Tag Archives: art

The One With The 50 Shades Of Comparison

In this Fifty Shade assignment, I have chosen two of the project that I am going to compare and contrast.

Art Stage Singapore, an annual Art Fair here in Singapore. Link to project.
The Fragility Of Time, a series of sculpture by artist Ignacio Canales Aracil. Link to project

These two projects are chosen mainly because they overlap each other in terms of an artwork in an Art Fair. I will attempt to make a timeline for both project to visualise and understand the process they took for this two projects. Moreover, it makes perfect sense as there will be some parallel events and contrasts between the two projects. In this essay, I will include scope, scheduling, budget, life-cycle, and projects objectives for Art Stage Singapore & The Fragility Of Time. I will also make a mock example where The Fragility of Time will be shown at the Art Stage Singapore.

Before I begin, let me briefly introduce those 2 projects.

Art Stage SingaporeFirstly, Art Stage Singapore is an annual leading art fair where they gather the region’s top contemporary artwork under one roof. It aims to ignite the art market in the South East Asia region by attracting private collectors and corporate buyers. Galleries are handpicked from Asian and Western countries that complement each other. However, Art Stage Singapore is focussing on Asia hence the ratio of asian galleries to western galleries is 3 to 1. Art Stage Singapore is founded by Lorenzo Rudolf, who used to be the Director for Art Basel.

The Fragility Of Time by Ignacio Canales Aracil

Secondly, the artwork titled The Fragility Of Time by Ignacio Canales Aracil. This series of sculptures are made from pressing flowers and plants together to form them. These flowers are collected from private gardens and galleries from different part of the region. So in a way it is a collaboration between the gardens and the artist as well. These flowers are do not use any other material to hold them together except the intricate weaving pattern. It takes about 1 month let the flowers sit and dry before moving it to the gallery to be shown.

Project Manager
In this 2 projects, the Project Manager can be easily identified. Lorenzo Rudolf might be the founder of Art Stage but I still feel he has the final say in things so I would assume that he is the Project Manger in Art Stage Singapore. In the case of the Fragility of Time, it is straightforward, the artist is the Project Manager.

As the project manager, Lorenzo will need to determine which team he would need. He would probably need a small team around 10 for example to make everything possible to happen. He would then need more temporary staff to run the day to day errands during the event itself, for example, ushers and crowd controllers and securities. For Ignacio, he run the project as a sole proprietorship. As he is also the artist, he need to wear many hats in the making of this project.

Above attached is a timeline that i have created to compare and contrast the type of management and events that might took place in the 2 projects. Feel free to press on the image to see it in a larger format. In this timeline, I decided to go with 6 months as I make an estimation. However, I am aware that planning of an art fair could take place longer. Given Art Stage have been here since 2010, I assume they have enough experience to reiterate their planning. Again, let’s assume that The Fragility of Time is being exhibited in the Art Stage, hence this way, we are able to see the contrast and parallel events clearly.

Scheduling
In scheduling, Art Stage Singapore took a longer time to plan and execute as it requires a lot of planning and detailing to ensure the event is a successful one. In this case, I give 5-6 months before the Art Stage takes place in January. This including handpicking of galleries to exhibit in Art Stage. As Art Stage depends on the galleries to do all the work in a sense, picking and liaising with the art galleries is the most important task in my opinion. From the date of the first planning, the scheduling will take the course over 6 months till the end of Art Stage Singapore. However, I feel there will be an amount of time used for the need for closure, those closing the deal kind of thing.

For Ignacio, his scheduling period starts when he is chosen as one of the artist to represent the gallery in Art Stage Singapore. As as Spanish artist, he needs to consider the time differences to communicate with his contacts over in Singapore. Right after he come up with a new design for his sculpture, he would need to find his flowers and since he always uses the exhibiting country’s flowers, I assume he would need to contact the Singapore Botanical Garden to supply him with the flowers. This collaboration with SBG and Ignacio may take a longer time to plan. If Ignacio have no trouble coming down to Singapore 2 months before the exhibition, then the whole process will be a smooth one. His sculpture need a month to dry and production phase would probably take place somewhere in early December. His scheduling for this project will end when the Art Stage Singapore event is over.

As you can see, there are parallel activity especially during the exhibition period. Both projects takes a few months to plan and finish and this is clearly shown in my drawing above. Scheduling is also the same as the life-cycle of this 2 projects as shown in the drawing as well.

