4D | “刀” Filming Day 1

For assignment two, I’ll be continuing my > 22 series but I’ll be focusing on one of the occupation that has been here for more than 22 years. I managed to find this gem tucked at a corner of People’s Park Centre, known as the Knife Sharpening Lady. Her shop is called Pow Li (trying to advertise here) and she’s a petite 70 years old lady, and has been sharpening knives since 1970! How awesome is that? And I am so so soooo lucky that she’s such a sweet lady that is so cooperative and enthusiastic when I wanted to film her! 

But of course… before I went down to ask for permission to interview and film her, as I’ve shot a picture of her for my > 22 series (I actually forgot to include it in my publication -_-), I developed a photo for her and she loved it! Sigh I love old people (ok not in a creepy way), but she’s really friendly and nice :)) 

So, 2 weeks ago, I went down on a Saturday to film her. Of course with my Dad, my partner-in-crime who is so so so great of a person to drive me down to Chinatown while helping me to carry all the heavy equipments for the shoot. 

The stone equipment she uses to sharpen the knives. 

Some buffering machines for polishing and sharpening.

The place was reaaaaaaally warm it was insane. I was perspiring so profusely but oh my the lady didn’t even break a sweat! She also didn’t have a fan installed and she wasn’t wearing a mask while she sharpens the knives and it’s really dangerous because of the metal dust. So my Dad was saying that we should get her a mini fan after this film is done because the place is really stuff and all. And fun fact: her favourite colour is orange, I asked her about it because I realised she’s always wearing orange the few times I visited her before hahaha.

So here are the videos that I took! As usual, being the kiasu me, I took quite alot. And she was really experienced ok! She totally knows how to answer my questions and also gave me some tips on which angle to film her and all. I love her she’s such a sweet lady.

But first thing first, here are the interview questions for her.

  • When was this shop established?
  • How did this shop started & why was it called Pow Li
  • Hong long have you been working here?
  • How old are you?
  • When did you start learning this profession?
  • Describe a day working in the shop
  • How’s the business compared to the past?
  • How much do you charge per service? (well she charges $8 per knife/scissors)
  • Who are your customers?
  • What’s the secret for maintaining this business for so long
  • Do you like what you’re doing?
  • Is there anyone who is interested in learning the trade from you?

But yes. Here are some information that I got after spending a morning with her. She’s Lee Hwee Chin, and she’s 70 years old. This shop was her father’s and she started working there since the 1970s. Her customers are mostly families, market vendors (butcher etc), tailors and there isn’t much of the chefs now as they prefer to sharpen their own knives plus their knives are really expensive $$$. 

She charges $4 for her service in the past but now it’s $8. And of course… she not only does small knives and scissors, she even does the sharpening for gardening tools! Like the hugeeeee cutter. But that is more expensive and she mentioned she hates sharpening that hahaha. 

Mdm Lee mentioned that there isn’t anyone who is interested in learning the trade from her, nor there is anyone she can pass her shop to. Though she has a daughter, her child isn’t interested in her trade and I don’t think Mdm Lee also wants her daughter to take over her shop as it takes alot of hard work and sweat to maintain this. 

After reviewing the videos back home, as there’s a air ventilator near her shop, it was captured in the video as well. I was super stressed over it as I couldn’t take a humming throughout the background so I went to research on various methods on how to reduce the white noise… and managed to find a solution! I’ll post the before and after below. 

And also, I’ve finally downloaded Premiere Pro! I feel so legit now because I don’t have to use iMovie to edit videos anymore HAHA. It’s my first time using it so I’m still getting used to it. But the awesome thing is I can finally colour correct my vids omg, something that iMovie has limitations to. 

Robert saw the videos on last Thursday’s consultation and he suggested that I should take longer shots of her working so that I can just overlay the audio and there really isn’t a need to show her talking to the camera for the interview. So I took his suggestion and went back there again on the next Saturday, so stay tune for Filming Day 2!

4D | Gillman Barracks

Another field trip with Robert on a Sunday and we’re here at Gillman Barracks! So we basically went quite a number of exhibitions around Gillman besides CCA.


Chasing The Light

Video, projection, colour & sound | 7 minutes
SHIMURAbros

“Playing with the limits of perception, the work emerges as an abstract pattern until it slowly dissolves into a still-life image of the industrial scenery in the port area of Singapore.” 

This exhibition was tucked in a corner of CCA, hidden by a velvet curtain and was surrounded by darkness with only a projection in the small room. A bench that accommodates at least 2 persons was placed right in the middle of the room. 

