What the Singapore Arts Festival 2012 promises to do from 18 May to 2 June. Are you ready?

The Singapore Arts Festival opens tomorrow! Yesterday we got a preview of the Festival Village situated at Esplanade Park which will be home to 300 free performances from 18 May to 2 June. Despite not being officially opened, the village was already a bustling hive of activity. There were horses trotting about, performers (both kids and adults) going through rehearsals, crew testing lighting, sound and projection and F&B staff setting up the food booths, Festival cafe and bar. The area is coming alive and it’s going to get even busier once things kick off on Friday. Here’s a sneak peek of what’s in-store for you in the coming weeks. Photos after the jump. 

One of the gorgeous horses of Flux stretching its legs at the main stage before the performance.

The 12 contenders making a bid to topple the Merlion as Singapore’s reigning icon as part of XII – In Search of 13. Yep, we wonder how Geylang is going to be portrayed too.

This silver-clad dude is the Merlion and he needs your vote to decide on who he takes on in the ring. Our bets are on Kumar crushing him with his stiletto.

From the Festival Cafe to the Black Box Theatre, all the structures in the Festival Village were built using shipping containers.

The Kids Arts Village, where the little ones take over.

An adorable sing and dance by The Young Ones! Bring your kid sisters, brothers, nieces and nephews.

The journos get a taste of Tangle. Can’t wait to see the delightfully messy conclusion at the end of the festival.

Turning to the bay, we’re surprised by a moving projection of a “centaur”. It’s the start of Flux.

The two performers move as one with their beautiful horses during the performance, it’s really quite mesmerizing and we just might watch this every night.

The Festival Bar in times we need to escape the heat (and fuel the liver).

The awesome Bridge Cafe Project gentlemen who served us Cold Stone Creamery ice creams and Tully’s coffee while dancing exuberantly to Queen’s We Are the Champions and Day-O (The Banana Boat Song) in the Festival Cafe! Don’t miss them.

As we left we caught a glimpse of the ladies of Dream Country – A Lost Monologue rehearsing in their field of jars. Intrigued? We are.

For more information vist the Singapore Arts Festival 2012 website or purchase tickets at Sistic.

Audrie Leong was raised by the Internet. After graduating from Nanyang Polytechnic’s School of Digital Media Design in 2008, she spent two years in Melbourne, alternately basking in the freedom of an Arts education and being crushed under the weight of essay research and deadlines.

“In other words, I haven’t had much formal training as an artist. I have an unnatural fondness for parentheses, comedy that’s slightly off-centre, and, like most other people who want to give the appearance of quirkiness and independence, cats. My hobbies include doodling on paper with naught but a pigment ink pen, devouring books, and indulging in other forms of living vicariously through fictional characters.”

Cleo Teh is a Year 2 Visual Communication student at Temasek Polytechnic. She is inspired by nature, geometry, hedonism and generally anything genuine and ethereal.

“Being in a technocratic society where people assume to have the answers to everything, moments of intrigue are few and far between—and because of that I am deeply inclined to produce work that pays tribute to those rare occurrences.”

Photography started off as a curious experiment for designer Zinkie Aw, but it has since evolved into a mainstay that helps define who she is.

Camera in hand, the 26-year-old packs more courage than she normally would in her approach to life. The camera is her best excuse to dwell deeper and relate to the world a little more.

“I like to document social trends (and changes). Underlying themes of her works include modernisation and abandonment, changing ways of lives of people in Singapore, and issues of mobile technology. My photo series work to critique upon a society’s change in this modernised world. Thus not only is photography a way for me to spend time with myself, but through my observations of life via photography, I hope to help people log a visual diary of their lives and culture.”

Cat-lovers like Zinkie often say: Curiosity killed the cat.  Zinkie believes, passion brought it back.

Wong Jing Wei, Queenstown Cinema & Bowling Centre.
From the series, Temporary States (2012).