Budget
As Art Stage Singapore gets the bulk of their profit by getting an amount of percentage of the galleries sale, their budget of the event should probably be a higher value. Running an event as large as Art Stage Singapore, takes a lot of funds and moreover, they have sponsors and partners. Singapore Airlines, Marina Bay Sands Singapore, National Art Council, National Heritage Board and Le Free Port are just some of their Official Partners! Furthermore, as the government are pushing Singapore to be an art hub in the region, getting the budget is not really an issue, like how we have seen the case of Sonoport.

On the other hand, Ignacio and his flowers might not be getting the VIP treatment as Art Stage though. In this case, the gallery that is representing Ignacio might have some funds for him to use for his production. From my experience, artist is able to write in to their country’s art council to ask for some money if they were to represent the country for an art exhibit overseas. So Ignacio could also do this to get more budget. Ignacio also have to prepare some budget for his stay in Singapore as well.

Looking at both different projects, both projects should have no trouble getting the budget that they need. Budget is very important as they will determine the quality of work being done and also the scale of it.

Taken by me at Art Stage Singapore 2016

In Summary, the 2 projects are of different scale and size, however, the similarities is they as artists, Lorenzo and Ignacio wants the best for their portfolios. Making an artwork or staging an art fair required a special kind of taste and by contrasting these 2 projects, we are able to see the different steps being taken. The life of an artwork starts when the process of making it begins but the Art Stage Singapore, the happenings begin on the first day of the event till the last visitor exit the Marina Bay Sands Convention Centre. In terms of project management, there is also some contrast especially having a team running the event and working solo as I have pointed out above.

Reference Website:
http://el-nogal.tumblr.com
http://www.artstagesingapore.com

The One With Candice Ng

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I always see Candice around in school and wherever we see each other, she will always be the first one to smile, so I smile back. Even though I have never took her class, she seem very nice.

Anyway, when I was looking through Candice’s website, I found Playing The Archive, part of Studio Lab from Penn State. To be honest, I spent more time watching the performance from Playing The Archive than on Candice’s website but that doesn’t mean I did not read all of her works! Cause she only has 5 works on her website.

In a summary, Playing The Archive is literally what it means. They believe that musicians, visual artist and data analysts should work together to perform and display the archive in multiple format and media. The archives here refers to artefacts and documents which are worth to be archive and it is also a process where a hard object becomes digital in a form of archiving. But anyway this is not the topic here. But however, Studio Lab’s mission is almost parallel to what Candice is doing I feel. That is not a surprise as Candice is a part of the team.

Sleeping In The Power Socket was her MPA solo thesis show. As she presents her artists project by saying that perhaps it is important to start understanding man’s relationship to objects, I agree with her on this actually. Likewise, I always have a fascination on why certain objects means so much to one person but it does not mean anything at all for another person. I think the act of possessing it also plays a part.

What we choose to identify ourselves with and the act of leaving behind paraphernalia – of means to leave a mark; that of passing values, wills (both monetary and ethical), the need of a second self – is crucial to study.

-Candice Ng.

This statement actually reminds me Voldermort in Harry Potter. Voldermort actually split his soul into 8 parts and each part is embedded on an object. Voldermort wanted immortality. This came up to me when Candice mention the above statement. I guess the point i am making is that what we do on earth is a testament to what we will leave behind when we die, and this can take in a form of Artworks or a beautiful crafted poem about Love.

Candice also uses everyday objects that has a special meaning for her in her works. For example, a chocolate bar and a chinese incense paper. In her work titled Alternative Rituals of Remembering, it is a personal work where she talks about remembering her late dad. These objects has a special relationship with her and this is one way she make sense of the world I feel.

Going back to the questions you posted, Candice’s works talks about identity by asking what are the elements of identity especially in SEA where traditions are particularly very important. One’s identity could take form in a literature or a form of a folklore for example and by knowing what is our identity, she is trying to imagine what happen in the near future where all this identity is being archived in a digital form. Yes it is also relevant in NTU’s 5 peaks of excellence, one of them being New Media. Candice explores the future of this medium which is the New Media through the use of RFID which has more potential I feel. Working with data also means that a physical tangible object could no longer be part of the equation and going online is the NEW MEDIA. This is also a scary thought as pointed out by Candice, ‘Does the creation of digital content loose meaning just because it has no ‘tangible’ physical properties? How can data be sacred?.