When I entered the dark room, it felt calming as I could hear the sound of rain, a heavy rain to be exact, but not exactly a downpour. An image of what seems bokeh of lights was projected while the rain splatters.

The projected scene is not a still image, but rather it seems as though the photographer is trying to focus onto what seems like city lights. There was a sudden loud “boom” – thunder, that honestly scared the hell out of me hahaha. But yes, it seems to be a heavy thunderstorm. The boomings of the thunder comes in intervals, and it felt really real, as though I’m in my room while the raindrop splatters onto my windows. 

Throughout the video, there was lightning, thunder, rain and lights. At the end of the film, the camera focuses and I could see the an industrial area of Singapore as there were cranes and big containers. In the beginning, I couldn’t quite make out what this lights were. But until at the very end, I could tell that there’s a moon and an industrial area. It seems as though the natural light (moon) and the industrial lights were mixed together, unable to identify which is artificial and which is natural. 

From what I could deduce that, the industrial/city lights talks about urbanisation & industrialisation, while the rain and the moon talks about our natural light and sounds. I guessed the artist was trying to say how we’re slowly losing our own light and sounds? Because of all this light and sound pollution, we can’t seem to find any of our natural stars or hear our natural sounds, but rather all we can see are the artificial light and sounds. After getting to know the title of this film, it’s called “Chasing The Light”, thus I feel he is trying to say how we are slowly losing our own natural light & sound due to urbanisation and industrialisation.

I felt that I could relate to this artist’s work as it’s also talking about the idea of disappearing and vanishing. While he is talking about the nature, I am talking about the vanishing trades in Singapore. I like the idea how he juxtaposes nature and artificial objects together which really drills the message on what we are not seeing/hearing. How he sets up his projection is really good as even though it is simple, there’s a focal point and the sounds that he uses has different “shocking” moments which really brings more attention to what he is showing.

Besides going to CCA, here are some exhibitions that we’ve visited! 

Nguan – How Loneliness Goes

Edward Burtynsky – Salt Pans

Tony Albert

3D | Moving like a Ribbon Eel

On Friday, we had our lesson held in a dance studio. A change of environment which made things much more interesting! We were aware that we will be doing some movement exercise that is related to our group’s chosen animals – Ribbon Eel and Shrimp and I was kinda worried because… as you guys have witnessed it, I’m not as flexible as you think I am hahaha. But I tried!! 

Lesson started off with us playing a clapping game which is to test if we can follow the beats. Really fun game as we have to be extra aware of which direction the beat is going while counting onto the rhythm. Honestly the class started off with a good note because it was really engaging and the game didn’t leave anyone out 😉 

After the mini game, we had to start moving around according to our chosen animals. As for me, I’m supposed to be a Ribbon Eel… which is suppose to be graceful and REALLY wavy and flexible. While some of us did a mini short animal performance, the others were the musicians! Rolled and ran around the studio with my cleaning shrimp (Anna), while waiting for her to well… clean me. 

The animal movement exercise came to an end and we had to start making models of the movement itself. And here is mine!

To start off with my movement, Ribbon Eel only swims laterally, and has this really ribbony repetitive effect while moving.  There’s curves, just like how a ribbon dance will look like. 

On to the sculpture making! My sculpture is as obvious as it can get, and I tried to make it as long as 1m, which is the real length of a ribbon eel. But i felt that I shouldn’t waste so much paper heh. 

But anyhow, I tried to mimic the curves of the Ribbon Eel while it is swimming and had it’s head shot up, as if it’s ready to attack it’s prey. Because, when a Ribbon Eel is about to grab it’s prey, it will sprung up, like a spring, to scoop down the poor creature. 

2D | Jalan Kayu Research III

After doing the site research of Jalan Kayu and both of its ends – Seletar and Seletar West Farmway, I’ll have to do some background research isn’t it!

Here are my notes that I’ve written down with all the secondary information I could find. 

After doing so much research, I guess that what I’m more inclined and interested in would be the heritage of Jalan Kayu as I felt even though it’s a street that runs for about 1.2km, it has such a rich history and has gone through many things from the past. However, as our world is evolving, the old is becoming obsolete while the modern is slowly taking over. I feel that it is important that we, preserve our heritage and our traditions as this is our identity. If we don’t do it, who else will? 

I felt that talking about the heritage is quite a serious and heavy topic. Thus, I’ll most likely approach this matter in a light-hearted way, to give a fun, yet able to deliver my message of preservation. One of the ideas would be touching on the kampong part of Singapore – however this idea is still in the midst of developing. So, stay tune!