Art Space Germany

Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts
13 September to 27 October 2007

Another exhibition in which photography was prohibited. I tried looking for the works online but I couldn't find any images!

Containing works that were made by artists practicing in Germany, this exhibition brings together pieces that speaks in a unified global language through the primeval language of art. Why Germany then? Because 'Germany can lay claim to a thousand years of pluralism', division and reunification, which makes it the perfect melting pot of expression.
In Candle TV by Nam June Paik, a sole white candle is placed within the empty frame of an empty television box. The candle is lit and burns steadily. The juxtaposition of a primitive lighting method with a common tool of modern technology was quite interesting. At the heart of it all, the TV is a lighted box after all.

Another of Paik's work exhibited, Internet Dwellers: yswg.dreizehn.xulf, is a sculpture made of a microscope, television boxes and video cameras. The screens play life images of numbers, cards and currency shuffling in gaudy scintillating colours. It seems to point towards globalisation and our conglomeration of technology.

Sitting in the middle of the gallery was Tony Cragg's Flotsam (bottom right corner of picture). The sculpture was an odd limestone like texture with an organic form. On closer look, I discovered that the windblown texture was created by multi-coloured lines on some sort of plastic material. I really liked the unique effect created, and also the dense, substantial feel of the forms. It felt natural yet synthetic at the same time.

One of my favourites in the exhibition was Joseph Kosuth's One and Three Pans. Kosuth is famous for works similar to this where he explores art and the interpretations of words. In this work, he made a large print of the dictionary definition of a pan, and places it beside a real pan and a picture of that pan. The question is, which is considered a pan then? Is the word 'pan' a pan since we attribute the image of a pan to it? Then is the photograph of a pan a pan since the image of it exists. He deliberately displaces the meaning of words and images!

Also particularly outstanding was Magdalena Jetelova's Atlantic Wall (first picture). Her work consisted of black-and-white photographs of concrete bunkers on the Jutland coast - relics of Germany's defence strategy of the second world war. Phrases like 'A rupture between violence and human territory' and 'Absolute ware becomes theatrality' shine, as if emblazoned on the rocks. These are 'short textual phrases, descriptions of their significance, quoted from French philosopher Paul Virilio's book Bunker Archaeology.' - Colin Darke

The overall atmosphere is dark and oppressive while the phrases seem to shine with hope. It looked like a desolate field of war ruins to me, till I realised the dark silhouettes were actually rocks. The entire pieces feels like a quiet protest against war, almost as if the land itself is protesting. I've found a good art critique of her artwork when it was exhibited in 1998. It's quite interesting, with lots of background. Do read it! http://www.source.ie/issues/issues0120/issue15/is15revatlwal.html

Other artists featured include Per Kirkeby, Ayse Erkmen, Simone Mangos, Herman de Vries, Christine Hill and more. I won't tell you about every single work in the exhibition. It's huge! So do go down and take a look at this exhibition. It has some interactive elements too. It was quite a feast to my eyes.

Hopscotched

by Song Yue, Hazel Lim, Om Mee Ai and Tok Wei Yuan
JENDELA (Visual Arts Space), Esplanade

Jendela is one of my favourite galleries. It's long and narrow, and almost always quiet. The cement finish gives the place a nice echo, especially when there's videos running.

This is what I heard: Jendela was originally meant as a bar, hence the narrowness. That was until the committee realised that Esplanade had no visual arts space.

I was held up outside the gallery when I arrived because the gallery assistant was in the washroom. From the entrance, I saw enough to arouse my curiosity- enigmatic, shadowy shapes and strange textures.

The exhibition was strictly no cameras, so here's some scans of the postcards I got.


01. This artist took photos of textures created with paint, then cropped them in different proportions to resemble canvases. I found it an interesting play of the eye. Had a hard time deciding if they were real paintings or photographs of real textures. Confusing indeed!

02. These haunting pictures of city images were hanging near the entrance. It made me feel quite uneasy, as a citizen of an urban city, to see familiar sights totally devoid of human life. The paintings were realistic, with an icy coldness. His style reminds me of Edward Hopper and his still urban images. Not a very new idea, but pleasant nonetheless.

03. Up close, this series of paintings looked like layer over layer of paint squares on a grey background. It didn't make sense till I took a few steps back and discovered the metallic lattice, which even had a sort of sheen to it. I wouldn't have thought that such a repetitive and dull coloured painting would be so visually exciting.

04. The sculpture series features several odd shaped rocks lined up on the ground. The natural light coming through the large glass windows cast interesting shadows across the floor which interacted with the forms of the rocks. Sad to say though, I don't quite know how to interpret it. Would anyone like to help me out on this one?

Another one of the works that was rooted in my mind was the perspex boxes filled with paper cutouts. Silhouettes of trees, birds, cats, chairs, tables, anything you'd find in a house were placed in boxes with attached locks. The furniture sometimes hung from the 'ceiling' of the box while other items stuck out from odd points of the boxes. The boxes seemed to suggest a room or a house, where the lock was representative of modern living and its security issues. The irony though, was that locks are meant to keep people out, but as a viewer, I could see everything that was happening in the little houses, with a 3D view. I could even see all the oddities that happened in these private spaces.

The theme, 'the urban landscape (as) an intricate and complex organic entity that shifts and shapes itself over time', runs strongly through the works. Each artist seems to bring a new perspective based on their backgrounds to the theme.

Mistake!

