Life is better with a little drama in it

SINGAPORE BIENNALE 2008 (PART 02):

The first piece of art as we reached the second layer of the exhibition was "D.84 & D.85, Little Guilin (Bukit Batok Town Park) Singapore, 2008" by Gary Carlsey. I don't understand this artwork at all, but it's stated that Carlsey has from a range of photographs taken of Singapore's Little Guilin Park in Bukit Gombak (itself a copy of the real Guilin in China, & representative of 'Chinese-ness' in Singapore) and Jurong's Chinese Garden, selected images & re-rendered them in faux wood-grain. These images were then creatively applied to selected IKEA furniture. The surface representation, identity of the nation & self, interiorly & exteriorly, become sources for the creation & reading of the work... (Still understand crap out of it...)

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"D.84, D.85, Little Guilin (Bukit Batok Town Park)" - Gary Carlsey

Next, an INTERESTING artwork by E Chen... "Tropicana" is the name of the piece. Sculptures made of woollen yarn. The yarn is elaborately woven to take the shape of a scooter & a lamppost with ivy growing around it. flower petals littered all over the floor. I was so tempted to "steal" one of the flowers but there was one of the staff keeping a look-out at the art piece, whom made it hard for me to do anything. Anyway, back to the artwork, the thought of using yarn - something so flexible, expandable & even soft & ephemeral - are qualities that contradict against many traditional notions of sculpture...

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Another thing I found out later was that the tips of the yarn are actually hooked to, & pulled by, a motor on the ceiling & very slowly wound up so that the sculptures are gradually unravelled. So by the end of the exhibition the artwork will have disappeared~! Now, although it is said that art is immortal, but in fact nothing is permanent, & that idea is symbolically proved in this installation. Cool eh... (I think so)

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"Tropicana" - E Chen

In the room next door, a set of photography work shown, the "Altitude series" & "Infinite Island series" (2003 -2006) by Ryuro Fukuda. Both series are digitally manipulated photographs. "Infinite Island" depicts an imaginary, paradise-like view pools of water on an island in the middle of an ocean. A closer look at the image shows that the island is surrounded by craggy cliffs, making it seem as if access to it would be very difficult. If you could get there however, this would be an idyllic place where anyone would want to spend some time.

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In "Altitude", images of an unmanned balloon & para glider floating in the stratosphere at an altitude of 10,000 metres, which in reality is a height that no balloon or human can possibly fly in, are shown.

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"Altitude" & "Infinite Island" series - Ryuro Fukuda

Next up is a 3-framed video art piece. There are three frames projected onto with the videos, in a dark enclosed room by itself. Beautifully named "El naufragio de los hombres (The wreck of men)" by Charly Nijensohn, the artwork is a video work that was filmed earlier this year during the rainy season in the salt desert of Salar de Uyuni in Bolivia, a vast landscape 13,000 feet above sea level & thought to contain 10 billion tonnes of salt. When the area is covered in water, as it was when Nijensohn went there, the sky meets an almost perfect reflection of itself creating an extraordinary mirrored horizon. The artist worked with the Aymara community of the village of Colchani, whose lifestyles were threatened by poverty. They were featured in the video as images of lonely figures standing unmoving amidst small groupings of rocks.

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"El naufragio de los hombres (The wreck of men), 2008" - Charly Nijensohn

Sometimes they are alone in the frame. Sometimes there are several figures placed closer to or far away from the camera, emphasising distance & location. The soundtrack played in the background is eerily natural (it scared the shit out of Charmaine), the sound of wind sweeping through the great space, the wet flutter of rain hitting the lens. It sounded as if we were right there on spot... The figures are marked by their lack of movement, their stillness becomes more of a gesture of defiance than of passivity in the face of their stark surroundings, & the reflection of the sky makes them appear to be floating amongst the clouds, as if bravely becoming mythical beings. Nijensohn is fully aware of the metaphysical poetics that his imagery suggests: "Exposed to the erosion of time, they vanish into the emptiness. In silence & isolation, they are testimony of an existence which, in disappearing, becomes a declaration of principles."

