Having Fun with Digital Photography
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Saturday, June 18, 2005
2nd Singapore Short Cuts
Showcasing the Best of Singapore Short Films
Singapore Short Cuts is back again in 2005 with a whole new selection of outstanding local short films.
Every third Saturday of the month from January to June 2005 at the Singapore History Museum, you can expect an exciting and diverse selection of short films, animation and documentaries, which includes award-winning works like Exodus by Sherman Ong, Birthday by Bertrand Lee and 9:30 by Yong Mun Chee. Many of these shorts will be screened for the first time in Singapore. You will also be able to interact with the filmmakers after each screening.
Presented by the Singapore History Museum, Singapore Film Commission and The Substation.
DISPLACEMENT
Saturday 18 June
4.00pm - 5.30pm
For this June's screening, take a look at the rest of the world through the eyes of overseas-based Singaporean filmmakers in this selection of short films.
9.30
Dir: Yong Mun Chee
2003 / Singapore-USA / 13 min
Chan Kin Fai flies 14092.2km to Los Angeles from Singapore to forget the person he loves. But he ends up calling his love everyday at 9:30am Singapore time.
Eat Rice
Dir: Angela How
2004 / Singapore-USA / 13 min
Three women sit down to their daily afternoon ritual of eating lunch, and listening to their favourite radio melodrama. As they slurp their porridge in beat with the melodic radio show, three men enter their home and sanctuary, breaking the peace.
Crocodile Journals
Dir: Yeo Lee Nah
2004 / Singapore-USA / 6:30 min / Animation
Living in disguise, a crocodile goes through the everyday, in a human world. One day, it gets invited to a masquerade party...
Happy Day Naom
Dir: Chang Yee Yeo
2004 / Singapore-USA / 10:40 min
An intricate sensual drama revolving around a pair of best friends who have known each other since college, but due to their respective insecurities, are unable to come to terms with their real affections for each other.
Un Retrato De Familia (A Family Potrait)
Dir: Boo Jun Feng
2004 / Singapore-Spain / 8:20 min
Sergio is a seventeen year-old photographer who is aroused by black-and-white cross-section diagrams of the female genitalia and breast in an encyclopedia. When his little sister asks him about sex one day, he revisits a memory years ago, in which he discovers a sexual secret amongst his family members.
This film won the Best Film and Special Achievement Award at the recent SIFF 2005 Silver Screen Awards for Singapore Short Films.
Free tickets (limited) can be collected from 1 June at The Substation and the Singapore History Museum. Tickets will be issued on a first come, first served basis.
Please note that the screening is rated as M18.
NOISE SINGAPORE
presents
Creativity and Innovation in Animation Games and New Media
Sat 18 June 2005
10am – 2pm
Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts
Campus 2, School of Fashion Studies
38 Bencoolen Street (next to City Bayview Hotel)
Level 3, A3-05 / 06
Be Game, Animated and Graphic! Come join a party of superstar game,
animation, and graphics industry practitioners from London, New
York, Los Angeles, and Singapore in a "show and tell" focusing on
youth culture, creativity, and cool. The latest and greatest in
design thinking across the new media industries, with practical
advice, pretty pictures, wow graphics, and cool gameplay!
We bring you these international experts FREE OF CHARGE at an
exclusive Noise Singapore seminar on Sat 18 June, 10am - 2pm at the
Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts.
Programme
9.30am Registration
10am Welcome and Introduction to Noise Singapore
by the Noise Team
10.05am Introduction of the Speakers
by Brendan Harkins, XMediaLab
MOD the Movies: What Happens if Remix Culture hits Hollywood?
by Michela Ledwidge, UK
10.50am You Can Have A Career in New Media!
by Justin Evans, US
11.20am Break
11.45am Creativity in New Media
by Katie Salen, US
12.30pm Creativity in Games, Animation, Toys and Comics
by Ban Y.J, Singapore
1.15pm Rounding up
1.30pm Goodbye!
