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!”
THE PHOTOGRAPH
How About Cherry
River Chen took this photo last June. She was eating cherries one afternoon, and when she looked in the mirror, she found that the cherry and its juice would make nice props for a photoshoot.
“I set up my tripod and camera, took this shot together with some other photographs -which are still sitting on my laptop, untouched. I was actually inspired by what happens when girls give away their virginity. It is a painful but sweet experience. You will bleed, but it is something nice and meaningful. Just like the cherry I am biting in the photograph … the taste is sweet, but there is a bloody tear running down my face.”
THE PHOTOGRAPH
she believed and held on
to everything that was once promised,
everything that would be,
fading away…
Since dropping out of school, 19-year-old Zhang Jingna, aka zemotion, has already accomplished a great deal, and her portrait and fashion photography has gotten her plenty of attention. With no formal training but a diversity of influences in art, music, people and cultures, Jingna’s images are artistic, delicate and emotive and almost always tingled with a little tragic.
“The title of my image is ‘Forgotten Fairytales’, and marks the beginning of a fairytale-inspired photo essay. Not all images are as unreal as fairytales, but just almost … without having or needing the obvious traits of the original tales, with only enough elements to suggest the inspiration. The project seeks to touch on emotions and explorations of existence and dreams, with minute reality intact. I wrote a caption to go with this image. I often write captions for pieces that are more important or personal to me.”
Every Chinese New Year, my family will make our annual pilgrimage to Shah Alam in Malaysia to pay my grandmother a visit. In recent years, she’s been of ill health which makes our visits increasingly important, because every meeting could be our last. For all my life, my grandmother has lived in the same house, a 3-storey bungalow built in the 70’s with interiors to match. I believe “groovy” would be the term used. From the purple velour sofa to the green mosaic tiles on the kitchen floor, much has faded, but little has changed. This year, I made it a point to take photographs of every corner of the house to remember it by. A little morbid perhaps, but it felt necessary. As I snapped away, I wondered what the house was like back in its day, when everything was shiny and new, the yard wasn’t so filled with weeds and when my grandparents first got their keys to it. Oh, how exciting it must have been.
It was because of these same sentiments that I found Ho Hui May’s upcoming exhibition, Domestic Dystopia, appealing. The first prize winner of the 26th UOB Painting of the Year award in the Photography category, Ho photographed the interiors of six dilapidated houses in Singapore located on East Coast Road, Evans Road, in Geylang, in Joo Chiat and in Kebangan. This is her first solo exhibition in Singapore. MORE »
Photographer, Tony Ting, takes candid portraits of strangers that he encounters on his travels. Nondescript and soft spoken, he can be recognised by the camera in his hand and the sheet of paper he carries, the latter for his subjects to scribble down their answers to thoughtful questions he poses such as “What is your biggest fear?” and “What is your lesson in life?”
Pass Them On is the mini-zine featuring a selection of portraits and personal philosophies from Tony’s collection which, as the title suggests, is meant to be passed on to anyone and everyone for no particular reason other than to be shared. MORE »
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Indie-pop-punk legends, Plainsunset will be celebrating their album launch on June 13th, 8pm at Zouk. Entry is only allowed for those 18 and above. Every CD purchased comes with a pair of tickets to the launch party (limited to first 500 on entry). Tickets will be sold at the door at S$15. - #
The Fast & Fresh festival is a youth-oriented version of Short & Sweet, Australia's premier ten minute play competition. It will be launched in Singapore by Word Forward Limited. Featuring plays written, directed, produced and enacted by teenagers (18 and under), Fast & Fresh is a competition that showcases and gives the best young talents the exposure and guidance necessary to stage quality productions, while connecting them to the theatre scene. 23 May, 7-9pm, Play Den @ The Arts House. - #
Renowned jewelry designer Shing, of cult label argentum, creates her second installation My Last Adornment, using jewelry to reflect on themes of vanity and mortality. Viewers are invited to step into the installation and put on their last adornment inside a photo booth and contemplate the transience of life. This act becomes less about vanity and more a reminder of their mortality and how precious lives are. 1-15 Jun, 11am to 8pm daily at The Substation Gallery - #
Be inspired by selected pieces of furniture from the FDA 2008 Students and Young Designers Category finalists and discover how they interpreted the theme 'TENSION'. Also on display are the winning designs of the 4th FL!P Challenge held late last year, where student designers were given two types of wood to work with - American red oak and yellow poplar. 29 May-14 Jun, 10am to 9pm daily at The National Museum of Singapore - The Concourse, Level 1. Admission is free. - #
Rock The Sub! presents a total of 12 fantastic Singapore bands and featuring 8 excellent bands who have appeared on the Rock Your World acoustic stage. This time around, all cables will be plugged in for an evening of full on rock music. Gibson Stage (The Substation Theatre): 6.15pm-7.00pm Armchair Critic 7.30pm-8.15pm Allura 8.45pm-9.30pm Fishtank 10.00pm-10.45pm Tiramisu 11.15pm-12.00am Zero Sequence 12.30am-1.15am Vertical Rush Timbre Stage: 7.00pm-7.45pm You and Whose Army? 8.15pm-9.00pm Heritage 9.30pm-10.15pm Kevin Mathews & The Groovy People 10.45pm-11.30pm Lunarin 12.00am-12.45am Giants Must Fall 1.15am-2.00am West Grand Boulevard. 7 June, 6.00pm-2.00am. Tickets: $15 (inclusive of one drink). - #
The 6th Furniture Design Forum (FDF) will see a panel of distinguished international design gurus as well as local design personalities gathered to share their design experiences and latest trends. Eminent speaker at the forum is renowned Japanese Designer, Naoto Fukasawa who will take you on a journey through the "Core of Awareness". 13 Jun, 2pm-6pm at Gallery Theatre, Basement National Museum of Singapore. Click here for more information and registration. - #
A performance beyond the walls of the museum, bringing body art into the city. Renowned celebrity Japanese artist Ai Yamaguchi, local artists ZERO and Joanne Lim present their latest creations using bodies as canvases. Be spotted with the body art models by the Polaroid crew, get your pictures taken and stand to win 3 attractive N Series Nokia mobile phones. Take home with you limited edition Fiction@Love collectible! 11 May, 12.00pm – 2.00pm (Outside Caltex House) • 3.00pm – 5.00pm (Outside Plaza Singapura/Atrium); 13 May, 1.00pm – 3.00pm (Outside Ngee Ann City) • 4.00pm – 6.00pm (Outside Shaw House). Limited free Polaroid instant pictures. Announcement of winners and selected entries will be displayed at SAM from 20 May. - #
Aging Youth Productions' first installment of Choking The Chicken will feature musical acts that bravely tread the fine line that divides different genres. Expect a clash of electronic, post rock and ambient in an evening that will entice the audience to redefine their genre pigeon holes. D+A+K+A+I, Bani Haykal, Indus Gendi and Breakbeat Theory. 17 May, 8pm at Earshot - #
URA's exhibition, “Singapore 1:1 Island” highlights the city's architectural and urban design uniqueness through a selection of architectural projects completed island-wide, outside of the city centre, over the past four decades. Untill 11 Apr at the URA Centre. - #Browse our archives by month.
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