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The next piece is one of Charmaine's favourite pieces - "The Yellow Mountain" by Su-Mei-Tse. In a dark room, projected onto a screen, this is once again a video piece, in which a huge yellow 'sun' appears from behind a mountain range in what looks like a traditional Chinese-style ink painted landscape. Seemingly a portrayal of a sunrise at first, it starts to morph into something totally unrelated. It is a humorous piece that disrupts one's expectations & by doing so, the artist hopes to provoke us to think again about our stereotypical view of Oriental paintings & the way in which we look at the world in general.

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"The Yellow Mountain" - Su-Mei-Tse

Then we moved on & viewed these exhibited pieces by Desiree Dolron, "Xteriors I, II, IV, VIII". These photographs were excellently taken, if you ask me. The detail, the look in the models' eyes... the photographs actually look like oil paintings. The rest are some other less interesting pieces we saw...

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"Xteriors I, II, IV & VIII" - Desire Dolron

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"Piano" & the "Canary" series - Lieko Shiga

The next piece is a very 'cute' family photograph, which is also an exhibited piece. Named "Who is this Family" by Rachel Goh (Singaporean), the artwork consisted of five family photos. The photos are from the same family. The 'cute' part of it or rather interesting part is that in the photos, though the family members remain the same. They interchange their positions/roles & clothings based on the family member they're 'supposed to be'... Don't understand what I'm saying? Take a look yourself. At the end, a video of the family going through the actual photo shoot & changing of clothes is shown too.

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"Who is this Family" - Rachel Goh

The next room we came to shortly, was my favourite work of the whole exhibition. The only one that had me mesmerized the whole evening! "Blackfield" by Zadok Ben-David... A truly work of art! When we first entered the hall, the floor was seemingly filled with thousands of small, wispy metallic plants emanating from a rectangle field of white sand. The 'plants' which are etched out of metal, come from botanical drawings & are painted black. Immediately I was astounded by the amount of hard work put into arranging these 'plants' standing up in their rows... & the detail each 'plant' had. Then as we observed the pieces, we move forward. Then as I turned my head around, what I saw just took my breath away. The previously black 'plants' have in that instance ALL TURNED INTO A MYRIAD OF RADIATING COLOURS!

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It was then that I realized that all the plants are installed with the coloured side facing one end & black facing the other. Thus when a visitor encounters the installation from one end, they will either see a sea of coloured or black plants. The side with colour is extraordinarily cheerful, while the black is stark, very much like a scorched landscape against an almost pure white background of fine sand. Both, however, are beautiful to behold. The experience on seeing the black change into colour, or vice versa, row by row, is truly mesmerizing. Coming up close to the plants reveals their extremely intricate structure & patterning. As the change in colours happens as one shifts one's point of view, the macro & micro views of the installation also present a change in perspective. Hence it is not only the physical thing of the installation that matters but one's relationship to it.

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"Blackfield" - Zadok Ben-David

The next piece was by Yuan Goang-Ming, called "Disappearing Landscape - Passing". This is a three channel video installation. In it, scenes, one after another are shown. A pleasant normal day for a family - two abandoned buildings in which family get-togethers of the past could be imagined; views from a car as the artist drove between his home in Danshui & Taipei; & a nearby woods. These images are shot by three cameras that relentlessly progress forward as if to move through all obstacles. The artist suggests a sense of transience in relation to the rise & fall of human life. To me, however, it's like looking at things from different perspective.

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"Disappearing Landscape - Passing" - Yuan Goang-Ming

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"Serigala Militia" - Tromarama

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"Think of One Thing" - Mariele Neudecker

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"Operation Supermarket" - Farhad Moshiri & Shirin Aliabadi
(Pay attention to the labeling/ words on the 'products')


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"Teratoma II: Digmaan ng mga Mundo (Teratoma II: War of the Worlds)"
- Leeroy New

That's all, folks. A truly wonderful experience... Remember to make your way down to Singapore Biennale 2008 if you have the time, the chance... Enjoy. =]