Coursework 2008!

 -A tribute to Ah Meng

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Title: Ah Meng – Media: Poster paint; Adobe Photoshop – Approx size: 70% A4 – Approx date: 2008 

after quite a large amount of hard, tedious work, here’s the final product. it was a very enriching experience, creating a book, feeling like a real illustrator, producing a picture book. especially during the last day when i sat in the mac lab watching my pages emerge out of the wonderful printer slowly, the sense of accomplishment was really great. i had a lot of fun creating my character and painting my pieces. now when it came to putting everything together on photoshop, i almost died. a lot of my paintings were in many bits and pieces (e.g. for the 4th page of ahmeng’s arrival in the zoo in a trashbag, heh i painted each animal, the fence, the man, all seperately and would depend on photoshop to put them together.) and i also went easy on myself, allowing my painting to exceed the lines, be slightly incomplete, with great faith that i could make up for them in photoshop. this resulting in my hours and hours of staring at my mothers tablet with a pen in hand, zoomed in to about 200%, smoothening out the lines, erasing the extra bits, smudging/cloning the paintings, etc. had i known it was that much work, i’d have planned better and painted each page out as it was and merely scan it in! of course there were advantages in my way of working as well, i had the opportunity to really play around with the composition, add effects, try out this and that position, etc. another part of this whole coursework i wish i could have done better is definitely my story. i really wanted more, originally. to go into greater details about Ah Meng’s life and contributions to Singapore, as i had discovered many fascinating things about Ah Meng during my research. yet due to my poor time management on my part i did not have enough time to come up with the few more pages i wanted..

Misgivings aside, i do have to say that ultimately, i am proud of the product, and relished the opportunity to create my own adorable illustration book

Playtime~

 

 

 

 

 

Title: Playtime – Media: Poster colour, Acrylic – Size: A3 - Approx. date: July

This was for 2008 art block test 2, expressing “playtime”. it’s kind of like a merge of ideas, the mess of playfulness, fun, all the things one would play with, be it a musical instrument, toys, etc. within a playground itself. Also, the people are heading there, silhouette of the excited dog pulling on it’s leash, a little kid tugging his father’s t-shirt, and the father cheekily tossing a baby in the air. the roman numerals around the area creates the imagery of a clock, to introduce element of time. in another sense, i’m indicating how playtime, as one grows older, is associated with the past, childhood, reminiscence, a break from reality. that’s why a decided to paint the items in the centre in black and white..

Sec 4 AEP exhibition

 

 

 

 

So yep the AEP girls have just put up their works in the exhibition area near the canteen and i went to take a look. the two works i’ll be talking about are leny’s and samantha’s, both of which i found very interesting.

First up: Leny’s.

when i first looked at this, i was bewildered. i wondered what the artist was trying to say. i looked at it for some time and when i really did not absorb anything from it apart from a shelf stocked with baked beans, i thought to myself, i guess this girl just really likes baked beans. later, thanks to dear Samantha, who gave me a very detailed tour, introducing me to each work, i was very ashamed when looking at this work with new insight. on the surface, well the piece is exactly what i had previously seen. can after can of baked beans. “buy 2 get 1 free” attractive offer indeed. but if one bothers to really go to the cans, pick one up and take a read, you might realise.

“The Original Bleach Maker since 1992″

“*May contain traces of bleach”

wow. it kind of hit me that i was the exact kind of audience the artist had been referring to. the kind that failed to see the fine print, failed to realise, failed to think. merely saw what i believed i was meant to see – a display of baked beans. completely missing out the crucial indicators. i had stares at the logo previously, i had thought about how she use “LENY” in place of the girls face in the logo, and i had totally missed the line underneath. upon my new revelation, it really provoked me to think that indeed, this is what concumerism is. people gobble down processed foods, without thinking about the junk they are putting into their bodies, people rush for bargains, and who ever bothers to read the fine print? the big picture shows baked beans, the label reads baked beans, so it must be baked beans. the artist here throws you the question: must it?

linking back with quite a lot of news recently about china’s food products (more of food scares), from cardboard as a substitue for meat, to the melamine pet food debacle to pickled vegetable made with salt that clearly stated “Not for human consumption”. while i was first pretty apalled at the whole “may contain traces of bleach” i later realise that hey, this is what is happening. it’s not exaggerated at all.

overall i’d think this piece of work effectively spread the message, and impacts its audience. where on the surface it seems ordinary, it causes one to wonder what the artist is trying to do, and on a closer analysis, well lets just say the artist successfully get’s her desired effect.

i subsequently started thinking, do i accept things too easily for what they are? the artist not only raises the issue of consumerism but also puts forth the idea that perhaps people have started to grow too comfortable, and starting to neglect minor things in life, as they focus on that which they percieve as “important” when really, its the things they choose to believe its insignificant that really makes the difference. interesting, eh? 