Speakers' Biographies
Ban Y.J., Singapore
Ban is the founder of STIKFAS™, the brand in the toy industry
that
has defined a new genre with the Action Figure Kit concept. Within
the first year of its debut with Hasbroª, STIKFAS™ was crowned
"Best
Original Concept 2002", in the annual Best of the Best feature by
Wizard's Toyfare magazine. Following shortly, in an annual consumer
poll run by Toy Shop magazine, STIKFAS™ was voted second "Most
Fun
and Innovative Toy", a category dominated by complex electronic
products. In 2004, international toy giant Hasbroª Inc. and
STIKFASª
introduced a new brand of battling figure kits - XEVOZª, adding
fresh colours to the market yet again.Today, Stikfas Pte. Ltd. is
still driven by the same passion, not just in growing the STIKFASª
range of products, but also in developing more viable ideas for the
creative industry, expanding in brands and intellectual property
contents. STIKFASª advances along the road towards a creative
revolution, never forgetting the motivation to all we do and that
is - Simply Fun!
Michela Ledwidge, UK
Michela has been a media producer for over ten years and has
directed a wide variety of high profile projects encompassing film-
making, publishing, broadcasting, commerce, music, and IT. In
January 1993 she set up the first web site in Sydney, Australia and
later that year founded thequality.com, a production company, now
headquartered in London, UK. She wrote, directed and produced the
multi-lingual short Horses for Courses which was awarded the web3d
art prize at SIGGRAPH 2001. Other works include award-winning web
sites, including the National Library of Australia, a feature-length
interactive movie for real-time 3D, live visuals, and web software.
In 2004, Michela founded MOD Films and received support from the
Invention and Innovations fund of National Endowment for Science,
Technology, and the Arts (NESTA) in the UK to produce films designed
for re-use and future interactivity.
Justin Evans, US
Justin has directed a large list of Hollywood celebrities including
James Earl Jones (Star Wars, The Hunt For The Red October), Malcolm
McDowell (A Clockwork Orange), Dan Castellaneta (The Simpsons),
Dwight Schultz (The A-Team, Star Trek: The Next Generation) and Mark
Hamill (Star Wars, Batman: The Animated Adventures). He has been
featured twice in Moviemaker Magazine and twice in Animation
Reporter. His animation work has been included at
www.animwatch.com's list of the world's best independent
animator.
Two years ago he founded Mystic Arts, a Beijing digital animation
studio whose clientele includes Digital Chocolate, DC Comics and
Eisner-winning Hi Fi Design. Justin also designed the curriculum for
a post-graduate program at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in
Beijing, the most prestigious art school in China, trained the vast
majority of its professors and designed its admissions process. He
has returned to the US and now serves as a part-time creative
consultant for his company, Mystic Arts. He is a skilled graphic
designer, animator, photographer, actor, production designer,
screenwriter, cinematographer, director & producer.
Katie Salen, US
Katie wears many hats, including the directorship of the graduate
Design and Technology program at Parsons School of Design, and works
as a designer and consultant on a range of game-related projects for
clients such as Microsoft, SIGGRAPH, the Hewlett Foundation,
gameLab, the Design Institute, the Director's Guild of America,
mememe Productions, and others. She co-authored (with Eric
Zimmerman) of "Rules of Play: Game Design Fundamentals", a
textbook
on game design (MIT Press), as well as the forthcoming Game Design
Reader (MIT Press 2005). In the past, Katie has partnered with
screenwriter and director Hampton Fancher (Minus Man; Bladerunner)
on a project for the XEN division of Microsoft to develop an
animated storytelling experience distributed through Xbox Live, and
has helped curate programs at the Lincoln Center, Cinematexas, ZKM,
Exploding Cinema, and the Walker Art Center on machinima, the
practice of creating animated films using game engines.
Seminar co-organised by Noise Singapore, British Council, XMediaLab
and Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts.
Noise Singapore Partners
Official Sponsor:
MTV Networks Asia
Major Sponsor:
MobileOne Ltd
Sponsor:
Straits Media Trading Pte Ltd
Supporters:
AdAsia Magazine
Creative Community Singapore
National Youth Council
Nippon Paint (Singapore) Co Pte Ltd
Co-organisers:
British Council
Lianhe Zaobao's Popcorn, Friday Weekly and Thumb's Up,
Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts
Republic Polytechnic
Singapore History Museum
XMediaLab
Youthop!a
Friends of Noise:
CreativeBITS
WebMad
Noise Singapore is an initiative managed by the National Arts
Council, Singapore.
