Bamboo Spirit and the Bamboo in you.

Excited to see what experiments emerge from these fantastic people in the ad-hoc Textile Paper Lab. (Adel, Veron, CY, Agatha) 

I have been busy getting the Bamboo Broadcast Studio for Alternative Ecology. As such, I couldn't hang out to see their pre-sessions. 

I missed the opportunity to meet with Eko this time. Ruobing invited us (Post-Museum) to activate the space that Eko built as part of Alternative Ecology. She shared that Eko wanted people to 'use' it. In that sense, he didn't see the structures he built as beautiful spaces but places for community, action and hope.   

While I may not know him, listening to the stories about him during the memorial (11th Jan), I felt I recognised him. I saw a human being who has lots to give to the world and a kindred spirit. I will be cheeky on this occasion and call this the "bamboo spirit". I recognised Eko because I have met others who had this "bamboo spirit" too. People with "bamboo" in them have always inspired me. They recharge my "hope-a-meter" because they had the "bamboo" in them to fight a good fight. 

I wonder who, with that "bamboo spirit", inspired and influenced Eko on his path. Do share your "bamboo spirit" story.

 

Tenth-anniversary celebration: NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore

Collating materials from the Queer-Tai "Incident". Sure that it has been mentioned, Queer-Tai is not the only event during the 10th Anniversary celebration. There were others of course as seen here. 

TODAY highlights only this event to talk about because of the LGBTQ and Queer theme. That in itself is quite suspicious, why not talk of it as a whole and not in parts. 

TODAY editorial / journalist gravitates towards this theme but yet unable to see the queerness / LGBTQ-ness of the other 'performances' and events. Or have they actually attended the other events? 

Even by most definitions of queerness, Getai in it's essence of non-conventional and non-conforming is queer as it challenges and question normative and binary systems. Getai in itself replaces the 'traditional programming' of festivals. Queerness should never be imagined without this potency because the space for the misfits, out of place/sync is a powerful force to reimagine the world. It is never just sex or sexuality. 

Tenth-anniversary celebration: NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore 

