When Rayson Tan and Joanne Lee graduated from LASALLE they went their separate ways. Rayson earns a living as a full time designer for a magazine and is working on his own fashion label in his spare time. Joanne decided to pursue her career as an illustrator. They recently decided to hook up and work on a new accessory line dubbed RibbonRabbit.

PHILOSOPHY

“RibbonRabbit inspires from the adorable critters skittering about in Mother Nature’s embrace. We pick on the structure of the animal kingdom and turn the fauna into playacting characters. Our accessories are a translation of this concept, and we mean it literally when we say RibbonRabbit creates conversation pieces. Our ‘faunal’ characters do talk, after all.”

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THE DESIGN

PY Chong’s Flaw or Flow chair, with its aluminum leg, carries an important message: “We should learn to accept the beauty of disability and deformity and appreciate how it can build a better personality and quality.” PY’s design received an honorable mention in the Student category at this year’s Furniture Design Awards (FDA).

“Flaw or Flow is not only a chair, it is also a piece of sculpture that speaks for a special group of people. There is a tension in human lives which results in the birth of a new life which is less fortunate, disabled or even deformed. I twisted and distorted the silhouette of a normal chair which results in producing a form which is visually unproportioned and unbalanced. By doing so, I created tension to the form but also an emotion. The chair now looks deformed and tired. I believe, I also gave the chair life and feeling. The introduction of the aluminum leg, which is designed to be more stable and conventional, causes contradiction in our perception. Visually, the aluminum leg is an artificial part, but emotionally it gives viewers a sense of confidence to sit on this deformed chair. We should not judge an object or a person by its superficial appearance. If we initiate to explore deeper, things may not turn out what we perceive them to be. The elegant lady’s chair is to test the perception of the viewers. A piece of sculpture should be speaking for itself. Perception has no certainty, you can choose to look at it’s flaw or it’s flow, or even it’s flaw and flow. My quote: ‘If flaw is an imperfection, let flow be the acceptance of the situation.’”

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There You Go! is an independent effort by nine designers and fine artists, showcasing works that probe the relationship between good and evil; beauty and ugliness; love and hate; friendship and animosity. The artists will tour the facade of a shophouse at 21 Haji Lane and will offer an insightful exhibition that will strip bare life’s saintly disguise with a touch of dark humor.

“A distress signal from a mind-numbing year of robotic routines to make ends meet had declared May 1st as an official day of nationwide slacking. A group of optimistic, and sometimes eccentric, creative individuals were perfectly clean on what they did not like: too much work and too little fun. So they each worked under their own pseudonym and one shared face, and very seriously made fun art for the love of life.”

Participating artists: Kilas, Mohamad Fadzel, Ngojerk, OneTwoDelta, PrettyFreakyFantasy, Princess Gai, Sadistk, Kyun and Zig.

1st May at 21 Haji Lane from 10 am onwards. Admission is free.

THE DESIGN

Clean, cool and contemporary, this eye-catching, “knot” shaped light provides instant visual appeal and is a nice change from the standard stale, lifeless and boring table lamps. On show at the Singapore Expo last month at the Furniture Design Awards (FDA) exhibit, the lamp, designed by Kenne Cheong, received an Honorable Mention in the Young Designer Category.

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THE DESIGN

Vice and Vanity, is known for taking jewelry to new places, by creating idiosyncratic, industrial-chic pieces. Former Club21 employee, Vivi Masturah Lim and Fine Arts graduate, Aaron Kao are the designers behind the label.

Says Aaron, “We always try to originate new ideas, never restricting ourselves to a certain style or look. Our style is a work in progress and may or may not surface so quickly over a few collections. It takes time to develop a style. For every collection we always ensure that the quality is there and we want people to pay for something that has a lot of thought and effort put into the creation.”

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THE DESIGN

‘Urban Pulse’, designed by Eric Lim and featured at this year’s International Furniture Fair, mirrors the landscape outline of today’s developed urban society. The distinctive shape of the chair was inspired by ECG readings .

“Urban Pulse is inspired by urbanized landscape structures and the readings reflected on electrocardiogram, or more commonly known as ECG. The peaks and troughs of the ECG model the beating of the heart, where irregularities in the heartbeat are represented by more peaks and troughs of higher intensity and closer proximity. Coincidentally, the peak and trough design of the chair also mirror the landscape outline of today’s developed urban society. Urban Pulse attempts to conjure up the feeling of tension and anxiety - through a series of irregular peaks and troughs throughout the design of the chair. Urban Pulse is made from fiberglass colored in red to further emphasize the feeling of tension. The bold design also aspires to remind metropolitans living in the era of urbanization to slow down their pace and relax, allowing the heart to take a rest.”

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THE PHOTOGRAPH

Oats & Sparkle showcases young artists, Jovian and Djulian’s ability to turn heads with their photographic skills.

“We approach our photography by maximizing God’s given light and man made power packs. The environment always influences our images, and if our photos compel our viewers to scratch their heads and look a little longer, we have met our objectives!”