~ Hear it. See it. Make some Noise! ~
www.noisesingapore.com
Friday, June 17, 2005
Mills Gallery • Boston Center for the Arts
Sifting the Inner Belt
June 17 – July 31, 2005
Opening Reception: Friday, June 17, 6PM – 8PM
Organized by Hiroko Kikuchi & Jeremy Chi-Ming Liu, Jeremy Chan Peng Chu, Catherine D'lgnazio, Natalie Loveless, Kim Szeto, and William Ho
“Community doesn’t mean understanding everything about everybody and resolving all the differences; it means knowing how to work within differences as they change and evolve.”
- Lucy R. Lippard
Sifting the Inner Belt is the culmination of a year-long, site-specific social performance and research art project consisting of a series of performance interventions and performance-based research projects, which closely observe and examine, i.e. sift, the South End neighborhood with an emphasis on creating emotional, conceptual and physical bridges between the Boston Center for the Arts (BCA) and the Berkeley Street Community Garden (BSCG).
“Inner Belt” refers to the ill-conceived and never completed highway project from 1948-1971 that would have created an inner beltway highway around downtown Boston and between the South End and Lower Roxbury. In the process of the failed project, hundreds of homes were destroyed, many families displaced, and yet, because the project was stopped, over one hundred gardens have sprung up. The foundations of these homes, the spirit of these families, and the legacy of the impact remain today.
Conceived by Hiroko Kikuchi and Jeremy Chi-Ming Liu in the summer of 2004, Sifting the Inner Belt was developed as a collaboration of artists, activists and community residents: Jeremy Chan Peng Chu, Catherine D’lgnazio, Natalie Loveless, Kim Szeto, and William Ho. It is based upon ideas of audience participation, communication, and political intention, and is constructed through a generative process involving dialogue and community outreach through specific efforts, including research and interactive performance art. The exhibition in the Mills Gallery includes site-specific installations, video projection, sound, photography, written documentation/books, and a display of final and in-progress research. A series of performance events will occur throughout the show in and around the BCA and the BSCG.
Sited within a block of the BSCG, the BCA has been acting as a catalyst and incubator for visual and performing arts for the past 35 years. Outreach and integration of multiple communities is one of the primary tenets of the BCA’s mission. The Mills Gallery provides a platform for artists, curators and organizations that need support and value collaboration. The BCA is pleased to be a partner in presenting Sifting the Inner Belt, which presents works of art that are autonomous from, yet relevant to, the community-at-large and the time we live in.
For more information on Sifting the Inner Belt please visit siftingtheinnerbelt.com.
About the organizers
Hiroko Kikuchi
A performance and public artist, originally from Tokyo, Japan, Kikuchi’s work explores the formative and communicative meaning of everyday activities as a mutual "language," influenced by the social environment, tradition, and aesthetics that all co-exist within confining behavioral structures. For the last 2 years, she has been working on creating a protocol to address social and cultural matters by re-structuring the concept and form of performance art.
Jeremy Chi-Ming Liu
Director of Community Programs at the Asian Community Develpment Corporation, Liu is a public artist, and activist.
Jeremy Chan Peng Chu
Singapore born, artist and photographer Chu explores cultural space production in-between the processes of change, and is interested in Chinese diasporal space and collaborative practice.
Kim Szeto
Student at Wheaton College (Norton, MA) pursuing a self designed major in Environmental Studies.
Natalie Loveless
Loveless is an artist, critic and theorist interested in dialogic space, performance practice, critical and cultural theory. Currently enrolled in Ph.D. Program at University of California at Santa Cruz.
William H. Ho
A resident of the South End, Ho is a community organizer and photographer interested in how urban spaces affect and interact with the public.
Catherine D’Ignazio
New media artist interested in collaboration, community and public space, D’Ignazio is the co-founder of the non-profit collective iKatun and the Senior Software Engineer at the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School.
Tuesday, June 14, 2005
Calling all youth aged 25 and under! Sign up for Noise Singapore's
free workshops and seminar to get a head-start in creating fresh and
original works!
All Noise Singapore workshops and seminar are free of charge and
open to participants aged 25 and below. To secure a place, register
at team@... or visit www.noisesingapore.com for more
information.
Animation Workshops
• 1-Day Programme
Date: 14 June or 21 June (13–25 years old)
Time: 10am – 5pm
Venue: Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, Campus 1, 80 Bencoolen Street,
Room B5-15
Course outline: Participants will acquire basic skills necessary to
create Flash and Gif animation, using softwares such as Macromedia
Flash MX 2004 or Adobe Imageready.