I look forward for Candice’s introduction to her works in more details in class!

The One With The Yellow Helmet

The One With The Art Stage

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ArtStage Singapore is an inaugural art fair in Singapore, at the Marina Bay Sands convention centre. A lot of art galleries from around the world come together under one roof to showcase their collection. This major art fair has been one of the important Art fair in South East Asia. It’ll be interesting to see the planning in this project.

Escaping Too Soon?

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Right off the bat, here’s the final image of the first Hyperessay post so I guess it’s only right to start this project update with this image as a talking point. This image sparks some positive conversation last week and I agree that this image have so many layers and conspiracy theories to unfold but that’s for another paper. What I do what to emphasise is that the uncertainty and the mystification of this image is what makes people begin to interpret what they see and that is a work of a good art, which is to make people ask question, not about the art, but about themselves instead. I think this image is just a medium of expression for me but also for the audience.

With that being said, I believe the element of ‘escape’ speaks for itself and I don’t have to bring it up to talk about it. I feel the definition of Escape is so wide that everyone have their own interpretation of Escape and I do want to keep it that way actually. In my final broadcast, I have decided to play a mash up video of webcam footages/pre recoded videos, while I am present in the frame/space controlling what the audience is seeing. Similarly like the first image, all these different layers will be overlay each other to create a certain aesthetic. To control this, I have my Arturia Beatstep machine with me, as shown in the photograph below.

Arturia Beatstep

How it works is pretty simple. I will be using a max patch to do this. Each button and knob will control the diameter of an effect. So when I turn a knob, it will control the amount of hue or noise for example. Even colours can be manipulated. I will also use the effect from vizzie, to create these beautiful yet sophisticated visuals of Escape. I also hope the audience will be in a state of trance, I mean escape when they watch my broadcast. Below is an example of my patch so far. It’s pretty messy right now but my biggest worry is actually, the speed of the computer, lagging issues.

I have jit.record my sample video below. As you can see, I am playing live in front of the webcam, which adds another layer that I am being watched as well, technically.

This is just a sample process video which I make. If you realise, there will be instances where my image will be replace by beautiful giant bars that remind you of Rothko’s paintings. I was experimenting with the idea of the secondary frame which I can control as well, it create some kind of a break in the video to depict the concept of ‘Escape’.

From now onwards, I have to pick the right clip to show for the final broadcast. I believe there must be a flow in the video and I will work on the narrative as well.

Islamic Art Conference

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I got the chance to visit 3 of the events in conjunction of the Contemporary Islamic Art, Design and Architecture conference. Prof. Sujatha was there at all 3 as well apparently. *insert laugter*

I wouldn’t say that Islamic Art really interest me but after the conference, it really change my perspective on Islamic Art. You guys gotta wait(i’ll post below) for how different speaker define Islamic Art!

BAYU. 8th Oct

Iskandar with his opening speech

The first event was the opening of Bayu, an exhibition of contemporary islamic art in ADM. It was curated by Noor Iskandar and Javad. I really like the whole look of the exhibition. The mood was really dark and the spotlight light up the artworks perfectly. There’s a couple of artworks that capture my attention more than the others. The first one is by Inkten Sufina. Her real name is Nadhirah actually but anyway, she exhibit this work titled The Transitory. I know her instagram account and sometimes she will post work in progress and she post a photo on the process of this work.

Inkten’s Instagram post

It’s amazing sometimes to see artwork from the studio surrounded by so many stains and trash to make the artwork. Then after it is done, it is exhibited in the gallery. As an artist, I also enjoy this transition. It’s very cool actually. As Inkten is a graffiti artist, I like how she interpret islamic art with some of her background as well. The whole look as element of graffiti somehow I feel. Geometric forms have been associated with Islam and this is how she associate her work with islamic art.

Inkten Sufina The Transitory 2015

Next is by Izziyani Suhaimi. I got a chance to exhibit beside her in an exhibition about 3 years ago. She’s an incredible artist who stay true to her medium, which is embroidery which explore the notion of time and labour. In the exhibit she make the praying mat and the colours are very beautiful.

Izziyana Suhaimi Waiting for the Northwesterly Winds 2015

Lastly, Afiq Omar’s Ferroux. I am familiar with Afiq Omar’s photographs so I was looking forward for his work but I was disappointed with his exhibited work. He chose to show an old work dated 2013. Plus, to me, it’s not even related to Islamic Art. Maybe there are the element of the Wind which is the titled of the exhibition. I have attached a video below, so tell me what you guys think.