Next up: Samantha’s work

*i had captured a photograph of it but my memory card messed up on me so it’s gone will upload a picture soon.

Samantha’s work showcases 2 paintings of her sister (amazingly realistic i have to comment with admiration ) side by side, exactly the same, only the one on the left is ripped, slit, cut. the image as such is quite strong, and with the girl in the painting smiling happily, one wonders, whats with the slashing, a seemingly violent, and harsh element. it’s quite an irony.

her work has to do with photographs. she questions, what are they (something along those lines) where to many people photos serve as memories, photos are a very precious item which captures a time in the past, feelings, emotions, etc. yet if you think about it they are but a piece of paper. she indicate the fragility of a photo with the slashing across the painting on the right. i find her train of thought, her ideas, very eye-opening and insightful, and it actually got me really excited.  

indeed, a photo is a memory, something we hold on tightly to, but then again, whats is the point of the “memory” when we no longer remember it? think a bout it. we may look at a photo and go “wow i can’t even remember i’ve been there/ done that” and as such the photo would no longer hold much significance. we cannot recall the emotions captured by it. it becomes a mere picture. or a person, doing an action.

Here, the artist also challenges the definition of a photo. she is introducing the concept of photographs, yet it is a painting of a photograph. is it, then, a photograph?

Now then, a single stitch across on of the many slits indicate mending. the stitching is very small and feeble in comparison to the slit. it’s as if the artist is implying as fragile as a photograph is, it can be mended, but will the stitches be able to patch up the memories completely? i don’t think so. the damage is done.

kudos to Sam! i love your work! xD

Performance art – Scarlet

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I figured I’d talk some about scarlet- performance art yes? 

The whole process of doing scarlet was a major challenge, provoking me to think, to argue, to accept, to question, and to finally understand. Scarlet explores concepts of women, delving into issues of oppression, challenges, body image, genocides, expectations, stereotypes, etc.

I shall discuss some of the main elements of the performance, as a performer myself. The thing about Scarlet-Final Installment, being a postmodern piece, it’s really meant for each individual audience to look at it, question it, and think about it. What does this mean, what does that mean, what are the performers trying to say? Even us as the cast, we too ask ourselves these questions and even as we ourselves encode the play, it’s up to us to decode it as well. So here’s my personal decoding of Scarlet: (I will only depict the scenes which are more of imagery as the rest focus more on acting and speech to get the message across)

The play starts with random groups of people cheerfully belting out the song “que sera sera”, the lyrics are mutated. The singers are spirited and happy, they are young and do not know even what they are singing about. They are carefree. Once the 3rd group is done singing, its as if a sudden realization falls upon them, the mood is now solemn as they rise to merge the separate clusters of tables they were sitting on to form a single square. They now sing the original version of “que sera sera”. Its as if they have grown to be able to think, so suddenly see the need to seek comfort, defense in numbers, to gather together for strength, as the tables form a sturdy square which they surround. Maybe they are protecting it, maybe they are depending on it. What is it? I’d like to think its their identity, the bonds women share, their grievances, each other, something reliable, something they can be sure of. Yet thinking about it in another dimension you realize as sturdy as the tables are, their sticky legs are really thin and maybe the structure isn’t as strong as we think it is, which brings us a whole other perspective. Maybe women are deceiving themselves, when they think they’ve got such strong support in each other. Maybe they see the surface of a whole sheet of white and fail to take note of the holes and gaps underneath..

Later in a series of steps, according to a ticking sound, they fall to the ground, they rise again, they fall, they rise, they fall, they rise. Setbacks, growth, setbacks growth, setbacks growth. Life is playing with them, tossing them up and down. Yet no matter how many times they fall they only rise up to a certain height again and again and again, they never seem to be able to penetrate the glass ceiling which seems to be above them. There’s a limit, a boundary which they fail to break through. It’s the pressure on women from the society, it’s the limits it places on them. They rise to what seems to be the maximum potential (standing up), but when you think about it, they are merely rising to the bare minimum. (i.e. their hands are down, straight, rather they stretched upwards. They don’t make use of the platform to reach a greater height, etc.)

The next scene – a visual picture of corpses is thrown at the audience. Its warped in the sense it seems the women are rushing to be corpses. They are in a hurry, it’s a worrying dilemma as they dash under the table in what I’d decode as seeking shelter, escaping, hiding from the threat of death, and yet seconds later rush to the very thing they were escaping from – death. Perhaps as we’re thinking about the issue of rape and genocide (which is the next scene), the women wish to escape, but yet as time runs out they rather be the corpses that lie on the table, because then, they wouldn’t have to suffer, they’d be numb.

Ok well, this will be terribly lengthy if I continue at this pace talking about every scene lol. I’ve actually pretty much covered the ones that I wanted to decode because the rest are pretty straightforward in the sense that it’s more of acting than images. I will however mention a few more elements of the performance.