• 2-Day Programme
Date: 16-17 June or 23-24 June (13–25 years old)
Time: 10am – 5pm
Venue: Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts Campus 1, 80 Bencoolen Street
Room B5-15
Course outline: Participants will acquire basic skills to create
Flash and Gif animation. They will also have created animated mobile
wallpapers or MTV logos, which they can then submit to the Mobile or
MTV logos competition within Noise Singapore and stand to win
attractive cash and prizes. Softwares such as Macromedia Flash MX
2004 or Adobe Imageready will be used.
• 5-Day Programme *FULL*
Date: 13-17 June (13–16 years old)
Time: 9am – 1pm
Venue: Republic Polytechnic, Annex Hall, Tanglin Campus, 1 Kay Siang
Road, Singapore 248922
Course Outline: This hands-on workshop will introduce participants
to vector graphics computer animation and the current trends in the
Animation industry. Participants will gain insight on how to apply
their knowledge in applications such as website and TV commercials.
Animation Games Development Workshop *FULL*
5-Day Programme
Date: 20-24 June (13–16 years old)
Time: 9am – 1pm
Venue: Republic Polytechnic, Annex Hall, Tanglin Campus, 1 Kay Siang
Road, Singapore 248922
Course Outline: This hands-on workshop allows participants to
develop a web-based game with Macromedia Flash MX 2004. Participants
will learn the basics of ActionScript to move objects within the
game, keep track of scores, generate enemy targets and much more.
Apart from the technical aspects of developing games, participants
will also learn game design concepts and strategies for a holistic
view of the entire development process.
Blog Workshops
2-hour programme
Date: 21 May (10 – 12 years old)
4 June, 2 July or 9 July (13 – 25 years old)
Time: 10am– 12pm or 2pm – 4pm
Venue: Republic Polytechnic, Annex Hall,Tanglin Campus, 1 Kay Siang
Road, Singapore 248922
Course Outline: Conducted in Mandarin by experienced blogger Ric
Tan, participants will learn how to create and design their own
blogs. Participants will also receive tips on how to participate in
the Noise Singapore – Lianhe Zaobao blogging competition, and
stand
to win attractive cash and prizes.
Claymation Workshops
3-Day Programme
Date: 31 May, 2 and 3 June or 7, 9 and 10 June (17–25 years
old)
Time: 10am – 5pm
Venue: Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, Campus 1, 80 Bencoolen Street,
Room B5-32/34
Course Outline: Participants will be introduced to the basic art of
Stopmotion animation (Claymation). By the end of the workshop, they
will have created animated MTV logos, which they can then submit to
Noise Singapore's MTV Logos design competition, and stand a chance
to win exclusive MTV premiums.
Graffiti Art Drawing Workshop
1-Day Programme
Date: 13 June, 15 June, 17 June, 20 June or 22 June (13–25 years
old)
Time: 10am – 5pm
Venue: National Youth Centre Lobby, 113 Somerset Road #01-02
Singapore 238165
Course Outline: Participants will be introduced to the history of
Street Art and Graffiti Art. They will also acquire basic skills in
illustration and design. By the end of the workshop, they will have
created some designs which they can then submit to the Graffiti Art
design competition in Noise Singapore and stand to win attractive
cash and prizes.
Video Workshop *FULL*
5-Day Programme
Date: 6 - 10 June (13–16 years old)
Time: 9am – 1pm
Venue: Republic Polytechnic, Annex Hall, Tanglin Campus, 1 Kay Siang
Road, Singapore 248922
Course Outline: This workshop introduces participants to the basic
technology of screen media with the computer as a real-time motion
graphics editing tool. An understanding of the basic technology in
audio pre-production will be integrated into multimedia authoring
for message enhancement with relevant emotional stimulant. This
workshop will also provide participants with the audio principles
for audiovisual synchronisation and hyperaudio.
Animation Games Seminar
1-Day seminar
Date: 18 June
Time: 10am – 3pm
Venue: Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts
Join internationally acclaimed UK and US Games Developers, Shane
Walter, Michela Ledwidge and Katie Saten as they speak on creativity
and innovation in the Animation Games industry!