I dropped by Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (NAFA) to visit 'Art Space Germany' today, only to find that the exhibition was closed!! I thought I didn't check the exhibition timings properly, but I discovered that the website doesn't mention that the exhibitions are all closed on Sunday. Yep so one thing for everyone to note, don't go down on Sundays!

I'm a little disappointed since the exhibition includes the work of late Nam June Paik, a name that only existed in my textbook till today, when I was separated from his work by a thin sheet of glass. Anyway, I'll definitely be back again.

Anyhow, here's how to get to NAFA gallery 1 and 2


The Gallery is near the spot marked 'B3'. I usually take a bus from Orchard (14, 16, 106 ... many more) and alight at Hotel Rendezvous. From that bus stop, it's just a 5 minute walk down Bencoolen Street. You can't miss it!

I'm excited! This exhibition looks interesting even from the outside.

P.L.A.Y. in Progress

Set in the tunnel that leads to the Esplanade, the length of the exhibition venue serves to emphasize 'progress' or rather, the process of art-making. 'As an artist breathes life into an artwork through experimentation and the exploration of limits, new discoveries are achieved and the path to further progress is paved.' The chain of works by the 4 artist-printmakers map the organic nature of creation.


01. The long narrow tunnel seems to make some kind of transition of each piece. Walking down this stretch reveals the exhibition's surprises bit by bit. It was quite enjoyable!

02. This artist created different textures with paint (I think) and made cut-outs of what looks like buildings. I was particularly attracted by the strange scribbles that accompanied the window-like cut-outs. Resembling smoke, I thought they made a nice contrast against the structured forms.

03. I was intrigued by the chandelier of puppets hanging from the ceiling. I thought it looked quite ominous, even though they were innocently pastel coloured. I kept thinking that there was something very odd and dark about the work although on surface level, it had a happy vibe to it.

What interested me most though, was the raindrop prints on the wall. From a distance, they all looked quite similar, but as I took a closer look, some drops were made of fabrics and were 3D. I liked the quiet surprises in the work.

04. There were a series of boxes that housed dolls and children play items. The items in the boxes were common enough, but not things that I could relate to. There was a sense of alienation in how the items were too Utopian. May be that was to reinforce the sinister mood of the piece. Then again, that's just my interpretation. It gives me the shivers..


I particularly liked the innovative use of the space available. Items that could not be removed from the venue were not ignored, but worked around and integrated into the piece. 'Play' really is an integral part of this exhibition.

Overall, I thought the exhibition was quite innovative. It was more spontaneous than polished.

Tickleart

Long Kang
by Kai Qun

Nestled between the Esplanade and Citylink Shopping Center, the artist's realistic rendition of the local drainage seems more quaint than out of place. The 'Long Kang' or drain, is housed in a narrow glass case as part of the Tickleart series sponsored by the National Art Council.

'Long Kang highlights the capacity of buildings to disorientate an individual's relationship with his/her reality in totality.' writes local artist Kai Qun. The piece demonstrates this with its rather unconventional placement within a large shopping area, walled off from our exterior environment.

The work is warmly lit, even giving off that strange familiar vibe we get on a hot Singapore day. Dressed with dried leaves and a selection of local weeds, the work bears an uncanny resemblance to reality. I'd have walked right past in comfort if I hadn't already known art pieces were exhibited there.

The piece is very nostalgic to me. It brings me back to the days when I walked to my kindergarten everyday from my grandma's house. I used to fall into those things and scrape my shins! Since the house was sold and I started to grow up, it's been all cars and buses when traveling. Little have I had the time to stop by these ditches and realise how integral a part of the local scenery they are.

I'm reminded of Pop Artist Claes Oldenburg. He said, 'Ordinary objects contain a functional contemporary magic.' Then again, it's one of those pieces that makes me wonder what exactly I can consider art. If I took a section of a street lamp and put it into a glass case and added an artist statement, would that be art? Well, I like this piece and the thoughts it puts in my head, so I have no qualms calling it art.

___________________________________________

Project: Eden (II)
by Donna Ong

Honestly, 'Project: Eden(II)' was not very visually pleasing, especially when placed next to 'Long Kang', a soothing natural scape. This work looked to me like a dystopian version of a very plastic, manufactured world in year 3000. But I'm glad to say that I can relate well to the motives behind this creation, which then helped me translate it into a very desirable scene.

As a kid, I used to take anything I'd find around the house with me into fantasy land. I could build an intricate dream with anything from erasers to blankets. I'm sure most of us are familiar with this too. 'Project: Eden(II)' is a visualization of these day dreams and elaborate childhood fantasies we all had. Toilet brushes, balloon sticks, hair clips and pom poms form the dreamscape of the unattainable.

I'm impressed by the motivations of this piece. But I think there would have been a greater impact if this 'dream' had a little more space for expansion. The impact of the piece would probably have been stronger if the showcase was larger, and perhaps some sort of surreal background to round off the look.

___________________________________________

Ring Master and the Magical Cloak
by Joo Choon Lin

'Ring Master and the Magical Cloak' is the literal representation of when the local artist weaved a fairy tale in her childhood. The sketches hanging on the wall narrate the story as she recalled it. The work was borne from her 'desire of not wanting to forget the things or events that have an impact on (her) life.'

Like Donna Ong, Joo Choon Lin relates to the intrinsic ability of children to transform any household object into a integral part of their fantasy land. These are the objects found in her artwork.

I found the artist's style appealing, but not particularly unconventional. My only wish was if the work was a little more thought provoking.