The running. Throughout the play it seems these women are running. They do it in a slow motion, controlled, form. Everyone does it in the same way, no matter who they are. The running starts after rape and genocide, and it never ended. Right till the last scene, the women were running. Were they running away? Were they trying to catch up? Does the running just represent the road the women take for the rest of their life? A trying, tiring, conformed one? These are the 3 ideas I come up with when I think of the running. It could be all 3, really. In a sense the rape and genocide scene indicates the status of women being lower than that of man, that it is the males that sexually assault the females, degrading them. And with this difference in status comes the trying race to gain back what was lost – the equal status, the dignity. Yet the running is slow, and it does not accelerate at any point. The question implied: are women’s attempts futile? Maybe the running is slow because they are tired, maybe they are tired because they are burdened, with the multiple responsibilities a woman faces, (which is introduced in acting scenes along the way), because of the pressure and expectations they try, or even long to fulfill, (beauty). And maybe that’s why the running is robot-like, controlled. Because these are basically the stereotypes for women.

Also, the costume presented is a basic one of a black tank top and tights. Characters throw on outfits but beneath they all wear the same thing. (The decoding for this part is pretty obvious yes?) its almost as if a mask they are wearing, representing how women are materialistic, conscious. Yet at the final scene when the women release the clothes they were wearing, back to the basic, the bare minimum, it’s as if they release that bondage, that consciousness. For me personally, I also find another side of it. A tank top and tights for me as a costume, I am definitely not comfortable in it. Figure hugging, and bare. Again we draw a parallel to how even as the women finally take off the outermost layer, they lose their self consciousness. They realize it is time to be comfortable in the body they are in.

So there. Many people ask questions about these parts. What do they mean? What is the message? According to our director, there is no right or wrong answer. Suggest your own understanding and he’d respond “could be”. Because there isn’t always someone to tell you exactly what this part means, what that part represents. People can walk out of the play gaining very varied insights, it’s fine. Even for me when I went through the process of creating this work, many times I was clueless about what was going on. The above is ultimately my own personal interpretation.

toys!

 

 

 

 

 

Medium: Poster colour – Size: A3 – Approx date: June

These were research paintings for art block test – playtime. just some items to play. i like the teddy, the dice, the cube, and the rubber ducky! though my rubik’s cube is really out of shape xD

 

 

 

 

 

Medium: Pencil - Approx size: 8cm x 8cm – Approx. date: July 2008

they’ve gotten really faint upon scanning but here’s 2 really random sketches done in class.. the first is mr peter rabbit, who i adore for he is indeed utterly adorable (: and the latter is my view of miss Su Kuang, (her hair, mainly, which happened to look really smooth) who at the moment, sits slightly perpendicular to me. just some doodling when lesson loses significance ^^

Our tree!

 

 

 

 

 

Title: the tree of life! – Approx. size: 4m by 3m? – Media: Acrylic paint; Poster colour – Approx date: July 2007

 Ah yes, i’m sure every GAP girl will remember this masterpiece put together through the hard work of every single one of us! from the measuring, to the drafting, to the enlarging to scale, drawing grids and lines alll over massively huge pieces of paper, painting, painting, painting! putting it together and realising it doesn’t fit, and then arranging it on the green background, taking up the whole floor area near the canteen and judging it from the second storey…lol! have to say, the green dot exhibition was really fun!

So then, which part is mine! heh its towards the bottom right hand corner.. the octopus, lovebirds, snail, fish and yellowish stingray were my part of this tree. don’t be decieved by the picture, the whole tree was really big, covering a whole wall. it was a pleasant bonus when our work was selected to be the cover of nanyang’s coffee table book

top hat!

 

 

 

 

Media: Mixed Media - Approx. size: 4cm x 4cm x 4cm – Approx date: 2006

This was a little top hat created using cardboard-the hat, a broken earring-the flower, and tissue-the rim and the “feathers”!

UK!

 

 

 

here are a couple of my favourite pictures from my global classroom programme last year, the literary tour in UK..

quiet, empty lane.. a single woman walking. cool yes? i really like this xD

now these.. are a series of a hot air balloon flying above me. 2 VERY NICE THINGS TO NOTE: the beautiful sky!! and the clouds<3 and the very pretty colours and swirls on the hot air balloon.

Imperial war museum! D

warwick castle

and a couple from lake district

love the lake! so serene..

sun set! which was at like what? 9/ 10 o’clock?

play!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Media: ink; poster colour – Size: A4 – Approx. date: April 2008

These were done during art lesson.. we were to “play” and just randomly try to create some pieces. was pretty afraid to experiment at first and came up with pieces of work.. that didn’t really look like pieces of work, more like random squiggles. got the hang of it later and i like these 4 the most. had managed to see some of my fellow classmate’s work and they were so much more creative than me, really playing - crushing the paper, making use of strings, white glue, etc. they went all out and had fun, and produced really nice pieces too.

bear with me, its a MR BEAN SERIES!