Noise Singapore Workshops Co-organisers
British Council
Lianhe Zaobao's Popcorn, Friday Weekly and Thumb's Up
Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts
Republic Polytechnic
XMediaLab
Youthop!a
Noise Singapore is an initiative managed by the National Arts
Council, Singapore.
~ Hear it. See it. Make some Noise! ~
www.noisesingapore.com
Monday, June 13, 2005
Sunday, June 12, 2005
Singapore At 51st Venice Biennale 2005
LIM TZAY CHUEN
Mike
Exhibition date: 12 June - 06 November 2005
Press preview: 09 June - 11 June 2005
Singapore Pavilion: Calle della Tana, Castello 2126, Arsenale, 30122 Venice, Italy
Commissioner: KHOR Kok Wah (Mr)
Vice-Commissioner: Paolo DE GRANDIS (Mr)
Artist: LIM Tzay Chuen (Mr)
Curator: Eugene TAN (Mr)
The Singapore Pavilion at the 51st Venice Biennale opens on 9 June 2005 with LIM Tzay Chuen’s work Mike.
A catalogue and a full media kit on the artist and his work at the Singapore Pavilion is available upon request.
For more information on the Venice Biennale please visit: www.labiennale.org/en/visualarts.
For media enquiries, please contact:
Ms KIM May
Corporate Communications Manager
National Arts Council, Singapore
Ms Lynn TAN
Marcom Executive
Singapore Art Museum
PROPOSAL. FEB 2005
THE NEWS TIMES, SUNDAY, JUNE 19, 2005 AR 33
A R T / A R C H I T E C T U R E
Singapore Icon makes a splash at Venice
By CINDY VOGEL
With the head of a lion and the body of a fish, the Merlion, Singapore’s most well known tourist symbol, has elicited mixed reviews. It was invented in the 1960s, drawing upon the legend that a Malay prince sighted a lion on the island’s shores when he founded the place. The symbol was first used as a corporate emblem for the Tourism Board in 1964, and later in 1972 a 26-foot statue was completed and sited at the mouth of the Singapore River. Lee Kuan Yew, then Prime Minister, was the guest of honor at the official launch.
The Merlion Park quickly became a popular tourist destination, and the statue has spawned countless souvenir tokens. It became, alongside the national airline’s “Singapore Girl”, one of the country’s main icons for promoting the “lion city” (from the Sanskrit words “singa” and “pura”). But the Merlion has also had many detractors, both locals and international visitors, who have found the pseudo-mythical creature to be the epitome of kitsch.
In 2002, the 80-ton Merlion statue was moved. A bridge had been built that cut off its view to the sea, and the move reinstalled the statue to a prime location on the waterfront. The whole relocation project, which cost over US$4 million, also involved substantial redevelopment of the new site, and restoration of the statue.
This year marks a far more dramatic moment in the life of the Singapore icon. The Merlion has once again made a journey, but rather than a short hop from one spot along the mouth of the Singapore River to another, the artist Lim Tzay-Chuen has taken the statue all the way to the Venice Biennale.
When asked why the move, and why this statue, a spokesperson for the artist said: “Over the last decade, Singapore has invested a lot of financial resources and human energy into developing the arts. Given Singapore’s desire to draw attention to this effort, to establish links between art, economic returns, and the tourism industry, what more appropriate intervention could an artist make than to create a work that directly engages the issues of publicity and tourism—like taking the Merlion to one of the world’s most prestigious art events.
“But this project is also about getting the government and corporations in Singapore to shift mindsets. For all the investment in Singapore art, in buildings like the US$400 million Esplanade—Theatres on the Bay, the authorities are still hesitant to put their trust and faith in artists. This trust and faith actually costs them nothing.”
Although, some might argue, such trust and faith are worth well over a million dollars. Which is what it cost to move the Merlion and install it temporarily at the Singapore Pavilion situated near the Arsenale, one of the main venues of the Venice Biennale.
Mr. Lim’s project has generated no small amount of controversy in his hometown. A number of Singaporeans have complained publicly that it is a huge waste of money.
“A few years ago, I don’t think this kind of art work would have happened.”
However, the Singapore Tourism Board, the main sponsor of the project, has defended the work, saying it has generated an enormous amount of publicity for the Merlion and the country. Considering that last year they spent US$40 million on overseas marketing and promotion, the kind of attention the project has received seems worth the price.