September 16–30, 2023

NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore Gillman Barracks Block 6 Lock Rd Singapore 109443 Hours: Monday–Friday 9am–6pm NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore celebrates a decade of innovation and creativity at a thought-leading institution committed to nurturing and fostering cross-cultural dialogues. Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) is delighted to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore (NTU CCA Singapore), a national research centre with a threefold mandate: exhibitions, residencies, research and academic education. The Centre would like to thank all its contributors and supporters, from artists to staff, advisory boards to audiences, who have shaped it into an institution that stands for creativity and critical thinking in the contemporary art landscape of Singapore and beyond. To commemorate these ten years of nurturing artistic innovation, interdisciplinary experimentation, and meaningful connections, NTU CCA Singapore is proud to showcase a series of newly commissioned collaborative performances by Artist-in-Residence alumni and previous contributors working in the realms of sound, performance, and new technologies, curated by Dr. Anna Lovecchio (Italy/Singapore), Assistant Director (Programmes) and Magdalena Magiera (Germany/Singapore), Curator (Residencies and Public Programmes). On Friday, September 29, the celebrations will be inaugurated by Guest-of-Honour Low Eng Teong, Chief Executive Officer of the National Arts Council Singapore, and welcome remarks by the Centre’s Founding Director Ute Meta Bauer (Germany/Singapore), Professor, NTU School of Art, Design, and Media (NTU ADM). Saturday, September 16, 2023, 3:30pm Time is still and we are in revolution, Yan Jun (China) and Yuen Chee Wai (Singapore) NTU CCA Singapore Seminar Room Friday, September 29, 2023, 6–10pm Ace of Cups, Zachary Chan and Zarina Muhammad (both Singapore) QUEER-TAI, Intervention (Singapore) NTU CCA Singapore Residencies Studios Saturday, September 30, 2023, 3:30–5:30pm dakodako, Tini Aliman and Fyerool Darma (both Singapore) NTU CCA Singapore Screening Room Between a Rock and a Cloud, ila and anGie Seah (both Singapore) NTU CCA Singapore Seminar Room The selected artists and collectives consistently push boundaries, challenge norms, and create thought-provoking experiences in their respective practices, in synergy with NTU CCA Singapore’s decade-long commitment to supporting experimental forms of artistic expression. Established in 2013 by NTU Singapore, over the past decade NTU CCA Singapore has shaped itself as a hub for curatorial experimentation and artistic research. The centre’s inaugural exhibition Paradise Lost (2014) featured Zarina Bhimji (India/UK), Trinh T. Minh-ha (Vietnam/US) and Fiona Tan (Indonesia/Netherlands). Its various programmes were guided and unified by the overarching research clusters PLACE.LABOUR.CAPITAL. (2013–2016) and CLIMATES.HABITATS.ENVIRONMENTS. (2017–ongoing). Under this unique institutional framework, NTU CCA Singapore has presented over 50 exhibitions and research presentations in its public exhibition spaces (2014–2021) designed by artist Fareed Armaly (US/Germany). These range from Theatrical Fields (2014), Incomplete Urbanism (2016/2017) inspired by architect William S.W. Lim (Singapore), Ghosts and Spectres—Shadows of History (2017), The Oceanic (2017/2018), Trees of Life—Knowledge in Material (2018), Arus Balik: From below the wind to above the wind and back again (2019), The Posthuman City (2019/2020), and Non-Aligned (2020), to first institutional solo exhibitions in the region of ground-breaking artists such as Yang Fudong (China) in 2014/2015, Allan Sekula (US), Simryn Gill (Australia/Malaysia), and Tomás Saraceno (Argentina/Germany) in 2015, Joan Jonas (US), Charles Lim (Singapore), and Amar Kanwar (India) in 2016, Ulrike Ottinger (Germany) in 2017, Tarek Atoui (Lebanon/France) in 2018, Jef Geys (US) in 2018/2019, Siah Armajani (Iran/US) in 2019, and Trinh T. Minh-ha in 2020/2021. The Centre released 17 publications, amongst them Theatrical Fields: Critical Strategies in Performance, Film and Video (2016), Becoming Palm by Simryn Gill and anthropologist Michael Taussig (Australia/US), and Saraceno’s award-winning Arachnid Orchestra. Jam Sessions in 2017, Place.Labour.Capital. and Voyages de Rhodes by Thảo Nguyên Phan (Vietnam) in 2018, The Impossibility of Mapping (Urban Asia) (2020), and Climates.Habitats.Environments. (2022). Most recently, it published with National Gallery Singapore The Modern in Southeast Asian Art: A Reader (2023), edited by eminent art historians T.K. Sabapathy (Singapore) and Patrick D. Flores (Philippines/Singapore). The Centre’s residency programme has worked with and nurtured more than 210 Artists-, Curators-, and Researchers-in-Residence, among them 60 Singaporean artists and counting. Many of the projects developed by the artists during their residencies went on to be presented at international exhibitions, biennials, and festivals. Its public resource platform, programmes and conferences continue to engage with artists, curators, and critical thinkers across disciplines. The Centre was joined by 56 Young Professional Trainees over periods of six to eight months, contributing to capacity building in the arts sector. In 2018, NTU CCA Singapore and NTU ADM jointly inaugurated the Master of Arts programme in Museum Studies and Curatorial Practices, the first of its kind in the region. About the NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore Situated within Singapore’s premier art precinct Gillman Barracks, NTU CCA Singapore is a pioneering institution that has been instrumental in shaping the contemporary art landscape in Singapore and beyond. With a focus on fostering creativity, innovation, and critical thinking, the Centre’s programmes have consistently challenged the status quo, encouraging artists to explore new realms of artistic expression. For more information, visit ntu.ccasingapore.org. About Nanyang Technological University, Singapore A research-intensive public university, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) has 33,000 undergraduate and postgraduate students in the Engineering, Business, Science, Medicine, Humanities, Arts, & Social Sciences, and Graduate colleges. NTU is also home to world-renowned autonomous institutes—the National Institute of Education, S Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Earth Observatory of Singapore, and Singapore Centre for Environmental Life Sciences Engineering—and various leading research centres such as the Nanyang Environment & Water Research Institute (NEWRI) and Energy Research Institute @ NTU (ERI@N). Under the NTU Smart Campus vision, the University harnesses the power of digital technology and tech-enabled solutions to support better learning and living experiences, the discovery of new knowledge, and the sustainability of resources. Ranked amongst the world’s top universities, the University’s main campus is also frequently listed among the world’s most beautiful. Known for its sustainability, over 95% of its building projects are certified Green Mark Platinum. Apart from its main campus, NTU also has a medical campus in Novena, Singapore’s healthcare district. For more information, visit ntu.edu.sg.