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THE DESIGN

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We totally love disposable-to-design here at Culturepush. Magmag, a recycled magazines ashtray, is two designers’ interpretation of printed matter in our daily usage.

“magmag reminds you of the hidden gifts yet to be identified within the pages of old magazines. To question what is of essential in the mundane printed matter: think how to deal with a magazine, not where to dispose of it. A series of print advertisements were produced to share and encourage different ways in which we can treat an old magazine. ‘melting+paper’ thus, translated into questions of how print medias are being interpreted in our daily usage.”

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THE ART

Joanne Lee did this fiery Manga-style illustration with a Micron .05 pen, adding in the red color with the aid of Photoshop.

“Easter Bunnies are usually portrayed as cute, pink things but not these two. Every single year, Jan and Jam poach eggs from gardens, scare children and dress only in red and black. Very naughty indeed. Being the detail monster that I am, I’ve had fun doing all the elaborate bits for the bunnies. This was inspired by the outlandish dressing in Harajuku and its many otaku (fans). Now, who wants punk rock bunnies next Easter? ”

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THE DESIGN

One of the pieces that fascinated me at last month’s Furniture Design Awards was the Incomplet Table-Chair, designed by Interior Design student Melvin Ong. This year’s competition invited the participants in the Young Designers and Students category to work around the theme of “Tension”.

“I was trying to see the theme of of the competition in two ways. When the chair and table are apart, they are unable to support themselves which results in a tension of existence. As furniture that support people and items, they are not self supporting. The other interpretation of tension can be seen when the chair and table are pieced together. The physical tension between the back legs of the chair and slots in the table top hold them together, allowing both to exist purposefully.”

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SMU students with the support of MTV Asia, will be organizing Singapore’s first Pecha Kucha Night for creative talents on Friday, 11th April.

Pecha Kucha, which is Japanese for chatter, was first started by Tokyo-based architects Astrid Klein and Mark Dytham in 2003, and is an informal way for young designers to meet and share new ideas in the official Pecha Kucha presentation format of 20 slides displayed for 20 seconds per slide. The organic concept of stimulating creativity in a relaxed, no holds barred platform has since spread to major cities around the world.

An exciting line-up of creative talents will present and share their ideas at the inaugural Pecha Kucha night and include: Mark Wee, Annex A Architect and designer for Majestic Hotel, Andrew Lo, Creative Director for On-air Promotions for MTV Asia, Steve Lawler, Creative Director for Kult, Holman Chin, General Manager for Viscion Media, Keshav Sishta, Photograher, Mun Hon, Engineer by day, soap maker by night and Justin & Jerry, designers at HJGHER.

A must-attend for anyone wanting to be part of the local creative scene!

Friday, 11 April from 8:20pm to 10:20pm at Frujch, School of Information Systems, SMU.

THE ART

‘Kate Moss Typortrait’ is an interesting collage piece that makes use of xeroxed fashion labels.

“Each and everyone of us has their own identity in which things around them are related as a whole. Fashion labels were used as part of my design to subtly relate what Kate Moss does for her career while looking at the image/design as a whole. Bright, fluorescent pink was chosen to bring out how I see her as person, strong and bold. The placement of each xeroxed label represents how she’s been wrongly accused and turned into a scapegoat, therefore making who Kate is presently, a state of mess.”

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THE DESIGN

Designed by How Sim, and part of his Original Edition series, the Mimo & Simi bar stools will not fail to stimulate your imagination. ABS plastic and EVA foam interplay with each other to make a stark statement of design. The bar stools received the Most Honorable Mention Award in the open category at this year’s Furniture Design Award competition.

“Mimo & Simi is a set of bar stools shaped like the heads of a couple. The design originates from toy figurines. There are a few designs in the Mimo & Simi series. The original edition is the basic design while mythology, celebrity, Super hero, etc will be limited editions.”

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Founded in January 2007 by a team of arts and graphic enthusiasts in Malaysia, Artzmania is an independent venture showcasing international creativity and culture. It is the latest platform for designers to inspire, express and share with fellow art enthusiasts, profiling diversified design.

Artzmania recently teamed up with Singapore’s StartDrawing.org for a pretty stunning e-zine titled Asian on Arts, putting the spotlight on some of the finest artists and designers from around the region. There are a whopping 43 creatives featured, and a handful are from Singapore. You can download the 452 pages of artwork here. Enjoy!

If you like art and cats, you will definitely love the work of Catmasutra’s painting duo Paul Koh and Michelle Chang, whose cat poses and positions are sure to please.

PHILOSOPHY

“Inspired and bemused by my two cats, Halo and Angel, I create an “in-between” world, filled with magic that suddenly grabs you, makes you laugh and remembers things that don’t necessarily fit neatly anywhere. In each of my paintings, the cat is my gateway to a new space that affords a momentary freedom to dream and make time stand still.”

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