What Art???

Worked at the opening of the inaugural Singapore Biennale (say it with me now "Beer- na-lei") a couple of weekends ago. Never had to face so much art in my life in just ONE weekend - think my stomach's gone weak.... =P . Made several pertinent observations about my relationship with art:
1) I have very little appreciation for contemporary art;
2) While I care if art exists at all, I don't really care what each piece means;
3) which leads to my 3rd observation: I have a very low threshold for art - after 1 wing of intense and mind-boogling contemporary art, I'm soo ready to run; and
4) I'm terrified of dark spaces. So I either don't venture in, or need to hold someone's hand before I'm comfortable enough to approach. *Mommy.....*

Just some quick facts abt the Singapore Biennale 2006: It is Singapore's FIRST. And as with every first in Singapore, it is typically impressive. They have an extensive amt of art in various parts of the city, not restricted to the art museums and gallery spaces only.

So, to save myself the embarressment of pretending I'm highly conversant with art (which I'm not, and in ironic considering what I do for a living), I'd just show you pics from my weekend. And mind you, I hardly rem names of the pieces or the artist much, unless I was made to in one way or another... =P Here's what I actually SAW:
This is probably the one piece that sticks most clearly in my head. Makes for a great photo too. This was at Tanglin Camp, where they converted old army barracks into art spaces. This piece was right at the back of the buildings, in the courtyard area. The shell's built like the shell of an airplane, and the artist made these bright pink flowers, stuck it into the structure and lit it from the inside so bursts of light come streaming out. What I din manage to capture, is what the structure sits on - pieces of rusted railroads, with dismembered body parts (made of clay) strewn all over. Disturbing yet hopeful all at the same time, esp when viewed at night. Can't explain the feeling - u'd have to see it yourself. There was another guy smashing empty beer bottles at the other corner of the room - din get what THAT was all about.... *shrug*

Press centre for the Biennale. And allegedly, its made entirely of paper - how cool is that?? Although I do think they're trying to pull a fast one on us - the roof on top does look suspiciously plastic and the rods in between made of steel..... *right*

ok, this one's at the party at the Padang and is a tad complicated, so let me explain. It was an installation piece by Usman Haque called Open Burble. Its basically a bunch of balloons tied together, with a string of lights placed in them to create the lighting effect. One end of the structure is released into the air, and the other end is tied to a thick rope on the ground, where the public can tug and push to cause the structure to move (of course bearing in mind weather conditions as well, such as wind) accordingly. Its kinda fun for the public I suppose - its accessible, participative, obvious, and kinda pretty with all the changing twinkly lights. Some people even brought their picnic mats and camped out just beneath the structure. Kinda felt like Orchard Rd during Xmas though.... which may have been the pt anyway.... *huh*

These were 2 installation pieces at the new National Museum. The one on the left is supposed to be the structure of an 8m tall ice-berg. It comes with thumbdrives stuck in at specific pts of the structure, so you can pull it out and stick it into your computer to see something (I dunno what though - probably more info about icebergs!!). When the exhibition opens to the public, sure kena lost one the thumbdrives - I mean, how can S'poreans resists free 512 MB thumbdrives right?? Anyway, the Govt can afford to give it away for free what - refer to IMF goodie bag for more info.

This 2nd piece is a prayer carpet. Its kinda cool - if you look closer at the "Chinese words", they're really made up of English letters. Such "cool" things amuse me - what can I say?? I'm shallow like most average S'poreans.... =P

When I attended the parties, it was then it dawned upon me - where the bloody hell have I been?? These were the whos whos at all these parties, the "in-IN" crowd - hip peeps, smart peeps, rich peeps, creative peeps, and peeps who are on Hermes' permanent exclusive parties list. (Hermes is a terrible organiser btw, catering food for 600 when you have a guest list of 2,000?? Any decent event organiser can do a better job than that!) Maybe I should look in that direction for that sugar daddy that I've always dreamed of having..... *huh*

Btw, this picture is taken of the cocktail event at the National Museum (from the 2nd floor). The building looks amazing after renovations, esp. by night. Esp. cool with the string of union jacks hanging above the area.

A friend & I concluded sometime ago contemporary art's highly irresponsible most of the time - they emphasize the experience, show you the final product, but leave you to interpret the process, which could be completely anything. The long and short of it? Just go see lah, and experience it for yourself. Even if you dun understand, the experience is good enough for you to leave the place knowing that you've at least attempted that all impt foray into art and are intiated into "HIGH" society. Then you can at least show off to your beng frens lor..... *chuckle*