Geraldine Kang, in collaboration with Benjamin Cheah.
Film still from Chemical Head (2012).

Tan Peiling, Soundtracks for an unknown landscape (2012).
Videostills from Multimedia Installation.

A Crisis of Confidence features new work produced by three recipients of the Kwek Leng Joo Prize of Excellence in Still Photography. Graduates of NTU ADM, they have each been engaged in efforts to expand their individual practices beyond conventions of the printed image. Between these artists is a shared uncertainty towards their understanding of prevailing cultural constructs that are often left unnoticed or unquestioned. The following describes their attempts at probing deeper and deconstructing three areas of interest:

In “Temporary States”, Jing Wei expresses a condition of detachment and loss in the fast changing local landscape and reflects on our sense of belonging to these increasingly temporary landscapes. Inspired by her anxiety condition, Geraldine’s “Black As Waves, Half As Light” is a collaborative project with individuals suffering from mental illness. She hopes that the project will lead people to consider varying perceptions of mental illness and what they may entail. Peiling’s interest centers on visual media and the way it informs our perceptions of ideas and environments. “Soundtracks for an unknown landscape” draws from accumulated archives of film footage to examine how visual and aural contents construct an understanding of reality.

The show opens today at 2902 Gallery, and runs through 26 May. The Artists will be present on week-ends.

What began as an idea has sparked into a collaboration between DELL and featuring recent graduates aspiring to break into the fashion industry. After many rounds of endless conversations, heartache and coffee-runs, Project Expose was created that is basically fashion that’s amplified by attitude.

Running through from the months of May through to July,teams of more than 6 stylists will come together producing 7 sets of photographs that flaunts their attitude. Photos will be uploaded here daily for the public to “Like”, comment and share.

The Team

Freda, Ryden and Willy are an eclectic trio freshly graduated from Temasek Polytechnic’s Diploma in Moving Images. These young and energetic individuals are always on the look out for new experiences and fresh perspectives. Their lust for adventure has led them to take on the challenge of capturing the essence of Project X through photographs and videos.

Being the eyes and ears of Project X, they will be the ones who will take you into the heart of this project. The mission is simple: To expose the talents of recent graduates who want to break into the local fashion scene.

Zhou Huiling is a final year student from the School of Art, Design and Media at Nanyang Technological University majoring in BFA (Hon) Visual Communication. Also holding a diploma in Multimedia Technology from Singapore Polytechnic, she has a range of interests including graphic design, publication design, illustration and film history.

A designer by day, a windglider by night, she longs to be a rider gliding through the winds of change, capable of forging her own path, not determined just by the wind.

“The Art of Living is my graduation project exploring choices we have in life, reflections on how to live, and day-to-day musings about my life. Housed in a visual system, the project takes on a journey to overcome distances while searching for balance in polarities. The project takes trails and traces from life in measurements translated into form, whilst balance takes on pairs of contrasts that invoke the need for navigation. The rabbit represents a self searching for balance in the different worlds he is in.”

Graphic Designer and Illustrator Evon Tay took on a problem close to her heart with her graduation project, the DIY Lifestyle Challenge. The project looks into a series of alternative and sustainable lifestyle choices, and offers a set  of DIY family fun activities. Think Green Commute, Making, Mindful consumption and – you guessed right – a Food Challenge.

“The reason I wanted to do this was because of my observation on how Singaporeans live in such a capitalistic/consumption-driven city, where everyone works overtime to earn money, which they will eventually splurge away by buying stuff  -that they may not necessarily need- in the name of “retail therapy”. It is so wasteful and pointless, and kind of depressing. So I’m trying to suggest an alternative way of living to encourage mindfulness and responsibility in our everyday habits. Hopefully what I’m doing is sowing some seeds of inspiration, creating a starting point for a healthy local DIY community to grow organically by itself over time.”

Evon’s project is lovingly documented on her great-looking site, and we thought we better point you to the bit where she is inviting you to take part in the challenge. Let’s do this!