I just wanted to wait till today to release a special Chinese New Year banner edition done by William Chua better known as Xiaobaosg. I’m a big fan of William’s work, whether it’s his T-shirt designs or his illustration work, he’s always crafting up some creative goodness.

PHILOSOPHY

Believe in yourself.
Believe that nothing in this world is impossible.
Believe that if you dare to dream your dreams and get hold of it, anything can be brought to reality.

When Select Publishing was brainstorming a suitable series to kick off a new imprint for children’s books, they decided to publish a triplet on Asian Values. Each book aims to provide a means of exposing children to various values that help make their own worlds better.

Water Buffalo’s Reward, the first book in the series, will be launched next Monday. It is the story of a water buffalo learning about the value of diligence.

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Temasek Polytechnic student Xiao Yan, spent the majority of her time as a kid doodling black charred carcasses of Disney’s Little Mermaid. “I always had an insatiable urge to pick up a marker and start doodling,” she adds. “My graphic design teacher introduced me to Noise Singapore and encouraged me to submit my art. And ever since, a lot of things have happened — my work was featured in an exhibition at the Heeren, I did an illustration for Gameaxis, and I even participated in the International High School Art Festival in Japan.”

About the artwork, Xiao says: “Thank You” is a very personal piece. It was inspired by a friend who was really passionate about art and showed me how to look at life from a different perspective. A lot of the surreal elements inside that picture -like the eye, the hand and the brush strokes- were very much influenced by him. It represents the fact that I don’t want the inspiration to stop.”

26-year old Nur Ashikin loves taking photos. “From photos of my friends during our partying days with just my digicam, to taking landscapes and emotions with a DSLR. Everywhere I go -with or without my camera- I always look around and tell myself ‘this would make a great shot,” she adds.

About her work, Ikin says: “I always wanted to capture this kind of image. I went home straight after work, ransacked the kitchen to gather some stuff , used my mum’s room for the backdrop, and started throwing the tomato into the jar numerous times. After much focusing, patience and leveling, I decided to settle for this take. It was all worth it.”

On January 8th, young career ceramicist Michelle Lim, debuts with an intriguing combination of art and dining at the Sculpture Square space. In this experience-exhibition, Michelle draws the attention to the construction of humble objects that have served us timelessly for three meals a day.

About the background of her exhibition, Michelle says: “The oil-soaked paper bag that holds a curry puff and the round porcelain bowl that cups hot soup are everyday objects used to enjoy food. Ceramic crockery has been with Singaporeans since the days of eating prawn noodles by the roadside till today, serving pasta aglio olio in a 5-star restaurant. What has drastically changed apart from standards of hygiene, is the value of these objects serving Singapore’s passion. From pure necessity when the potter was as essential as the cook, crockery has become optional, competing with mass-produced plastic ware. We have become oblivious to how and in what our meals are served. In fact, why bother with handmade ceramics when there are cheaper factory- made reproductions?”

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Artist Fox Chong is a 21-year-old Graphic Designer who graduated from LaSalle College of the Arts in 2008 with a Honors Bachelor Degree in Graphic Design. “I also enjoy painting, when I have the time and energy,” she adds. “Illustration is my forte. My inspiration comes from Dave McKean, H.R. Giger, and my all-time-muse, Salvador Dali. I also appreciate work by Jackson Pollock.”

Fox lives by a few principles, but one stands out the most, “To lead a creative life, you have to lose the fear of being wrong.” And when asked to say a few words regarding her work and how she manages to cough out such absurd imagery, and balancing her hectic work schedule, she replies, “The art of staying Sane, is being Insane.”

Fox’s interpretations mean to strike a sense of confusion and familiarity in her audience. Her work speaks about her odd thoughts — her dreams, her mental imaginations, and her erratic thinking. “My images from the series “Manifest Dreams” interpret dreams visually, and how they are mixed and matched in your head, and how the images often don’t make sense, yet they have hidden meanings behind every vivid image.”

Click for full view.

Gilbert Teo picked up photography eight months ago and is still finding his own unique style.

About the shot, Gilbert says: “This is the Angkor Thom Complex HDR, where rules of photography were attempted to be defined by placing the subject in the centre without any leading lines. The only means of drawing audience is probably the selective colour through post processing.”

Click for full view.

For their 17th issue, FL.ag published a series of works marking this year’s World Aids Day. One of my favorites is Anthony (ANTZ) Chong’s contribution which you see above. I personally feel like he nailed it on this illustration, with some really weird ass imagery and striking color choices. Be sure to click on the image for a close-up view.

About his artwork, ANTZ says: “I was inspired by old school giant Japanese heroes and monsters fighting and destroying anything that’s under their feet. The visual is reflecting the social and health problems that AIDS brought to us. They are larger than life problems which any size human being is not able to cope with …the rest is up to the viewer to figure out.”

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Photographs courtesy NAFA. Click image for close-up.

26-year old Is completed his ITE education in architectural drawing. “I then decided to follow my heart and pursue the arts. NAFA was my first choice because I was very interested in furniture,” he explains.

