Nothing is Forever Rethinking Sculpture in Singapore Exhibition National Gallery

 Lexicon : I would not miss the chance to learn about the meaning of sculpture being an art object , evolving in concept , in shape and in materials over time as defined by the artists and artisans in Singapore. 

Due to the different sizes of sculptural works as well as gallery space it must be a headache for the curator to organize the artworks thematically and group them together. Very large sculptures are placed outside the gallery area irregardless of where they belong.

I hope to reorganize here in this blog the sculptures and artists who made them in their respective thematic order of the exhibition:

Power 

The Spiritual

The Corporal

Making , Unmaking, Remaking 

Some B-roll pictures from other parts of the exhibit are added.

This exhibition is personal to me as I am thinking whether if I would classify my own works that I have designed as "sculptures" or "products" or "objects".  

Products are designed for utility purpose , to serve man. I don't think my designs have a functional purpose except being a product of my imagination. 

Objects on the other hand is too vague a category where any thing and every thing can be an object. 

Sculpture may be it. So I thought.

The only problem is that I don't sculpt , I assemble. I would prefer to classify my designs as "assemblies". I wonder if these artists in the exhibition would like to define their works as sculptural ? 

Does it need to be classified as Sculpture to be called Art ? 

Does it need to be Art before it can be exhibited in the Art Museum ? 

Can Installation Art be called a Sculpture ?

Remember that Nothing is Forever , even categories and classifications can disintegrate with ample time and politics.

 

National Gallery Singapore : First Responders AR by NYP students

 

 

 

The First Responders is an AR exhibition that not only augment reality but also augment the permanent museum collection gallery 1,2,3 on the 2nd level of the National Gallery Singapore. 

Even though curators may rotate some from the warehouse to the permanent gallery , most artworks in the permanent collection is still on display there. Yawn.

AR augment and refreshes the permanent collection with new experiences and thus gives the reason for visitors like myself to revisit the collection again. 

And all it takes for gallery implementation is a QR code. Visitors especially the young tech savvy millennials can view the AR using the Instagram app in their phones. 

 

 

I belong to Generation X, where my parents sent me to art school as a child as an extra curricula activity.  I learned to appreciate the painting as it is and therefore a bit skeptical about placing another layer on top of the painting. AR on a painting in my opinion is like a graffiti or photobomb where the AR being in front of the artwork takes the attention away from the painting by making itself the AR the center of the viewer's attention.

But after viewing First Responders AR by NYP students , it changes my negative perception of AR on artworks to a positive one. 

Firstly, the AR gives viewers a choice, to see view the painting as it is or view it in AR. 

Secondly, I think to give an serious comment about the painting in front of the viewer requires a lot of art knowledge to able to talk in terms of aesthetic or to able to identify the painting style and place it in the period in Art history. However young AR creators can reinterpret the artwork with exploratory play without the baggage of the art critic mind and augment the fun onto the serious contemplative museum experience. 

This makes Art accessible to the young generation because these are the opinions and voices of young AR creators.  I enjoyed the AR as well. Gallery visit were at best an enlightening experience but for the first time I felt that it can be a fun and delightful too.

 

Spoiler Alert : Skip the following if you intend to visit. 

 

I work as a technical writer and probably bias towards liking instructional AR that has a step by step procedure. The additional cloth making process informs the viewer the context of the artwork.

 

Unlike the previous example, the AR delivery here demonstrate to the viewers botanical information in the form of animation of how the tree trunk sheds its bark to flower. 

 

This AR reinterpret the abstract artwork by having a subject jumping into it.   

 

The AR animation of kampong life extends and occupies the space outside the painting.

 

This is a fun AR, monkeys stealing fruits from the Still Life painting.
 

Spy X Family OR Pen-Pineapple-Apple-Pen

 

Lexicon : I have not understood the meaning of Spy x Family until I saw someone wearing the Uniqlo T Bond x Anya where I see an image area of Bond the dog combined with the image area of Anya the child. "X" the multiply symbol bonds the dog and child images of the T-shirt and in the anime represents the close relationship bonding between them both.

It reminded me of PIKOTARO - PPAP (Pen-Pineapple-Apple-Pen) music video  using the "-" hyphen symbol. Two separated words are joined together to form an entirely new word concept.

 

VR Dance Experience in HabourFont Library

 

The VR Dance Experience was held at the weekends, each day at a different library. On 7th January it was here in HarbourFront Library. There were no posters outside the library to shout out there is a VR experience happening here! I knew about this event through www.Eventbrite.sg website. The VR experience showcases dancers from Six.5 Dance Company and students from Republic Polytechnic.  

DayDream is a fast paced dance routine that the cut scenes and movement move in sync with the beat with indoors and outdoor dance scene.  

CrossPath is an interesting indoor building dance routine that has some interesting point of views and make the user rotate to find the dancers.

Since dance is great as a VR 360 experience because it is a body performing in a space and that puts the user viewer in a spacial experience where other mediums e.g. watching film on TV or cinema cannot provide. That is why people still go for live performances and theater.

Another advantage of VR 360 is users can have a choice how they view the content by rotating their heads or their chairs. 

Musical is the next level up VR 360 content that allows the actors to sing conversations , act and dance to a story.

Singapore Biennale 2022 Natasha

Lexicon : These are artists in the Singapore Biennale 2022 who have created a personal langauge. All artwork are lexiconic but some are more lexiconic than others. 

Shin Beomsum don't see a stone as ordinary. He researched into petroglyphs, which are stone carvings made by removing part of a stone’s surface by picking, abrading or carving. He see veining lines, texture and patterns as an opportunity to connect mythology and story to it in the installation Stone Tablets. There is more than meets the eye ... the common stone becomes extraordinary with meaning. It can potentiality inspire a community of stone tablets creators and collectors who share the new language of the stone tablets. What can be more lexiconic than that !

Yoon Mi Ae may start the journey having a conscious desire to explore what can be build using this new technique. One attempt was to piece an object , an old house from memory. Later on Yoon developed the series Communication Wafers. The subconscious process allows Yoon's inner voice to create the artworks. I wonder can conscious Yoon interpret subconscious Yoon lexicon ? In the exhibition Yoon only describes the subconscious process but not what Yoon think it means.      

Yoon Mi Ae : Communication Wafers 

 

 

Shin Beomsun : Stone Tablets