The first 'title'

This has changed because of NAC claims that TODAY has misquoted and misrepresented the NAC Chief. The original title offers a more progressive NAC. More than it's later position after it has been clarified. Putting it here before this things becomes untraceable. 

LGBTQ-themed arts performances in public spaces in line with the times: National Arts Council chief 

• Sep 30, 2023

• #1

SINGAPORE — While heartland "getai" shows typically showcase live performances of Mandarin and Hokkien music, a crowd at Gillman Barracks on Friday night (Sept 29) was treated to a different version of it.

With a set list of Malay, English and even Japanese songs, perhaps the highlight of the half-hour show was a drag queen playing trombone to the tune of evergreen National Day theme song Home, which moved its spectators to sing along.

Entitled Queer-tai, the show was among a series of arts performances commissioned to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Nanyang Technological University Centre for Contemporary Art (NTU CCA) Singapore.

In line with the times, the public can expect arts performances in the public and education space that touch on themes relating to the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) community.

This is because artists naturally explore a wide range of topics and will always produce work that “speaks to our times”, said National Arts Council (NAC) chief executive officer Low Eng Teong, who was attending the anniversary event as a guest of honour.

As part of NTU CCA's anniversary celebrations, a series of collaborative performances by the centre’s past contributing artists and artist-in-residence alumni members were commissioned.
Two of such shows were staged on Friday, including Queer-tai — a half-hour karaoke segment led by a few people, including some dressed in drag, followed by a DJ setlist.

Asked about the significance of having arts performances with LGBTQ themes in public spaces and educational institutions, Mr Low said: “Artists explore all types of topics and themes and issues in their work, so I think that is something that is to be expected, in (that) artists will always want to make work that speaks to our times.

“It is for artists to be interested in issues like climate change, environmental, social issues, the different kinds of events, world events happening around the world and how it affects our lives, so I think this is part and parcel of the natural process of art.”

Intervention, the group that staged Queer-tai, describes itself as “a queer party collective”.

It has organised three parties since it was formed in November and was commissioned to perform at an exhibition opening at the Singapore Art Museum.

https://www.todayonline.com/singapo...ine-times-national-arts-council-chief-2270861

Reflections in Silence: Standing Against Death Penalty ⚖️🕯️

In the wake of a heavy week, my brush finds solace in the canvas to speak against the shadows of death penalty executions. Each stroke carries the weight of lives lost and the plea for humanity to embrace compassion and second chances.

Amidst the darkness, a candle flickers, symbolizing the light of hope and the call for justice reform. This painting is an artistic stand, a reminder that every life holds inherent value.

Let us unite our voices against the death penalty. Together, we can paint a world where empathy and restorative justice prevail. 🎨✨ #EndDeathPenalty #NoJusticeInExecution #ArtForChange"

🎨🌟 Unveiling Tian: The Neo-Nanyang Artist 🌟🎨

[1] Above:  "Tian unveils the stories behind his work to a captivated audience" 2023.Singapore.

 🎨🌟 Unveiling Tian: The Neo-Nanyang Artist 🌟🎨

Tian's art blossoms from the unique fusion of the old Nanyang Masters' artistic legacy. Brilliantly reflecting the harmonious blend of the Nanyang style's vibrancy, cultural richness, and pioneering spirit.

He is known for painting classic subjects like fruits, Bali scenes, and idyllic imagery; Tian's art has always celebrated life's beauty. The artist's work exuded happiness and finesse, drawing admirers from all corners. 