The Swathe chaise lounge is a wrap, as it is put in its simplest form. “The chaise was first conceptualized as a simple idea of having two opposite material characteristics and merging them to form a certain accord,” Is clarifies. “The idea of recycling and being ‘green’ in this new ever-changing climate has always been a worldwide issue. A life phenomenon as big as our egoistic human notion, but somehow we sure did manage to disregard it. Ultimately, the chaise is the result of exploitation of found materials. It is very much experimental and conceptual. An old coil spring mattress forms the structure of the lounge and when carefully striped, foiled and tied, it forms the basic form of seating and backrest. The end result is a creative use of expired crepe medical bandages to bandage it all up.”

The Swathe chaise lounge was showcased at NAFA’s ‘after2-material X’ exhibition (19-28 September), featuring fifteen furniture prototypes made from found materials.

19-year-old David Wang is a student with a passion for music and art. “Through the years, I have been prolifically producing songs and artworks that reflect the monotony and irony of life,” he says. “Producing these works is like a spiritual routine that liberates me from my mediocre and mundane life.”

Of his work, entitled ‘In the Name of Love’, David says “My work was selected for the Noise 2007 collection, and this is the story behind the title …

In a filthy place there lives a boy
Whose life is about to be destroyed
All his days he has to go to school
And all night long he has to read his books

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Click for full view.

Muhd Firdaus turns 20 this year. He is a final year student at Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts taking a diploma in Visual Communication.”Photography came about during my second year at NAFA, when I first got my hands on a friend’s camera,” Firdaus explains. “I just fell in love with it. I got my first DSLR after some hard earned savings and that’s when I got serious about photography. I like to shoot things that happen around me on daily basis, and I pay a lot of attention to the details. I love taking photos of the skies and clouds, urban landscapes and still lifes.”

About his photograph: “I took this shot from my school building. It was during class, and I just felt like leaving the room and get a drink. It was a boring lesson so I started looking around in search of things to photograph. Good thing I brought my camera with me that day. Something nice came out of boredom I would say.”

Photograph courtesy NAFA. Click image for close-up.

20-year old Rafie is a final student at NAFA, majoring in Furniture design. He first tasted success in 2004 when he was awarded the Aesthetic Award for his N levels, Design & Technology project: The Tooth Brush Holder.

About his Webb Stool, Rafie says, “With the infusion of materials, the concept of military relation was brought forward into this piece of furniture which consists of two main materials -steel wire mesh and nylon webbing. Using the simple method of weaving into a pattern around the structure, the result is a strong an durable seating furniture which s soft and comfortable to sit in.”

Rafie’s design was showcased at NAFA’s ‘after2-material X’ exhibition (19-28 September), featuring fifteen furniture prototypes made from found materials.

Click Image to zoom in.

The brainchild of Yana and JUN, art and design boutique Kittozutto combines fine art illustrations with digital imaging techniques. “This often results in highly-detailed artworks, which look best in large format,” JUN adds.

Hawaii -created with Wacom in Photoshop- is an exploration into hyper realism portrait illustration. JUN explains: “We incorporated vector graphical elements done in freehand. The girl was drawn first, with the sunglasses and earrings added on at a later stage. We’ve also added details such as pores on the face. The piece was inspired by Richard Phillips‘ artwork called ‘Scout’, mixing realism painting with a surrealistic play on the sunglasses.”

Kittozutto prints are available from clickforart.

Click to zoom in.

For their 17th issue, the folks at FL.ag invited writers, graphic designers, illustrators and photographers to create works focused around World Aids Day. I am listing one of my favorites, a photograph by 22-year-old freelance writer, aspiring photojournalist and part-time student, Wong Casandra.

“This was shot in my bathroom. I bought a doll and miniature milk bottle from Ang Mo Kio for five dollars. The red liquid was made from an impromptu mixture of anything that I could find in the kitchen (and bathroom) and it turned out pretty foul-smelling. I had to make sure that the liquid was thick enough to stay put. For the faint word, AIDS, on the floor, I used milk powder and took the picture when it was half-dissolving to create an additional subliminal message - Aids is indeed corrosive.”

On why she chose to shoot it this way, Casandra says: “While there’s a lot of emphasis on practising safe sex so that one will not be at risk of having Aids, there’s less emphasis on what happens if one contracted Aids, gets pregnant and unfortunately, harms the future generation in more than one way or another - be it causing the child to contract HIV/Aids or suffering from unnecessary discrimination because of one’s medical condition. I think it’s unfair to make a mistake that might indirectly affect your child - since he/she doesn’t have any say or choice in it. While your body is yours for harming, do make sure that you suffer the consequences, and not your innocent unborn child. ”

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Photograph courtesy NAFA. Click image for close-up.

28-year old Abdillah Bin Supangat completed his ITE studies and went on to further his education after his national service. Material exploration of newspaper infused with a structure to make a piece of furniture was the motivation behind the Lore Stool design. “It was a simple exercise that challenges to solve the problem of stability and structure,” Abdillah explains.

Abdillah’s design was showcased at NAFA’s ‘after2-material X’ exhibition (19-28 September), featuring fifteen furniture prototypes made from found materials.