Friday, January 14, 2005
Lise, from Berlin, will give a talk on her works at p-10 on Saturday 15th January at 2pm.
GRIDlocked is visual artist Rajinder Jit Singh's first solo exhibition. Rajinder's colourful orderly boxed world is invaded by the swaths of unruly, chaotic but beautiful multihued paint splashes that reflect his background in maths and his love for art.
@Block43
The contrasts between these two worlds, portrayed on canvas in large format paintings, relay Rajinder's views on variety of issues, including the erroneous dichotomous worldview we are born into. This evocative exhibition will cause the audience to question his/her worldview, and see how it is impossible to compartmentalise various aspects of one's life, as we are prone to do.
Rajinder Jit Singh is a predominantly self-taught visual artist. He is presently doing his postgraduate studies in Philosophy of Art at NUS. Rajinder last exhibited his work in Singapore under the group exhibition titled “Batch No. 31.”
GRIDlocked brings together obsession and compulsion as the key themes to subtly raise questions in a fascinating contrast between art and our lives today.
Our obsessions, represented by the orderly 10 by 10 boxes of Rajinder's paintings, are the static patterns of our daily existence. Modern life is bound by routines, preset ways of looking at the world around us, and our presumed ability to control our world is our comfort zone. It allows us to tackle and manage reality as best we know how.
But there is an unknown, a cutting edge of reality which cannot be conceptualised. A chaotic, wild and almost feral element which cannot be controlled nor compartmentalised.by static enclosed patterns. Here lies the source of everything we know and instinctly feel; the creative force behind everything we will come to know. Here is where our compulsions lie. This is represented in Rajinder's paintings by the splatter of paint.
The distinction between the deliberate paint drips and the clean almost artificial lines of the boxes is the telling one - the ordered measured and clinically masked in/out world of the contrasting, preplanned, preconceived tones and colours of the 10cm boxes; and the barely controlled splatter of paint leaping off the brush to make some unintelligible mark guided by some unfathomable force. Two separate worlds. Two explanations for the same. We constantly try to make sense of what is, as the paintings depict, not quite boxable.
Raj hopes to show this erroneous separation of reality through his paintings under the theme of GRIDlocked. Our Subject-Object paradigm of our world is our GRID. It holds us in its unerring clutches. We are GRIDlocked.
GRIDlocked is Rajinder's first solo exhibition in Singapore. Curated to dialogue with Block43's “whitebox” space, the exhibition compels the engagement of the viewer beyond a mere appreciation of aesthetics into an exciting metaphysical adventure.
Dear Clients,
Greetings from Gajah Gallery.
The Gallery has acquired an exciting collection of new works over the recent months by our artists from the region.
By clicking on the link below, you will find the latest works by Ho Huu Thu, Nguyen Trung, Paramartha and Yunizar.
http://www.gajahgallery.com/nlla.asp
Do give us a call on 65_6737 4202 if you any queries.
Regards,
Gajah Gallery
_____________________________________________________________
Gajah Gallery
MICA Building 140 Hill St #01-08
Singapore 179369
T:65_6737 4202
F:65_6737 4203
www.gajahgallery.com
Mon - Fri: 11am_7pm
Sat - Sun&Ph: 12pm_6pm
I REMEMBER...
A new work by artist Amanda Heng for M1 Singapore Fringe Festival on how people remember the Japanese Occupation in Singapore.
I'm writing to help Amanda for her work "I Remember..." which she will be doing for our M1 Singapore Fringe Festival. This is a significant work involving the
indigenous community on how people remember the Japanese Occupation.
Furthermore, this year marks the 60th anniversary of the Japanese surrender.
It is a video work that will be projected on the curved concrete
wall under the bridge that joins the Esplanade to the Fullerton.
Amanda is looking for elderly people who went through the Japanese Occupation. She wants to document how they remember the war; what's the first thing that comes to their minds and how do they narrate that incident.
The recording will preferably be done at their homes
so that they are comfortable and don't have to travel for the interview.
Interviewees are to converse/respond/narrate/share in the languages/dialects they are comfortable in.
I am collating names/contacts for Amanda.
If you know of any relative and/or friend who is willing to be
interviewed, please give their names and contact numbers to me.
Then we will call to arrange for the interviews. The deadline
is end of January as Amanda has to have time to do the
post-production work.
Contacts:
Alvin Tan
Type alvintan followed by @necessary.org
Please pass this email-appeal to anyone who you think have elderly relatives/friends or who know people who are willing to participate in the project.
If you have any queries, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Alvin Tan
Artistic Director
The Necessary Stage
Marine Parade Community Building
278 Marine Parade Road
#B1-02
Singapore 449282
Wednesday, January 12, 2005
Urban Poetry
Exploring The Mythic Within The Known
Solo Exhibition by Gudrun Schmidt
SG Private Banking Gallery,
Alliance Française de Singapour
Opening 20th January 2005, Thursday @ 7pm
The artist’s work reflects on hidden corners in everyday life, distilling images and shapes into multiple layers of texture and remodeling them into large abstract paintings. “I am often looking at spaces - real, imaginary or dream spaces, sometimes industrial or rusty ones which on closer inspection are more fragile than they seem. It is about transferring them into a poetic language of reflection, and a catching of moments in everyday life.”
In an abstracted dynamic style her work explores texture in everyday life, pattern and structure in unexpected corners which add humanity to our life in concrete. In her paintings, signs and numbers assume a mythic/poetic quality. Thematic influences could come from sources as diverse as plants or even rusty shipwrecks. Subtle poetry lines add fragility. These could - as in her "Urban Poetry" paintings - be derived from classical, often, however, also be taken from modern poems.
Dr Gudrun Schmidt is a physician by training and holds an MBA from Brunel University, UK. She works in Research and Development of a large multinational pharmaceutical company. During the last 10 years she has lived in Canada, Germany, The Netherlands and has only arrived in Singapore in February last year. Painting has been claiming an ever increasing part of her private time. This is her first solo exhibition in Singapore.
*Urban Poetry - Exploring the Mythic Within The Know continues till 29th January 2005. Gallery hours: 11am to 7pm (Mon - Fri); 11am to 5pm (Saturday); and closed on Sunday.
Best regards,
Serene Yap
Gallery Manager
TEL : (65) 6737 8422 / DID : (65) 6833 9314 / FAX : (65) 6733 3023
Alliance Francaise de Singapour
1 Sarkies Road. Singapore 258130
www.alliancefrancaise.org.sg
Sunday, January 09, 2005
Russel Wong is a celebrity photographer whose illustrious subjects include Oliver Stone, Isabella Rossellini, Joan Chen and Jackie Chan. As well as these portraits, Russel Wong: Photographs (1980-2005) also shows his works on the sets of blockbuster movies such as Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, and his more private works.
Jan 8-Feb 20 2005, Singapore Art Museum, 71 Bras Basah Rd., 6332-3222.
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