Afiq Omar Ferroux

Overall, it was a good exhibition overall, showing a wide range of mediums and style.

Lectures at National Design Centre. 9th Oct

I was there actually as a part of the work-study to help Prof. Gul to record the lecture session. So it was like killing two birds with one stone as it was also beneficial to me as I am able to listen as well. I’ve taken a lot of photographs, but I am only going to share some interesting ones. All of the speakers are professional in their art field so it was a wonderful opportunity being able to listen to them.

I can’t really remember all the names of the speakers as I wasn’t keeping track but what important is what they are showing. I thought this slide was interesting. I never really see all this purposes of art all in one slide so yeah, take a look!

The Purposes of Art

The next speaker was Prof. Nada Shabout, she’s the Director of the Contemporary Arab and Muslim Cultural Studies Initiative (CAMCSI). She shared some work of contemporary islamic art and this one from Kader Attia was really really nice! I have attached a photo from online and insert the explanation.

The medium and everything about this artwork is perfect actually!

Kader Attia. Ghost. In Ghost, a large installation of a group of Muslim women in prayer, Attia renders their bodies as vacant shells, empty hoods devoid of personhood or spirit. Made from tin foil – a domestic, throw away material – Attia’s figures become alien and futuristic, synthesising the abject and divine. Bowing in shimmering meditation, their ritual is equally seductive and hollow, questioning modern ideologies – from religion to nationalism and consumerism – in relation to individual identity, social perception, devotion and exclusion. Attia’s Ghost evokes contemplation of the human condition as vulnerable and mortal; his impoverished materials suggest alternative histories or understandings of the world, manifest in individual and temporal experience.

Another work that caught my eye was Super Oum by Fatima Mazmouz. As you can see in the image, is a pregnant woman in her bra and panties wearing a boot and mask. In western culture, the mask could be seen as a Ski mask but in eastern culture, the mask can be read also as a veil so I thought that was interesting in terms of understanding cultural symbols as well. Plus the artist is from the middle east, so people would automatically read the mask as a veil that muslim women wear.

Fatima Mazmouz, Super Oum, 2009

The next speaker was Iftikhar Dadi from Cornell University. I like his hair! He was one of other speakers who was defining Islamic Art. Below are the slides which direct towards the definition.I agree with his statement, it also relevant to some form of art as well.

Here’s Prof. Sujatha asking Prof. Dadi some question which I can’t really remember.

The next speaker was a very handsome man who I walk halfway through his presentation as it was already begin when I came back from my lunch and friday prayers. There’s this part where he shared how was religion, culture, art, architecture, ideas and a lot of other things was spread from one place to another through this 3 domain. Which was relevant to our art history studies in school.

Islamic artist such Nusret Colpan is known for his miniature painting style depicting cities around the world. It has this map look to it which my team did during our presentation about a month ago. As you can see, what Nusret did was to put the Kaabah in the centre of the map to show Islam as the central role of the world. Again, we learned in class that artist uses map to show their power and their ideas towards their belief and this is what Nusret did. I have upload a better picture below. Read more on him here.

Islamic World, Nusret Colpan

He also define Islamic Art and put Islamic art side by side with Religious art and secular art, which I thought that was interesting.

He also mention that some artist that uses provocative act in their artwork like the one above by Fatima Mazmouz has nothing to do with Islam as the religion but only uses it for an instrument for self promotion.

Overall the lecture at the National Design Centre was interesting and open up my eye. I only have this little knowledge on contemporary islamic art but after the lecture, I have known more artists and their artwork on contemporary islamic art. However, some of the talk were too complicated and too education to me that I was falling asleep.

Jameel Prize 3. 9th Oct.

Right after the lecture at the NDC, we all make our way to the opening of the Jameel Prize. The Jameel Prize is an international award for contemporary art and design inspired by Islamic tradition. Its aim is to explore the relationship between Islamic traditions of art, craft and design and contemporary work as part of a wider debate about Islamic culture and its role today. I managed to enter the exhibit without anyone before its grand opening. It’s at the National Library level 10 by the way.

The space was huge and the exhibit was very well put maybe cause there’s a high budget on this one. Haha.

Before the opening ,everyone was gathering outside waiting for the minister, Dr Yaakob to arrive.

Dr Yaakob in pink and on his left is Mr Maidin Packer mohd, who was an PAP MP minister back then.

