Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Spectacular:
An installation by
Oanh Phi Phi of
Vietnam. PHOTO: IMAGE
COURTESY OF THE ARTIST
Regional focus: A piece of work by Thai artist Prateep Suthathongthai. About 80 artists from South-east Asia
will be taking part in this years Singapore Biennale, which will be held from Oct 26 to Feb 16
visual arts, history and literature.
People often think visual arts is an
island, but I want to show the students especially, how it can be linked
with, say, literature, she adds.
Meanwhile, this years Biennale
will feature two large-scale installations one by Suzann Victor in the
Rotunda of the National Museum of
Singapore and the other will be Eko
Prawotos large outdoor installation
Wormhole, with dramatic bamboo
walls inviting the public to enter into
a contemplative encounter with nature amid the busy urban cityscape of
the Bras Basah and Bugis precinct.
Singapore Art Museum director
By SARA YAP
FASHION has always carried a sheen of
exclusivity there are the supermodels
decked in expensive designer threads strutting down the runway. And there are the
too-cool-for-school young hipsters who
show off their impeccable sartorial sense
on media-sharing platforms such as LookBook, Tumblr and fashion blogs, amassing
quite a following of admirers.
But The Unusual Suspects a fashion
and photography exhibition held at Mad
Nest restaurant along East Coast Road
treads the middle ground by featuring
everyday people as its models and having
them styled in ways to express facets of
their personalities. In most of the photos
on display, the clothes dont make the man
so much as character does.
Take for instance the collaborative
works by the team behind photography
blog Shentonista and artist Tan Zi Xi.
Shentonista took the photos, and Mr Tan
spruced them up with colourful, whimsical
illustrations.
In Of Friends & Family: Cooking
Dreams, the model the artists friend
who loves to cook sports a drawn-on
chefs hat and holds a frying pan. There is
a significance behind this: The illustrations
symbolise the hobbies and aspirations of
the subjects, providing a contrast to their
seemingly stuffy office wear.
Before taking the photos and doing the
illustrations, we talked with our subjects to
better understand their personalities,
hopes and dreams, says Mr Tan, 28, who
goes by the moniker MessyMsxi. The eventual results are whimsical and amusing,
but they also reflect the quirks and ambitions of the subjects so that people can see
there is more to them than what they
wear.
For the team behind Shentonista, the
photos are a slight departure from its
usual focus on fashionable individuals in
the Central Business District. At the exhibition, the works on display are closer to
home: They feature the artists friends and
family members as models.
We wanted to take photographs of real
people. The idea is to communicate the essence of our subjects and capture them in
the most personable ways, says Darren
Lee, 33, founder of Shentonista.
Shentonista and Mr Tan are not alone
in wanting to document more than just
snazzy dressing. Photographer Franz Navarrete has taken things a step further by
asking his models to be the very antithesis
of fashion: All his photos feature subjects
dressed in plain, drab clothes and without
a smidgen of make-up on.
He says the objective was to provide a
refreshing change from the polished,
dolled-up image that the subjects typically known to their friends as stylish dressers are used to.
I wanted to show a different side to
these people, the side that others wouldnt
get to see. I thought it would be a cool and
unusual concept, says Mr Navarrete, 31.
He collaborated with freelance artist Amanda Keisha Ang on the project. Ms Ang did
digital illustrations on the photos, drawing
new outfits on half of each subjects face
and body.
The result is a jarring contrast between
the natural dressed-down half, and the
comic book-like effect of the illustrated portion. For instance, in IN:VISIBLE: Melody
The art of diplomacy: (Clockwise from above) The late Nik Zainal Abidins Wayang Kulit in Yellow, 1979; his
Wayang Kulit in Blue, 1969; and Mr Param in his new gallery, Interpr8 Art Space in Kuala Lumpur, amid his
collection of other works by the self-taught Malaysian artist, who is often hailed as the painter of the epics.
nally put on. Another significant art show which he curated at the Petronas Gallery, he recalls, was that of
22 Malaysian artists.
He adds his gallery isnt
so much about selling art,
but the propagation and cultivation of it. We want to
foster an appreciation for
Malaysian art and reach
out to a new audience.
Nik Zainal Abidin,
Malaysias Foremost
Wayang Kulit Artist