – Bloodline of Peace

When I first saw this installation, I just thought that the artist was trying to create the stars/light effect as this installation was under this project called Five Stars (I can’t remember but it was something along this line). I totally did not notice in the middle of each plastic square was a drop of blood.

So after reading the description, I came to realise how the heck did the artist find all these people and get a drop of blood from them. It really amazes me at the lengths that the artist was willing to go to put up this installation and I found this work to be very meaningful. Though I still do not understand why the installation was built in that kind of movement even after reading the description, however, I could really feel the blood (literally), sweat and tears of the people who built Singapore from scratch and it makes me appreciate what I have now.

This perception also occurred to me that the light emanating from the structure containing the drops of blood could be to signify the prosperity that the country has seen as a result of it.

Overall, the museum wasn’t as boring as I expected it to be. It’s got some cool stuff worth seeing.

4D: Impossibilities of a Being

The concept behind these 90 images was the travel of time and space through passage ways such as doors and portals. These are used to tell the adventures that I had or imagined for myself. The first transition would be to my past adventures through the door, where you could see photographs of my childhood self and the adventures I had when I was a child. The second transition would be to an imaginary word such as the “paper world” through the train passageway, where the character drawn portrays me and my adventure in this world. It is done through stop motion animation to show my interest in this field of arts. The last transition would be the adventures of different personas through the portal from the “paper world”. These images were used to show how people, like myself, dreamed or wished to be like other people or have their lifestyles and adventures.

My inspiration for the third transition was from this artist called Joel Robison. His works, such as the above, influenced the concept of my third transition to use chalk art to engage people.

My takeaway from this project was learning how to transit from one stage to another and also the combination of different styles such as stop motion animation into photography to make it more interesting.

4D contextualisation of images

Outside of ADM.

Hidden story.

Life.

Task 2 – Project 1b

Fire and Ice

BY ROBERT FROST

Some say the world will end in fire,

Some say in ice.

From what I’ve tasted of desire

I hold with those who favor fire.

But if it had to perish twice,

I think I know enough of hate

To say that for destruction ice

Is also great

And would suffice.

This is my series of photographs to illustrate the poem and its meaning:

For this poem, I have decided to use War and Peace to portray Fire and Ice. Fire can be seen in the desire of dictators and conquerers to expand their empires and thus wage wars against other nations, creating destruction and fire literally. This can be seen in the photos of tanks, planes and soldiers fighting and causing the active destruction of the land, which represents Fire as well. Even after the wars are over and there is peace, the destruction caused by these wars would result in the devastation of the Earth, and this would lead to “hatred” from Mother Nature for mankind for destroying the environment. Nature’s fury would be unleashed onto the people through natural disasters, seen in the photos portraying tsunami and hurricanes. When you hold a piece of ice for a period of time, there is a slow and painful sensation to it. Hence, Ice is represented by nature’s way of slowly retaliating back against mankind as natural disasters do not happen frequently but their consequences are deadly.

Task 1 – Project 1a

The first series of photographs depict clouds, drawings taped on a wall beside a bed and an illuminated fairy light. Why I chose these photos is because they represent the parts of me that others are not aware of. The clouds show how easily influenced and easy going I am, given that clouds easily change their shape and they go with the flow of the wind. The pictures taped beside the bed shows that I am a day dreamer, and that my dreams are a culmination of experiences and aspirations. The fairy light shows how I “come alive” in the dark and also the dark background shows my love for the dark and how I seek comfort and security there.

The second series of photographs show my relationship with my object, my childhood pillow. Whenever I am with it, I always feel happy and relaxed. I am always looking forward to seeing it whenever I return to my room and I must have it whenever I sleep if not I would feel that something is missing and I would not be able to sleep well without it. This pillow gives me a sense of security and comfort as well, portrayed by the photo of me hiding in my blanket with my pillow, as I am able to hug it whenever I need to when I am scared or stressed out. This pillow has been with me through all the good and bad times I had and I wanted to show that it always has my back no matter what the situation may be and I can always rely on it to bring me that comfort and happiness I need.

The third series of photographs show my world, which is Bedok reservoir. I used to dislike coming here because my previous school used to organise cross country events here and I hated cross country a lot due to my hate for running. However, now I am coming to Bedok reservoir for a different reason, which is for dragon boat training. Joining dragon boat was a new thing for me because I have never dragon boated seriously before. Why I chose this place as my world was because of the peace it brings to me during training due to the calmness of the environment, it allows me to take my mind off school work or other stresses and just focus on training. The photo with the paddle and school bags show how different people from different courses different backgrounds come together for the same reason, which is to dragon boat and train together as a team. Also, this place brings my teammates and I closer as we would come together to train and improve together through feedback and encouragements. The photo with the blurred image of a dragon boat out in the reservoir shows the uncertainty of my journey in dragon boat. This is due to the high commitments from dragon boat and the trainings. The uncertainty stems from my doubts of being able to balance my school work with trainings and also my doubts about myself about whether I would drag the team down or not, as my teammates are able to lift heavier weights and run faster than I am able to. I do not know how this choice to join dragon boat would go, but I would like to see where it brings me to.

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What I learnt from this project was how to express your intentions and messages through images, and how the way you take these photographs can affect the messages you want to tell. You have to use your surroundings or the things you have effectively and to your advantage as it is hard to portray intangible things such as personality and emotions.

Final presentation displayed: