Tag Archives: exhibition

The One With The Karst Exhibition

Continuing from my previous post on extending a case studies, here is more details of what I am going to propose. Read here for my previous post.

I have chosen to use Vladimir’s Karst documentary as my case study of choice and I am going to extend this film into an exhibition/installation. The motive of the exhibition is simple, to have the same experience of watching the full film by visiting the exhibition/installation. I feel this is the essence of my propose exhibition/installation because I want my visitor to leave the exhibition feeling like they know a little bit more about Karst and the art of construction. I find this documentary very unique because it explores the process and beauty of the Karst stone which is a very unlikely narrative in a film.

Furthermore, the full documentary length is about 1 hour and 12 minutes which is quite a long time for some people to sit down and watch. On top of that, is is not your typical blockbuster film and Vladimir’s Karst needed the audience to think and reflect as well. So with that being said, I don’t think there will be many general audience who is able to stomach Karst. However, I want the people to experience the film by going through the exhibition/installation. This is also part of the reason for this proposal as well. Now let’s take a look at what I would like to include in the exhibition/installation.

I would like to break the exhibition/installation into 3 parts.
1. The Process – Equipments/Processes
2. The Culture – Food/Celebration
3. The Art – Artworks/Artists/Influences

Firstly, the first section of the exhibition would start with The Process. In this section, I would like to highlight the process the masons take to complete the house. From setting up explosives to the final touches to the house, I would like to capture these events through the use of photographs, short videos and the physical equipments as well!

As you can see below, this is the machine used to mix the cement. This equipment would be good to include in the exhibition space as well to facilitate learning and knowledge.

From setting up the foundation to the measuring of the walls. These important details are important, hence showing some graphics on the exhibition would be a good idea for learning more about construction.
This skill take a lot of practice in order to be perfect at it and I would like my visitor to experience doing this process themselves. I would propose to have a karst stone on the exhibition space and a chisel and a mallet, where visitors can learn from the experts on how to do this by hand. It will be a once in a lifetime experience!

This pulley system is very interactive in a sense that it requires someone to be there to pull it back and forth. This can be used as a switch or control as part of the exhibition. For example, visitors can interact with this pulley system and whenever they move it back and forth, it will show a different photograph.
This cutting machine cuts the rock into perfect squarish sizes. Having a video to show this would be good for learning as well. No physical machine is required as this machine can be very dangerous for the exhibition.
The final results of the rocks.

This process of holding the tree branch as you can see below is still puzzled me actually. But I do know this, there seem to be some natural force that is interact with the branch. This is a very unique experience actually. I would propose this to be included in the installation/exhibition space as well so people could actually try this for themselves!

Secondly, the culture of the people of Montenegro. The stonemasons family and their life is quite prominent in the film as the director wanted to highlight the lifestyle and culture of the Montenegro people. Below, you can see that their really enjoy cooking and this is evident in the two screenshots below. Even after the completion of the house, they organised a huge celebration with the lamb. I would like to highlight this in my exhibition, to include the food recipe as well as some food tasting. The culture is also very important and I would definitely highlight this in my exhibition / installation as well.

Thirdly, the artworks. The key influence of Karst was Petar Lubarda where Vladimir dedicate this film to. Furthermore the colour treatment of the film is inspired by Petar Lubarda’s painting as Vladimir mention in an interview! Petar Lubarda was a painter and was considered one of the most important painter in the region of Montenegro. I feel that to include one of his painting in the Exhibiton/Installation would be ideal as it is also mention in the film as well. The architect visited the gallery where Petar Lubarda’s work is being exhibited and is amazed by his works. Visitors could also learn a little bit more of the artist and his artworks and how the artwork influence the film.

To close this lengthy post, I would like to summaries my idea of proposing an exhibition/installation that will engage the visitors to learn about the essence of construction and Karst. Karst is a documentary following the life of a stonemason family and their work processes. This is a very interesting documentary and by highlighting certain key moments into the exhibition space, the message of the film can be further heightened I feel. With that being said, I would to end this post with a thought, would you rather watch a 1 hour documentary or go through a 15 minutes exhibition space?

The One With The Assignment 2

1 Reply

The extension of a case studies is actually a good way to take someone else’s ideas and push it even further. I find it hard to find a good one because honestly, not all the case studies is that interesting actually. With that being said, right now I am going to use Vladimir’s documentary, Karst. The reason I chose this case studies as it is one of the projects that I can relate to and it is something that I would do.

As Karst is a documentary that revolves around an architect and a family of stonemasons as they build a house for a diplomat, I would extend the film into an exhibition. This is because I feel that the essence of the documentary is about how traditional craftsmanship is still being used and it is a dying trade. Hence, my proposal would be an exhibition that people can learn more about the stonemasons and their ability, on top of the film.

If you look at the top view of the house that was erected, the layout is pretty interesting and I would like to use this same layout as the layout for this exhibition. Furthermore, it make perfect sense as visitors would get to know the house a little bit better in terms of its spatial design and space. In the exhibition, there will be a showcase of the machinery being used, more information about the stone and also the documentation process on how the house was being built.

I would like to hear your thoughts on this.

I know there are many exhibition/installation that is based on a tv show or a movie. For example, there is a Game of Thrones exhibition that is going on now somewhere which I have no idea but I see it pictures. These exhibitions usually tend to promote the film and also to invite people to interact with the objects or props that was being used in the films. There is also some interactive game/installation where people is able to participate.

Regards,
Kamarul

The One With The 50 Shades Of Comparison

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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 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.