As the CEO Lim Neo-Chian said, “Tzay-Chuen came to us with a bold proposal, and to be honest, at first we had reservations. There were a lot of risks involved. But we listened to him with an open mind, and decided to go for it. “Singaporeans have talked about our city-state aspiring to be the Venice of the East. Venice has its Lion of Saint Mark statue. We have our Merlion. So why not send our statue on an adventure to visit that grand Renaissance City? This project has truly put the Merlion on the world stage, and has also brought global attention to our artists.”.
Even the country’s Prime Minister, Lee Hsien-Loong, has remarked on the project. When asked what he thought about the great expense for this artwork, he replied, “Money should not be the first consideration. The more important question is whether this is a worthwhile project or not. A few years ago, this kind of art work would not have happened. But now, an artist can borrow the Merlion for an exhibition. It shows that we are becoming more comfortable with taking risks and encouraging individual daring and creativity.”
The National Arts Council of Singapore claims there has never been an art work that has generated as much national discussion. All the local and international publicity the work has generated has been a vindication of sorts for the Arts Council, which admits that selecting Mr. Lim for the Biennale wasn’t a safe choice, since his past work has often been about challenging institutions to do something they normally would deem impossible.
A lot of the discussion, aside from the debates over the wisdom of spending large amounts of money on art, has centered on the question, “but is it art?” Eugene Tan, the curator for the project, observed that “the general public in Singapore would probably not consider what Tzay-Chuen has done to be art. They might think it is just a publicity stunt. But I think the emphasis on publicity misses a main element of Tzay-Chuen’s work, which has often been concerned with introducing delays into the experience of an art work.
“For example, one of Tzay-Chuen’s early proposals was about subtly shifting a Dali sculpture situated in a downtown bank plaza. The plan was to rotate it only slightly so that the shift was barely noticeable — without placing any signs to indicate any intervention had been made—then a year later rotate it back to its original position.
“Only after it had been returned to normal, would there be a publicity campaign to inform everyone that an artistic intervention had taken place. The idea is that many people who frequent the bank plaza would have noticed the slight shift, wondering if something was wrong—though they’d probably shrug it off as something not worth thinking too much about.
“But when they find out that it was an artist’s intervention, they’d retrieve their memories of the shift, seeing it in a different light. Unfortunately, the proposal didn’t get realised.”
Mr. Lim’s Merlion project unfolded in several phases. In May, the statue disappeared, and the circumstances were kept a mystery.
There were vague reports about its position throughout its sea journey, and the country became obsessed with speculating where the statue was going and for what purpose. Only when it finally arrived in Venice and was installed at the Singapore Pavilion were the artist’s full intentions revealed.
Also during the month of May, a school program was initiated, which took young students to visit the site of the missing statue. There was a competition, where students were asked to make up stories about the Merlion’s new adventure. The artist’s spokesperson explained: “Tzay-Chuen finds the fact that the statue is missing more interesting than its appearance in Venice. He thinks its disappearance offers a unique opportunity for Singaporeans to rethink and reinvent the story of the Merlion. The Merlion is a fiction, but perhaps what it needs are more layers to the story. And children should have a big say in how we reinvent it.
“I really miss the Merlion,I can’t wait till it comes home.”
When Mr. Lim conceived the Merlion project, he imagined children having their pictures taken at the empty site, and years later, showing their own children that they were there when the Merlion went on a holiday/adventure. There are few national icons that will have had such an interesting life— traveling to Venice and participating in the world’s oldest international art event.”
A big welcome ceremony is being planned when the statue returns at the end of the year. Seven-year old Mike Goh, from Saint Stephen’s Primary School, said, “I really miss the Merlion, I can’t wait till it comes home.”
PROPOSAL. FEB 2005
Singapore Icon Makes a Big Splash at Venice Biennale
With the head of a lion and the body of a of a fish, the Merlion, Singapore’s most well known tourist symbol, has elicited mixed reviews. It was invented in the 1960s, drawing upon the legend that a Malay prince sighted a lion on the island’s shores when he founded the place. The symbol was first used as a corporate emblem for the Tourism Board in 1964, and later in 1972 a 26-foot statue was completed and sited at the mouth of the Singapore River. Lee Kuan Yew, then Prime Minister, was the guest of honor at the official launch.
