During my ‘brainstorming session’, I had come up with some ideas about the topics I wanted to explore on but they were quite boring and I would have trouble listing out more attributes.

---

TEDDY BEAR

A teddy bear from the point of view of a female child is a tea-party friend

A teddy bear from the point of view of a male child is an surgical victim

A teddy bear from the point of view of a girlfriend is love

A teddy bear from the point of view of a graduand is a congratulatory gift

A teddy bear from the point of view of a coward is a monster

A teddy bear from the point of view of a cat is a mother’s nipple

 

A LETTER

A letter from the point of view of an adult is a bill

A letter from the point of view of a male Singaporean is army

A letter from the point of view of a prisoner is hope

A letter from the point of view of a child is a confession

A letter from the point of view of a student is trouble

 

 

 

---

 

 

I tried to think of a topic that relates to me so I thought of something local and came up with a Void Deck.

 

A VOID DECK

A void deck from the point of view of a child is a playground

A void deck from the point of view of an elder man is a chess tournament

A void deck from the point of view of a singer is a stage

A void deck from the point of view of a construction worker is a bed

A void deck from the point of view of a mother is a news channel

A void deck from the point of view of a cat is a territory

A void deck from the point of view of a narcissist is an outfit-of-the-day photo background

A void deck from the point of view of a delinquent is a nightclub

A void deck from the point of view of a bicycle is a prison

A void deck from the point of view of a footballer is a soccer field

A void deck from the point of view of a graffiti artist is a canvas

A void deck from the point of view of a rag-and-bone man is a treasure box

A void deck from the point of view of a policeman is a crime hotspot

A void deck from the point of view of a loan shark is a noticeboard

A void deck from the point of view of a coward is a ghost’s haunting ground

 

Why Void Deck?

Void decks are unique to Singapore. It is used to describe the common spaces at the lobbies of public housing in Singapore. With most of Singapore’s population residing in the these apartments, void decks are definitely part of every Singaporean’s life.

Medium

I have not decide on a medium but it might either be in the form of digital illustrations or traditional collage.

Reference Artists

Since my topic is about a space where different living and nonliving things view the void deck differently, it is like their ‘imagination’ or ‘fantasies’.

 

Rich Gemmell

I saw this artwork and thought that maybe the white lines can represent those ‘imaginations’. However, I realised that the whole piece might look flat and the overlay of lines will turn out messy.

 

Andrew Bannecker

For this artist, he uses a neutral grey background so the coloured characters stands out more. Maybe, I can use a similar style where the background represents the space, and coloured sections are those ‘imaginations’.

 

Luisa Uribe

And when you talk about imagination and fantasies, you think of kids! So here I tried to look for inspirations on children book’s illustrations where they use softer colours with minimal outlines, a bit similar to the previous one.

 

Pamela Zagarenski

These are actually textured illustrations but I visualised them as traditional collage. Also, since the void deck is place where a lot of things happen within that small space, I thought of a vibrant and energetic vibe by using various mediums to collage them together.

 

J. Walter Thompson Argentina

Lastly, a completely different medium, paper-cutting. I really like the intricate style of paper-cutting and combining the individual pieces up to create a whole piece. So I thought this looks quite interesting. It also has a sense of depth due to the shadow that the layers created.

 

Community Quilt

I also came across this group of local photographers called Community Quilt who are inspired by the small pockets of spaces that had a Singaporean flavour. Basically, they took a series of vertical images and weaved them together to create a long continuous panorama. This is an example of their work called ‘Hougang Void Deck’.

For my deliverables, maybe I can create something continuous as well but cut off in different sections.

 

---

 

Feedbacks

• Look up ‘Derrida’ who does works related to ‘haunting ghosts’
• Think of which part of the HDB void deck relates to a particular attribute
• Search on current artists who already did on void deck and look for fresh ideas to convey to the audience

 

• What exactly is a void deck? From where does it starts and ends? Is there an extension?
• New HDB has a smaller void deck as compared to the old HDB as the latter has a slab block design
• Hence, new HDB has alternative common spaces for the community such as pavilions and sky decks : What makes you move away?

 

• Compare old kampung ‘void decks’ or common spaces with now
  > youngsters prefer to be in the comfort of their homes rather than outside mingling around with the neighbours
• Mama shop : the old version of surveillance camera

 

---

 

Moving Forward

From here, I will:

• Research more on the concept of HDB void decks: which space is exactly a void deck?
• Think on the possible attributes to connect them together
• Explore more on the medium that best suit my theme/topic
• Sketch out different compositions