SINGAPORE BIENNALE: Last Chapter

Central Promontory Site. Darn hard to reach on foot. I was so convinced i was lost when I was but a stone’s throw away from what you will call a promontory site. Okay, travel guide says the best way to get there is via Raffles Mrt Station. Exit through the NTUC Building (which is opposite One Raffles Quay). Central Promontory Site is right behind NTUC Building.

It is not hard getting there, but it is recognising that the NOL container blocks are really part of the Biennale 2008. If not for the massive construction site for The Sail across the road, one might really think that the container blocks are pretty innovative and cool.

Kabakov, llya & Kabakov, Emilia – Manas

An Utopian City is constructed on a mini-scale. Heaven & Earth are mirror images of each other, the 8 mountains enclosing a crater-like hole.

Heaven

Earth

Camera Obscura. lol

Op De Beeck, Hans - Location

The entrance corridor into the circular observatory

Ideal home:P

McCall Anthony – Between You and I

Two light projections emanating from the ceiling that will carve out the space beneath a series of evolving light walls.

Aquilizan, Alfredo Juan and Gaudinez-Aquilizan, Maria Isabel – Flight

“Installation of slippers & wind harps on bamboo poles seemingly “returning to sea’”

For full album viewing,

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SINGAPORE BIENNALE:a second trip to City Hall

E Chen – Tropicana

Ben-David, Zadok – Blackfield

“The plants, which are etched out of metal, come from botanical drawings and are painted black on one side, while on the other, a myriad of colours is visible…(visitors) will see either a sea of coloured or black plants. The side with colour is extremely cheerful, while the black is stark, very much like a scorched landscape against an almost pure white background of white sand.”

Liew Kung Yu – Cermelang, Gemilang, Terbilang

Entered the room to a chirpy and cheery tune, setting the atmosphere unlike the rest of the exhibits in City Hall. Turned out that the tune is the Malaysia National Anthem. This is a Photoshop montage of various Malaysian Icons.

At the back of the montage are actually a perforated image of a Wayang Kulit, through which light pass through and the image is projected onto the wall.

The perforated wayang kulit (on the left) with the projected light image (on the right)

Leeroy New – Teratoma ll: War of the Worlds

It looked like some outgrowth to me.

Tremarama – Serigala Militia

450 plywood boards were used to create a woodcut animation video for Seringai, a thrash metal band hailing from Jakarta. Each plywood, etched tirelessly. This is one of my favourites, even though I don’t quite appreciate heavy metal. Or any subgenre.

Tse Su-Mei – The Yellow Mountain
I can still remember the accompanying song to this single channel video. Japanese female voice. Mournful & stirring.

Prasad, Srinivasa – I Wonder Why?

“It brings to mind a burning space, a burning society, a burning family, the end of the world, tragedy, passion and extinction.”

Pimkanchanapong, Wit – Singapore

Recreation of a Google-Earth image of Singapore, installed on the Chamber Room of City Hall. Visitors may placed tags of information about specific places. The funny thing was, I tried locating Fod and someone beat me to it! (do check facebook album for the photo)

SINGAPORE BIENNALE

September 11 has a different meaning for me this year. Armed with my new toy, I visited South Bridge Development and City Hall at the Biennale’s launch, treated to a visual feast both entertaining and exciting.

Tamburella, Paolo W - Soap Bars

When I entered the courtyard, a pleasant and yet familiar waft greeted me as I strolled towards the white mass of a puddle. Turned out, it’s a landscape moulded out of 8000 soap bars, serving as a backdrop for a solitary figure washing himself.

Herman Chong & Vitamin Creative Spaces – One Hundred Years of Solitude

Tang Ling Nah & Willie Koh – Everytime We Say Goodbye

Aquilizan, Alfredo Juan & Gaudinez-Aquilizan, Maria Isabel – Address ( Project: Another Country)

WALL.E!

Felice Varini – Drill Hall

Truong Tan – The Dancer

“Despite the imposing mass of the piece, Tan’s interweaving lines of multicoloured cord stretch the eponymous dancer’s body across all direction…The work, to an absurd degree, reflects the effect of physical destruction and deterioration of the body; and with it the human psyche.”

SINGAPORE BIENNALE cont’d

Dahlgaard Soren – The Breathing Room

“The Breathing Room, subtly, but precisely articulates a space..the walls of the room expand, the room gets smaller, and then they contract, like an exhalation, an apparent release of air. Similar to a living being the  expansion and contraction take on a rhythm. It begins to match our own breath’s cadence… We either leave, clautrophobic, or we stand on our ground intent on having this new experience.”

I left the room.

But I must say, i was extremely baffled when I entered the room, wondering if the walls were really moving. Because I could hear something inhaling and exhaling and it was pretty scary initially.

Erlich Leandro – Hair Salon

Of the two opposing rows of mirrors, one of the rows was an imposter!

“The installation is devised so that when you look into mirror on the wall, it appears as if the room is reflected in the mirror, but in fact, there is an identical room that has been created symmetrically behind the mirror. The mirror is used as a trick, a device to surprise people and to pose an interesting question about reality and illusion.”

Having some time to spare before I met up with xiaoyan, I hurried to City Hall. There were more exhibits here, but more of paintings and less of installations.

Already on the first day this artpiece (above) was labelled with a red sticker. I liked it too.

Pham, Ngoc Duong – Maggots

One of the highlights.

“Trapped inside with the maggots, we find ourselves occupying a site of both gross fascination and unyielding discomfort. It is precisely the artwork’s ability to discomfit, that it succeeds.”

This is not part of The Biennale, but stilll!! This is meant to hold umbrellas! You insert your umbrella handle into the space, and press the side button. The key, which is the shape of an enlarged SD card, pops out and there you have it.

Alot of them were missing keys, so now you know why this invention didn’t last long.

(More photos uploaded here:)

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