Tuesday, September 23, 2008

singapore biennale ²⁰08

Took the afternoon off today. Was supposed to watch Mamma Mia but I had some things to do so the timing just didn't make it possible. In the end, went with Vivy to the singapore biennale ²⁰08. I'm writing it the way it was written in the guide book. I'm not trying to be artsy here. The going to there proved to be a real pain in the ass. Many of the road were closed because of preparation for the F1 races. I found out from the news just now that today is actually the first day. Lucky us. I was getting really pissed actually, because I hadn't had lunch, it was hot, and the dumbest thing ever, I took a bus from Bugis wanting to go to Suntec only to end up in Bugis again. Aaarrrghhh. I realize when I am tired, especially if it is caused by walking some distance in the hot sun, I do actually throw tantrums and I become super bitch. I guess Dewi perhaps felt that when we went on our holiday. We did have to walk quite a lot today, since the exhibitions are in City Hall and the South Beach Development.

The Biennale was ... well, I just couldn't get it, didn't understand many of it. The majority of it are installation arts. Only a few featured photographs or art works which were rather obvious to enjoy. Some things really ... I don't understand. Example: the close up photographs of a chewing gum. Mind you they even displayed the chewed chewing gum used as the model. Then one exhibit from an Italian guy was the exhibition of many bar soaps under a tree. Then there's an Indonesian video showing how a motor cyclist compete with public transport in an nintendo game kinda way (I couldn't explain it well). I don't get this kind of arts. I guess I'm pretty much a straight forward person in my point of view. I don't really enjoy having to absorb the display, think about it and process it and try to find the hidden meaning, etc. If anything, many of them actually gave me the creep. They kinda freaked me out. If I should answer if they evoke any emotion, then they kinda evoked the scared sad emotion in me and the little girl me might have nightmares from them. Not that they are scary or anything, though there were some displays in which I waited for Vivy to come and view it together, it's just I just had those feeling looking at them and being around them. I guess I prefer arts that can evoke happy positive feeling instead. Okay, it's getting late. So I'm just gonna post picture, okay (trying to keep the formatting from blogger). See if you can get some of these arts stuff.

Okay the first picture is not part of the exhibition. Just thought it's a very good picture of the window, and behind you can see the red and yellow seats for the F1 races. I think these seats cost a bomb.

This piece is from a Singaporean artist. It's actually very big, covering a big wall, and the artist used paints to come out with this. The guide was very cheerful and friendly when she was explaining to us about the arts. She said she's been there for awhile, I guess the arts got into her head. Seriously though, she was really nice.

This is a floating book, a philosophical book floating in an aquarium. Looking at the picture I took, it kinda reminded me of the jellyfish pictures in my collection. A bit reminded me of Harry Potter too. The description of this piece in the guide book has the words globalization, ideological history, modern civilization, materialistic and spiritual viewpoints in them. Alright, how it gets to there is open to your interpretation.

These ones are from Iranian artists. I love the humor in it.


This one is part of the pieces from Indonesian artists. Their exhibition was in a room, where there are this piece on the wall and a music video at the other wall.

The next few, I like. They are cut out of flowers being placed on sands. I chose this first one because the colour came out great though the flowers on the front blurred the ones behind.

One side of the flowers were colourful and the other side were black. So it's really 2 extreme sides. This is the view from the other side.

And this is from the flowers' side views. You can see Vivy in the picture actually.

This piece on the wall is in the same room as the flowers. Nothing really special about it, but I chose to put this in because in this picture, the car and the boy looked rather 3D towards you when they were actually carved inside (I can't explain it well).

This is one of the many video pieces. I really don't get them all actually, but somehow this ... well it gave me mixed feeling. Solitude is one of them.

This is a knitted lamp. The pieces accompanying this were all knitted. There was a toucan bird on a vespa. You tell me what that means.

These are stacks of things which you can find in your house also I suppose. I guess being able to stack your things neatly is a form of art?

Just a hall being painted this way. Kinda cool I suppose.

The artist for this one is from Vietnam. It's called The Dancer. The head, hands, and feet of the dancer is actually separated from the body, hence you saw all the ropes. The cool thing about it I think is because you can see Vietnam traces in the art, for example in the decoration on the dress of the dancer.

This one I kinda like. A series of pictures of a man with a crescent moon. I found it to be cute and quite comforting. You can perhaps feel disturbed for such childish imagination on an adult, but I dig it.

Last one, this one is on the South Beach ground. I suppose the text is just calling out to you. Though I think the line is something you can commonly find in a T-shirt.

Okay that's all folks. Err...do go if you've got nothing to do? Ticket price is S$10.

:) eKa @ 9:57:00 PM •