This artwork was the winner for the Jameel Prize 3. It’s an fashion garment by Dice Kayek. I think it does deserve the award as this work was inspired by the Hagia Sophia, which was build as a church then it became a mosque and now a museum. The work was interesting because the translation from architecture to fashion garment shows how islamic art can still transfer from one art form to another, as they did in the past.

Berita Harian, a malay newspaper was there to write some story and they told me to pose with Prof. Peer and the others.

If you want, you can read it here.

That’s all folks. I hope I can enter the Jameel Prize next time and bring home the £25,000.

Life Sharing by Eva & Franco Mattes

The One With The Glitchhhhh

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I followed exactly what randall wrote in the step by step manual.

Guess what, it was successful! I was really happy with the results!
Below are my process. Starts with the original image.

Original Image

Start slow, blue glitch is visible on the bottom.

first try

Tried more daring copy and paste action.

keep it going

And more daring moving up and down copy and paste action!

beautiful colourful haze

Yes, opening on preview and on photoshop makes a different! But I actually love this!

abstract – kamarule, 2015, glitch art

rockefeller

I keep going and this final image did not look like the original, so I think I should stop right? Or should I keep on glitching?

Manhattan Gone Going

Week 3: Female Patrons of the Arts

wwwwwwwwwwww.jodi.org

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Jodi derived from combining two of its members name, Joan Heemskerk & Dirk Paesmans.

In a nutshell, jodi.org is a website. But in actuality, it’s more than just a website. Here, you guys got to check it out! Do not worry if you feel like your browser is getting out of control, it is art! Glitch Art!

Jodi.org starts on a black background with green gibberish computer language words written on the top. This certainly, invites people to click on it and to me, that is where the adventure of the unknown world of the world wide web begin.

“We explore the computer from inside, and mirror this on the net. When a viewer looks at our work, we are inside his computer.

-Jodi.org

A little background about the artist. They started out by modifying old video games and deconstruct the whole world and putting it in a different layers and ways. They were creating glitch art before the genre even have a name yet. Their intent was to find the accidental disturbances of the machine and its language: to subvert the expectations. I like the statement they make I shared above. Sometimes, we are too engross on what’s happening on our computer screen that we forgot that the computer do have a brain and an inside. Like human being, our skin is what being shown above, but deep inside our organs, are intricate veins and vessels that is very important to make us live normal lives. Similarly, the computer share the same sentiment as us.

So by showing what is on the inside of the computer, as quoted as Jodi, and present it as a work of art on the net, this work explores the medium of the internet and question the audience whether are we aware on what is going on behind all the beautiful layout of Facebook and Twitter. Matter of fact, these ‘codes’ are actually beautiful. That is what Jodi.org wishes to show us.

By introducing glitch aesthetics onto the internet as a medium, they perceived the net as the theatrical space where performance and glitch can be appreciate and viewed on a large scale. If the net is Madison Square Garden, then the codes are the main event. Having these codes as visual experience rather than its functional qualities, this pushes the boundary of the medium when this was introduce to the world in 1995, which was still early age of the Internet.

Reading Rosa Menkman’s Glitch Moment(um) actually helps me to understand the definition of glitch art. She actually break down glitch into different parts and sets the tone of how glitch art can also be used as a message technically, socially and metaphorically.

“…theorists need to be more clear about the relationship between technical and metaphorical or cultural dimensions of glitch culture. Focusing on the glitch within this broader perspective makes it possible to think through some of the more interesting political and social uses of the glitch within the field of digital art.”

Menkman, R. (2011) “Glitch Moment(um),” Institute of Network Cultures

As Rosa Menkman mention, Glitch Art can be used more than just aesthetically but also to send a message metaphorically. This reminds me of Jon Cates’s Bold3RRR, where he uses his desktop screen as glitch art to talk about the digital window on how we live our lives using the internet. The fact that Rosa Menkman was introduce to Glitch Art and inspired by Jodi.org was amazing and it shows that Jodi was an originator of this genre called Glitch Art.

Looking back at Jodi.org, it does not necessarily break the order of how one uses the internet and more specifically, how one surf a website. We can still press buttons and there are cursors that lead us to the next follow glitch pages. With each subsequent page, the glitch gets more daring and the results is really beautiful. It does however, break the flow of information when one expect to gain information when surfing the net.

The Anatomy Of Life & Death

you know what? Bang Me