I was greatly inspired by trippy art to create my zine, as I wanted to give people these reactions:
“what just happen”
“my mind got blown”
“so creepy”
thus I went to my trustworthy site – Pinterest to get some inspirations, and here’s what I got!
I realised they usually have very vibrant colours, and sparks at random places. Tons of overlay was used also to create the effect of messy, random.
Image taken from https://i.pinimg.com/564x/d7/e5/d9/d7e5d963de7f4aa413a1939cea1f4bcd.jpgImage taken from https://i.pinimg.com/564x/b1/05/83/b10583c7f4f5ec3ad88bee638081847a.jpg
From this, I went ahead to experiment my own style of trippy art!
Chineasy is a publication that I saw on Ted Talk! The artist, ShaoLan Hsueh, a Taiwanese based in London, came up with easy pictorial way to teach children Chinese, in a visually engaging manner!
She incorporated the Chinese words into the form itself and it was easier to learn those words, especially for kids and visual learners!
Image taken from https://i.pinimg.com/564x/a1/23/79/a123797751633f41a3c1f502d149173d.jpg
I was greatly inspired by her work to come up with mine as well, not to teach Chinese, but to inform my zine’s viewers about the punishments in Ten Courts.
I didn’t want to include chunky text as description, and just wanted something sweet, simple, yet have other meanings to it.
Image taken from https://i.pinimg.com/564x/3b/af/1e/3baf1ea48bb048e98216e703371f417d.jpg
Some illustrations done by her!
Therefore, I did up illustrations of a few Chinese words, and that really aided me a lot in my zine!
For the second assignment of Graphic Form, it seems really exciting!
We have to go to a location in Singapore and do primary and secondary research on it.
There was several locations I had in mind: Haw Par Villa, Changi Village, Pasir Ris Farmway and Redhill.
Upon discussion with Joy, I headed to both Haw Par Villa and Pasir Ris Farmway, and decided on Haw Par Villa, as there wasn’t enough collaterals to work on Farmway.
I’ll be talking about Haw Par Villa in a few sections: 1. First impression
2. Secondary Research 3. Primary Research (Photos/Videos/Interviews) 4. Online Survey
5. Survey Results
Primary Research: original, first-hand data collected personally, e.g. photos, videos, interviews, surveys
Secondary Research: data collected for research purposes, e.g. online websites, official reviews, blogs
Qualitative Data: data that cannot be quantified or measured, e.g. five senses, personal feelings and thoughts, descriptions
Quantitative Data: data which can be quantified and measured, e.g. statistics, numbers, charts
1. First Impression
My first visit to Haw Par Villa was with my family, a random day out, when I was aged 11. I remembered the trip very vividly, as all the sculptures were so realistic and etched in my mind. Unlike a normal tourist attraction, it was enriched with tons of Chinese heritage culture and folklore! There was sculptures ranging from Buddhism (Buddha, Goddess of Mercy), all the way to Chinese myths (Goddess White Snake). However, the best of all, that I remember the most was the Ten Courts of Hell in Haw Par Villa. My parents actually brought me there to teach me on my culture and the existence of hell in my culture, telling me the punishments I’ll get if I’ve sinned.
Therefore, when deciding on a location, Haw Par Villa came to my mind, as it’s a pretty under-rated tourist attractions that even Singaporeans do not/dare not visit!
2. Secondary Research
Before visiting Haw Par Villa, I went online to research on more information.
What is Haw Par Villa?
Haw Par Villa was formerly known as Tiger Balm, spans about 8.5 hectare along Pasir Panjang Road. It was first built in 1937, by Aw Boon Haw, as a gift for his brother, Aw Boon Par.
It’s used as a venue for traditional Chinese values, Singapore largest outdoor art gallery. In 1988, Singapore Tourism board took over and converted it into a theme park. However, high entrance fees was charged and the attraction ran at a loss during its operation. In the early 2000s, the fee was removed, but the public interest declined.