The Merlion Park quickly became a popular tourist destination, and the statue has spawned countless souvenir tokens. It became, alongside the national airline’s “Singapore Girl”, one of the country’s main icons for promoting the “lion city” (from the Sanskrit words “singa” and “pura”). But the Merlion has also had many detractors, both locals and international visitors, who have found the pseudo-mythical creature to be the epitome of kitsch.
In 2002, the 80-ton Merlion statue was moved. A bridge had been built that cut off its view to the sea, and the move reinstalled the statue to a prime location on the waterfront. The whole relocation project, which cost over US$4 million, also involved substantial redevelopment of the new site, and restoration of the statue.
This year marks a far more dramatic moment in the life of the Singapore icon. The Merlion has once again made a journey, but rather than a short hop from one spot along the mouth of the Singapore River to another, the artist Lim Tzay-Chuen has taken the statue all the way to the Venice Biennale. When asked why the move, and why this statue, a spokesperson for the artist said:
“Over the last decade, Singapore has invested a lot of financial resources and human energy into developing the arts. Given Singapore’s desire to draw attention to this effort, to establish links between art, economic returns, and the tourism industry, what more appropriate intervention could an artist make than to create a work that directly engages the issues of publicity and tourism—like taking the Merlion to one of the world’s most prestigious art events. But this project is also about getting the government and corporations in Singapore to shift mindsets. For all the investment in Singapore art, in buildings like the US$400 million Esplanade—Theatres on the Bay, the authorities are still hesitant to put their trust and faith in artists. This trust and faith actually costs them nothing.”
Although, some might argue, such trust and faith are worth well over a million dollars. Which is what it cost to move the Merlion and install it temporarily at the Singapore Pavilion situated near the Arsenale, one of the main venues of the Venice Biennale.
Mr. Lim’s project has generated no small amount of controversy in his hometown. A number of Singaporeans have complained publicly that it is a huge waste of money. However, the Singapore Tourism Board, the main sponsor of the project, has defended the work, saying it has generated an enormous amount of publicity for the Merlion and the country. Considering that last year they spent US$40 million on overseas marketing and promotion, the kind of attention the project has received seems worth the price.
PROPOSAL. FEB 2005
Singapore Icon Makes a Big Splash at Venice Biennale
As the CEO Lim Neo-Chian said, “Tzay-Chuen came to us with a bold proposal, and, to be honest, at first we had reservations. There were a lot of risks involved. But we listened to him with an open mind and decided to go for it.
“Singaporeans have talked about our city-state aspiring to be the Venice of the East. Venice has its Lion of Saint Mark statue. We have our Merlion. So why not send our statue on an adventure to visit that grand Renaissance City? This project has truly put the Merlion on the world stage, and has also brought global attention to our artists.”
Even the country’s Prime Minister, Lee Hsien-Loong, has remarked on the project. When asked what he thought about the great expense for this artwork, he replied, “Money should not be the first consideration. The more important question is whether this is a worthwhile project or not. A few years ago, this kind of art work would not have happened. But now, an artist can borrow the Merlion for an exhibition. It shows that we are becoming more comfortable with taking risks and encouraging individual daring and creativity.”
The National Arts Council of Singapore claims there has never been an art work that has generated as much national discussion. All the local and international publicity the work has generated has been a vindication of sorts for the Arts Council, which admits that selecting Mr. Lim for the Biennale wasn’t a safe choice, since his past work has often been about challenging institutions to do something they normally would deem impossible. A lot of the discussion, aside from the debates over the wisdom of spending large amounts of money on art, has centered on the question, “but is it art?” Eugene Tan, the curator for the project, observed that,
“The general public in Singapore would probably not consider what Tzay-Chuen has done to be art. They might think it is just a publicity stunt. But I think the emphasis on publicity misses a main element of Tzay-Chuen’s work, which has often been concerned with introducing delays into the experience of an art work. For example, one of Tzay-Chuen’s early proposals was about subtly shifting a Dali sculpture situated in a downtown bank plaza. The plan was to rotate it only slightly so that the shift was barely noticeable—without placing any signs to indicate any intervention had been made—then a year later rotate it back to its original position. Only after it had been returned to normal, would there be a publicity campaign to inform everyone that an artistic intervention had taken place. The idea is that many people who frequent the bank plaza would have noticed the slight shift, wondering if something was wrong—though they’d probably shrug it off as something not worth thinking too much about. But when they find out that it was an artist’s intervention, they’d retrieve their memories of the shift, seeing it in a different light. Unfortunately, the proposal didn’t get realized.”
