Click Image to watch the trailer.

Living in an HDB flat has become commonplace and many in Singapore take home ownership for granted. Within their well developed housing estates, many do not notice their lesser counterparts who are unable to afford home ownership. Instead, they rent subsidized one/two room rental flats from the government. Some even struggle to pay the seemingly small monthly rental fee for their small living spaces. They have become the forgotten community.

[For Rent] is produced as a final-year project by four students from the Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information, and started out as a quest to delve deeper into the lives of a seemingly forgotten community in Singapore’s society of today. The inspiration for the project had materialized while the filmmakers took a moment to pause in the hectic pace of everyday life, taking a closer look at the little things that surrounded them.

MORE »

 Images courtesy of IdN. Above: Winnie Goh. Below: Roy.

First conceptualised by Jeremy Hollister of New York, creative studio Plus et Plus and Jeff Staple of Staple Designs and The Reed Space, the original A Nice Set invited an appropriately-portioned 33 and 1/3 artists to customize a pair of blank slip-mats; with the dimensions of the canvas their only constraints. The figure 33 and 1/3 represents the standard Revolutions Per Minute of a record turntable; while the 1/3 artist is represented by 10-year-old Maceo Villareal.

Just as DJs sample the work of many musicians into the new and larger entity of a mix, visual artists tap into their own cultural surroundings, sampling the influences they have accumulated, then integrating them into their work. Both the visual artist and the DJ can be seen as “selectors” who draw inspiration from their respective environments, as well as its trends and fads, with the finished product of a painting or a mix being their interpretation of the art around them.

A Nice Set Singapore is a series of exhibitions featuring 100 customized slip-mats by artists from all over the contemporary and urban art world, including Japan, Australia, UK and USA.  The event will kick off on 15 May at Mimolette with DJ Perplex playing the opening set. The second installment will be held on 22 May at Over Easy, and will feature DJ B.Two. The final exhibition will be at Hacienda on 29 May with DJ Mugen. Each exhibition will feature 33 different artists – 11 from the international exhibition, 11 from the Australian exhibition and 11 from Singapore.

Visit the website and check out the other entries from Singapore.

“This lack of physical space is why the state justifies such a tight control over how land is used. But it is not so much the physical size that limits this city but rather the looming shadow of the state that clouds it. But in the everyday life, one finds pockets of resistance: a street barber, a kampung community and a crew of skateboarders. These are some of the ordinary people in our stories who through their daily actions re-imagine a new geography of Singapore, one of their own, one that gives birth to the question: Whose city is it anyway?”– From the Reclaim Land About Section.

Reclaim Land started out as a final-year project by four journalism students — Justin Zhuang, Wong Shu Yun, Sam Kang Li and Serene Cheong — from the Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information in August 2008.

On their website, you will find stories about ordinary people who have created their own places despite living in the city-state of Singapore. A multiple-exposure series shows how the city is reclaimed through time, and you can go in-depth with academics and experts on ways to look at the city and learn how to make Singapore more livable and lovable.

Worldwide Festival will be back on 7, 8, 9 and 10 May, with an explosive weekend of pure musical bliss featuring the cream of international live acts and DJs. The event will be staged around various venues, clubs and settings to celebrate the return of one massive week end to remember with DJ Kentaro, Gilles Peterson, Jose James, Jack Beats, J.A.M (Soil & “Pimp” Sessions trio), Taylor McFerrin, Mr.V, Oveous Maximus, Christian Prommer, Todd Terje, Dorian Concept, Alex From Tokyo aka Tokyo Black Star, Toshio Matsuura, Al Haca, Harmonic 313 aka Mark Pritchard, The Nextmen, Stereotyp, Lexie lee, Ku Bo, LeftO, Simbad, Garfld, Lil Monsta, Aldrin, NovoBloco + Bloco Singapura, Cosa Nostra, Miss Sangeetha, Vinnie, Dubwise and many more …  Click here for full program and ticketing info.

The good folks at WF are giving away one pair of festival tickets. Interested? Email me before April 30. [Update: We have a winner].

* Contest is open to Singapore residents only!

Zhang Zhiwei , Adrian aka GNAHZ, is currently a multimedia designer doing illustrations for children course wares. “My portfolio didn’t contain any illustrations when I graduated from NYP. I only started illustrating in 2007 when I participated in the Noise competition. My friend Koldelka inspired me to draw. After she showed me her drawings I realised drawing is a lot of fun. I am not born with talent to draw but hard work and effort go a long way. My personal philosophy is: ” Anyone can draw!” I aspire to do drawings and artwork that make people smile.”

Budi is a trained architect practicing graphic, multimedia design, and art. Through his design office PlasticSoldierFactory, Budi works with global corporations from US, UK, the Middle East and Asia on design projects ranging from interactive, print, signage systems and interiors. On a personal basis, he creates works for design/art exhibitions to record ideas about aesthetics, technology, culture and philosophy.

About his webdesign, Budi says: “There is a strong reason for this website to graphically transpose music. For a music celebrity’s website, I was invited to be fully author. It is a work that resists the ubiquitous pixels of the web and its expected use for accessing information. I wanted to work out an ambiguous web experience with hesitancy and reservations about its presupposed utility. Sections are devoid of headers, merely listing content as menus. Clearly positioned but unlabeled buttons hide photos, songs and news bits. Album covers are deconstructed into patterns. Repetition is silent and rhythmic, coincidences unexplained. This is an idea to fade off digital effects and pentium speed slickness in return for more specificity and irreproducibility of thought. The client’s discography stretches 3 decades, from 1974 to 2004 – an Asian pop music journal of modern history. Just as how the client accompanies each album with a production note, I react visually to the albums to pen my thoughts along this heterogeneous continuum.”

21- year-old  Tianying Lee recently graduated from Singapore Polytechnic with a  Diploma in Interior Design.”I like things that are in their most natural and simple form and yet still come naturally beautiful,” she says. “Just like my life, I believe, it can be simple yet so meaningful.”

About her design, Tianying says: “It is amazing to explore things that look simple and yet have a lot of functionality.  The chair  is made up of a single piece of plywood that stretches throughout the entire piece. It is based on the idea of a rubber band that can be stretched and twisted. The one piece of plywood can be used as a table  or as a seating area.”

This series of drawings reflects on the relationship between human, tree, plant, insect, water and the desire to remain human even in the urban landscape. Zai Kuning works in the disciplines of dance, theatre, film and sculpture. The stylisation and characterisation of his work remains indigenous and pertinent to his native surrounds. 17 Apr-31 May, Esplanade Jendela Visual Space.