IN CONVERSATION: GEOGRAPHIES OF THE MIND

When we fall into an overly structured, predictable and unchangeable system, we create artificial playgrounds to keep ourselves entertained. Much like installing a luxurious home-entertainment theatre with a huge velvet upholstered sofa inside a 1-room HDB flat. How do we make sense of things when there is constant displacement of logic and information? How much absurdity needs to be introduced to upset the social norm? a LIFE performance deconstructs snippets of life encounters in an artificially constructed world. Choreographer and performer Joavien Ng mischievously attempts to disrupt and alter the constructions of meanings, creating bodies that move between recognisable familiarity and disconnected awkwardness. Gradually, the performance morphs into an incoherent soup of landscapes and meanings, teasing audiences into disorientation. 10 – 12 May, 8pm Esplanade Theatre Studio. Click here for tickets.

Nine handpicked strangers. Nine individual and completely different ideas. Four and a half days to crank the concepts out. This is Shooting Home 2012. Held by Objectifs—a visual arts centre in Singapore that focuses on photography and film—Shooting Home is an annual photography mentorship programme that targets at the most talented emerging photographers on the island. Using 'shooting home' as the central theme, the nine handpicked participants are encouraged to draw and explore ideas from their existing environment. Within the structured four and a half intensive workshop days, participants get to translate that one idea into personal creations which culminates in an exhibition at the end of the programme. A reunion show will be expected a year later.This year's mentors for Shooting Home include some of Singapore's top photographers, artists and curators—Bryan van der Beek, Chris Yap, Darren Soh, Emmeline Yong, Ernest Goh, Genevieve Chua and Shirlene Noordin. Guest speakers include Wesley Loh and Tay Kay Chin. 10 May-2 June at Objectifs Gallery.

When we fall into an overly structured, predictable and unchangeable system, we create artificial playgrounds to keep ourselves entertained. Much like installing a luxurious home-entertainment theatre with a huge velvet-upholstered sofa inside a 1-room HDB flat. How do we make sense of things when there is constant displacement of logic and information? How much absurdity needs to be introduced to upset the social norm? a LIFE performance deconstructs snippets of life encounters in an artificially constructed world. Choreographer and performer Joavien Ng mischievously attempts to disrupt and alter the constructions of meanings, creating bodies that move between recognisable familiarity and disconnected awkwardness. Gradually, the performance morphs into an incoherent soup of landscapes and meanings, teasing audiences into disorientation. 10 – 12 May, 8pm at Esplanade Theatre Studio. Click here for details.

Come Away With Me starts as a persuasion to experience the range of works made by the graduating MA Fine Arts candidates of 2012. Working within the studios at LASALLE College of the Arts, this final exhibition showcases the different concerns in contemporary art practice that each candidate brings to the programme. Spanning the duration of 48 weeks, the programme seeks to encourage a broad range of disciplines and research interests that are explored, articulated and challenged in both areas of studio work and dissertation writing. Walk with them, take a chance. Exhibiting Artists : Ayano Hattori , Baktiar Zainol , Carolyn Law , Donna Ong , Madhura Nayak , Moe Htet Htet , Nah Yong En , Ng Yong Heng. 3-15 May a the ICA Gallery 1,  LASALLE College of the Arts.

On 28 April, Singaporeans will have an opportunity to refresh their bookshelves at the Book Exchange 2012 by exchanging what they have read with others. Organised by the National Library Board (NLB) and held in conjunction with World Book and Copyright Day, this initiative promotes a self-sustaining reading and learning culture in Singapore. This year, more than 7,000 people are expected to participate in the Book Exchange. So far, over 47,000 books have been dropped off during the book collection period. More books will be expected this week.Local celebrity, children’s author and NLB’s reading ambassador, Mr Edmund Chen, will be at the event to encourage participants to read more books and give away signed copies of his book “Dino Rulez” to the first 50 participants.  28 April, 8.30am at the National Library Building, The Plaza, Level 1.

What makes us call a place our home? Houses are distinct geographical places; a roof above our heads. The allegorical definition of a roof is a shelter, something that protects us and keeps us safe in. It is when we search for a place of comfort and familiarity or attempt to form new meanings and memories of a place that would eventually lead us home. This search for a home is often transitory and transient.  Shifting Homes looks at different artists’ perspectives of home. Abstract paintings that appear as boundless landscapes describe these no-where spaces as we try to search for a place to belong. Photographs of concealed spaces that one could make out as skeletons of buildings hold possibilities and dormant memories of a potential home. From whimsical sketches of a travelling mind, dealing with real and imagined spaces that are no less tangible, to an almost voyeuristic documentation of the physical memories of strangers’ homes, this exhibition dwells on the ideas and definitions of home, and perhaps, this delineates our journey towards home. Featuring: Huang Mingrong, Jason Lee, Kathlyn Loke Yi, Natalia Ludmila, Cherie Tan and Yaohui. Curated by Lee Shuxian. 27 April - 25 May at 5footway, 8 Aliwal Street. 

Lucid Dreams in the Reverie of the Real is an exhibition of works by Lee Wen, a multidisciplinary artist and one of Singapore’s most internationally recognised contemporary artists. His earliest known work in a book entitled A Waking Dream (1981) with texts and drawings preceded the manga generation of today and showed evidence of his inclination in using dreams, metaphor and myth-making to manifest a narrative of our perception of life and reality. Best known for his Yellow Man series of work, Lee is also one of the Singapore artists who pioneered in the field of performance art. Through various constructed personas, his work allow visitors an insight into the artist and provocateur, whose very being is motivated by a strong conviction of justice and idealism, with a persistence to stay true to the self in a highly structured world. In this exhibition, Lee will be presenting key works spanning two-and-a-half decades alongside more recent ones. The vast selection includes installations, photographs, videos and documentations. Lee will also perform ‘live’ during selected exhibition periods and talk about his experiences and personal development as an artist, covering subjects such as memories and myth-making. 20 April to 10 June at Singapore Art Museum.