Mr. Lim’s Merlion project unfolded in several phases. In May, the statue disappeared, and the circumstances were kept a mystery. There were vague reports about its position throughout its sea journey, and the country became obsessed with speculating where the statue was going and for what purpose. Only when it finally arrived in Venice and was installed at the Singapore Pavilion were the artist’s full intentions revealed.
PROPOSAL. FEB 2005
Singapore Icon Makes a Big Splash at Venice Biennale
Also during the month of May, a school program was initiated, which took young students to visit the site of the missing statue. There was a competition, where students were asked to make up stories about the Merlion’s new adventure. The artist’s spokesperson explained:
“Tzay-Chuen finds the fact that the statue is missing more interesting than its appearance in Venice. He thinks its disappearance offers a unique opportunity for Singaporeans to rethink and reinvent the story of the Merlion. The Merlion is a fiction, but perhaps what it needs are more layers to the story. And children should have a big say in how we reinvent it. When Mr. Lim conceived the Merlion project, he imagined children having their pictures taken at the empty site, and years later, showing their own children that they were there when the Merlion went on a holiday/adventure. There are few national icons that will have had such an interesting life—traveling to Venice and participating in the world’s oldest international art event.”
A big welcome ceremony is being planned when the statue returns at the end of the year. Seven-year old Mike Goh, from Saint Stephen’s Primary School, said, “I really miss the Merlion, I can’t wait till it comes home.”
(This article is a proposal presented as a hypothetical newspaper report by the artist)
Artist
LIM TZAY CHUEN
Born in 1972, Lim lives and works in Singapore. He has participated in numerous exhibitions in
Singapore and internationally. Amongst his more notable exhibitions and projects in Singapore
include those realised at the Substation (2001) and TheatreWorks (2003), while, internationally, Lim’s work has been exhibited at Polypolis at the Kunthaus Hamburg (2001), the Gwangju Biennale (2002) and the Sydney Biennale (2004).
The work of Lim Tzay Chuen questions and redefines aesthetic experience — by compelling viewers to reflect upon their experience of his work, viewers are led, to critically re-evaluate perceptions and assumptions as to what constitutes aesthetic experience. This is achieved through intricate and complex engagements with the social, economic, cultural and political processes that define the particular contexts around which his work is situated. Lim’s interventions acknowledge the transitory and fragmented nature of space and memory, and it is their engagement with the volatility and uncertainty of situations that is significant. His work rejects the construction and definition of prescribed meanings as to what comprises a work of art. Instead, the recognition of an aesthetic event derives from moments of self-discovery, often involving reflexivity and intuition.
As Russell Storer, Curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney has written: “Lim’s work has, amongst other things, involved the altering of conditions within a gallery space, exhibition or catalogue so that those who encounter them are compelled to think, and rethink, this encounter. Something as simple and automatic as turning a page in a catalogue might be frustrated by an order from the artist to the printer to leave two pages uncut, so that the reader has to force them apart with their fingers; or to skip page numbers, which are then referred to in the bibliography or artist statement in the back. Are these errors, or deliberate? You are not entirely sure until you rip the pages apart to find an image of fingers performing this very action, or read the pages more closely to realise that the text flows on, despite the jump in the numbering sequence. These tiny alterations create an ambiguous space where initial confusion may lead to irritation, laughter, indifference or a spark of understanding that nothing, no matter how small, needs to be assumed or taken for granted. It also has the potential effect of slowing down the process of reception, calling for attention to be given, whether cognitively or not.”
Lim’s exhibition at the 51st Venice Biennale is curated by Eugene TAN, Director of the Institute
of Contemporary Arts Singapore (ICA Singapore). Established by LASALLE-SIA College of the Arts, the ICA Singapore is devoted to the exhibition and research of contemporary art in Asia. In late June, Singaporeans will have the opportunity to experience Lim’s work as the ICA Singapore will present a solo exhibition by Lim. This exhibition will not merely illustrate or document Lim’s exhibition at the Venice Biennale, but instead unveil a new work by Lim, which will give audiences in Singapore the opportunity to gain insight into Lim’s work and the processes which underpin his work.
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