Awakened to a "Bigger Canvas"

A chance visit to an underground civil society event, mistaken for an art exhibition, jolted Tian's perspective. The artist was exposed to powerful scenes of political and social life, unearthing a newfound awareness of the world's struggles and injustices.

Embracing this awakening, Tian's artistry took a transformative turn. The vibrant palette now depicted the overlooked, giving a voice to the marginalized. Tian became a visual activist, painting the untold stories of society with passion and purpose.

 [2]  (left) "Exhibiting with such great artists! Tian's work with the brilliant artistry of @mojokoworld & @samchen.net, where their extraordinary works create an enchanting tapestry of creativity and inspiration!" 2023. Singapore.

Catch the latest painting by Tian exhibited with other amazing artists in "Fools" Group Exhibition at Mr Lim's Shop of Visual Treasures before 6 August 2023 (Sun).

Tian is showing Still Life with Fire Extinguisher And Controlled Substances (Ecstasy, Weed and et al.)

Inspired by the TJ Fest, this evocative still life captures the struggles of ex-prisoners and drug users.

Amidst the shadows of a CNB raid, a fire extinguisher emerges as the centrepiece, concealing the hidden weight of despair. Yet, as colours swirl and blend, a glimmer of hope ignites. The painting embodies the transformative journey towards redemption and renewal.

🌟🎨 Embrace the magic of Tian's art - where dreams breathe and where brushstrokes hold the power to change the world! 🎨🌟 #NeoNanyang #ArtisticGenius #ArtForChange #EndDeathPenalty

 #TianArtistry

"Tian's heartfelt homage to his teacher and master, Liu Kang, takes center stage." 2023. Singapore.

"Collectors exclusive sneak peek of captivating artworks! come early for a quick preview of artwork! Mrs Lim (right) spots Tian and points to him." 2023. Singapore. 

"A heartfelt thank you to our dedicated volunteers, Gwyn (left) and gallerist, Mr Lim (right) for their exceptional efforts in curating this remarkable show. With their passion and dedication, Singapore art shines bright, and hope prevails in the creative community." 2023. Singapore.

P is going home

 I don't know P. 

But this kind of thing happens to me often because of the work that I do. Or Post-Museum do. 

People sometimes say goodbye and share their experience of Singapore. How we met. How we done something together or some event that they came. 

This is a story of P. leaving. With J, we visited P., who would be leaving Singapore after 20-plus years. These moments are so private and personal. Mainly to help clear the last few items because if not given a new home, it will go to the landfill heaven. 

This is like a treasure hunt of sorts, one may find treasures or something that one refuses to throw away. 

Occasionally, we encounter a crossroads where we decide where to turn and what to do. Who knows what lies ahead.

P. shared some anecdotes about her items and life. Like, which of these materials are potential for an art work. P. gifts some items for our free market too.

[place holder for pictures of that night] 

100 Years of Singapore Art

 100 Years of Singapore Art

100 Years of Singapore Art is an exhibition in the multi-purpose hall. Good to be able to see the work and the collection. The fact that collectors share their cherished artworks with the public demonstrates their generosity and commitment to promoting art appreciation.

The exhibition shows only 2D works. It is hardly representative of 100 Years of Singapore Art. You will be disappointed if you expect that. You will be foolish if you think that. There are lots of works made by well-known artists. Some are shocking, some are recognisable, and you get to see it in a relaxing (not museum) environment. Probably worth revisiting because the exhibits are changing throughout the exhibition. 

The financial value of the works in the exhibition would be in the millions (based on previous auction reports). How does money (market value) contribute to art's other values? For example, I think money pays for the space that art occupies. e.g. rent, purchase value, holding value etc. 

Next, the exhibition reminds me of the 'old days', and if you have not seen such exhibitions, do pop in and have a look. 

100 years is 'mildly' curated. While the exhibition provides basic information such as titles, artist names, and mediums, it lacks deeper contextualisation. Pity, but that is life. In the age of 'super' curating, it reminds me of what is missing in cultural work. It encourages us to consider how curators play a crucial role in shaping the overall experience and fostering meaningful connections between the audience and the exhibited artworks.