Location: 262 Pasir Panjang Road, Singapore 118628 Nearest Mrt: Haw Par Villa Station CC25 (Circle Line) Buses: Bus 10, 30, 30e, 51, 143, 175, 176, 188, 200, 589
Opening hours:
9am – 7pm (last entry 6pm)
Ten Courts of Hell:
9am – 6pm (last entry 5.45pm)
Unique factor about Haw Par Villa
Ten Courts of Hell – Chinese depiction of afterlife
Chinese classics’ sculptures – Journey to the West, Eight Immortals, Tigers, leopard, animals, hybrid of animals & humans, and etc.
Tours around Haw Par Villa
1. Finding your Tao in Haw Par Villa; The Tiger Balm Garden Story
Daily Tour, started on 1st April 2018.
The tour starts at 10am daily, and tickets cost $5/$10.
2. Journeys to Hell; Death and the Afterlife in Haw Par Villa
Twilight Tour, Every Friday 6.30-8.30pm
Tickets cost: $9/$15/$18
Resources available:
Brochures
Site Maps
Descriptions of the sculptures
Official Haw Par Villa website
3. Primary Research
I captured some images and videosof Haw Par Villa during my trip there!
Video of Haw Par Villa!
Video of Ten Courts of Hell!
Images taken from Ten Courts of Hell & Haw Par Villa
4. Interviews and Online Survey
I interviewed a few visitors at Haw Par Villa
Interviewee 1 – A guy that came with a bunch of friends, from an International School!
Interviewee 2 – Chinese tourist that visited Haw Par Villa with family
Interviewee 3 – Singaporean, visiting Haw Par Villa with friends
Upon my visit, I wanted to reach out to a larger audience, regarding their perceptions of Haw Par Villa and the Ten Courts of Hell.
I divided my survey into 6 different sections, which will be easier for me to analyse the data.
Section 1 – Generic Questions & If they have/have not been to Haw Par Villa
Section 2 – If they have been to Haw Par Villa
Section 3 – If they visited 10 courts of hell when they went to Haw Par Villa
Section 4 – More questions regarding the entire location in general
Section 5 – For respondents that have never been to Haw Par Villa
Section 6 – Perception of afterlife, applies to all respondents.
5. Survey Results
I’ve gathered a total of 50 respondents for my online survey, and will proceed to analyse it quantitatively and qualitatively during my presentation!
Image taken from https://www.behance.net/gallery/3235741/Handmade-Type
Tien-Min Liao
Handmade Type Typography
Published: March 14, 2012
This artist’s work is very creative. With the usage of her hands and fingers, she managed to create 26 alphabets, capital and non. It is a very interesting concept and unexpected that she was able to create so many.
Image taken from https://www.behance.net/gallery/690478/Evolution-of-Type-Exhibits-1-5
Andreas Schiefer
Evolution of Type
Published: September 9, 2010
The concept of this artist is very interesting! He merge the concept of the birth of alphabets to biology, and it was a very interesting combination.
With the letter S, he incorporated a Spine into it, as it starts with the letter S too. Even the way he constructs makes the cut very realistic!
This really inspired me to do a letterform using other mediums apart from traditional and digital.
Image taken from https://i.pinimg.com/736x/c7/6a/71/c76a71eae45b9a50055af12683b025f2–anchor-string-art-string-art-letters.jpg
This was initially a reference for me to work on letterform ‘Z’, as I wanted to use strings to form a letter.
Image taken from https://i.pinimg.com/736x/3f/27/19/3f271952da9d7b6d3d94aa647bf7515c–batik-pattern-batik-art.jpg
These kind of batik art is a reference I wanted to make for my letterform.
Image taken from https://chairish-prod.global.ssl.fastly.net/image/product/sized/6d4b2c2a-77ea-476e-97ed-8d708b7f184a/antique-indigo-crane-batik-body-pillow-1656?aspect=fit&width=640&height=640
These are some batik and Peranakan cranes.
Image taken from https://st2.depositphotos.com/6582994/11539/v/950/depositphotos_115399334-stock-illustration-freelance-workplace-flat-design-gadget.jpg
For my hawker centre illustration, I wanted to have a flat lay style illustration, to show it from the top view of a table.
These are some of the researches and references I found online which are very helpful to my process.