 

and here goes! ^^

 

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* i am dreadfully ashamed to admit that these were taken with my lousy handphone camera ( because well, at those moments i did not have my digital camera at hand.. i still love the pictures though, what can i say, i love mr bean and he follows me everywhere! i’ll keep expanding the series, just you wait xD

Ah Meng

 

 

 

 

 

Medium: Pencil – Size: ~5×5 inches - Approx. date: April 2008

For course work this year, we’re doing illustrations.. and i’m coming up with a picture book on the late Ah meng! to start off.. what better thing to draw than Ahmeng herself?

Coursework 2007

 

 

  

Title: Break the fast  - Media: Acrylic – Size: ~A1 – Approx. date: Sept 2007

This was last years coursework.. a pretty big painting with acrylic of food! i wanted to have people look at my painting and feel hungry, and happy. xD a lot of it is based on personal preference in terms of the food. breakfast-my favourite meal of the day, foods i like to eat. using a setting of green land, a single tree growing strong and the clear blue sky, and imagery of a single kite flying high in the sky all serve to depict joy and refreshment. the title of “break the fast” is used two ways, firstly well, literally breakfast, and also, to mean taking a step out of the rush, the hectic schedules, the complex, and step into the simple, the basic. the perspective of the viewer here is almost as if standing beside the table and glancing out

i enjoyed working on this piece a lot because i love really everything that was in it, every part of it. the clear deep blue skies, the empty fields, *the food*, etc. the theme for the course work was something like “me and…” or “me as a …” and stuff like that. what can i say? this painting is quite a bit of me, in many aspects.

what i wished i could have done was to really find such a setting, gather the food, arrange it and capture the image via photography. i had done reaserach on the food items, and everything else, very individually, and did not try to explore the composition as a whole single piece. perhaps thats why the final work seems slightly disjointed to me.

Food.

 

 

 

 

 

Media: Pencil (apple); Water colour (everything else)  - Size: A4 – Approx. date: June 2007

Some preliminary sketches/paintings of yummy food i love (cherry! cupcakes! donuts! apple! waffles!) in preparation for coursework last year… the apple was sketched with direct observation (apples are easily available around my house ((:), that one took some time whereas the rest were more of random painting with slight reference to pictures/ images or simply without reference, completed within a minute or so. i really like the freedom, simplicity and playfulness of such rough paintings, and the ease of shades that comes with water colour.

 

 

 

 

Medium: Acrylic - Size: ~ 3×3 inches – Approx. date: Aug 2007

i love my apple! doesn’t it look realistic? (: i sat there with an apple before me and proceeded to produce… THIS! one of the many foods i would later draw for my coursework piece.

graces!

 

 

 

 

 

 

my graces design

 

 

 

 

 

 

(first drafts)

Logo logic!

Was having a look at some logo designs.. and really got me thinking, does the logo help make the product? because some of these logos are really so classic..

the starbucks “twin-tailed siren”!

The nike swoosh!

Apple’s apple!

they’re all really simple aren’t they? is it just because their products are good and popular, and the logos follow suit? well i don’t really know. it’s quite a mystery. when we look at these three of my favourite logos, we wonder, why did nike choose the simple “tick” or more accurately, “swoosh”? what has the twin tailed siren have to do with coffee? why does apple’s logo have a bite in it? were theses logos the result of thorough exploration and multiple reformations? or were they just random doodlings-turned mult-billion dollar worth icons?

it suddenly strikes me how important logos are. they are the face of the brand! which nike product does not have the nike logo? indeed, that tiny little swoosh would easily make a product worth a couple hundred times its cost price lol. did you know the swoosh represents the wing of a Greek Goddess? simple, fluid, fast, it somehow manages to embody both the meaning behind the word “Nike” (the Greek Goddess of victory), and at the same time effectively incorporate the swift and agile nature of sports, running.  fascinating eh?

when we think about the apple logo, in fact the “bite mark” was to symbolize the concept of seduction of the customers and the marketplace in general. personally i also find it gives the logo a sharp edge, showing how the company is not plain, boring, a mild, which is what a normal apple might look like, smooth throughout with mild curves, and with that single bite mark, it renders the logo edgier and much more interesting.

Starbucks’ logo is a very unique and pretty design. but i had no idea what was the symbolism or meaning of the twin tailed siren, and especially why starbucks chose to use this as their logo. apparently these “sirens” (something like mermaids) of ancient Greece are known as seductresses, inspiring desire, and therefore similarly applicable to Starbucks’s temptation, luring their customers to a sip of their coffee. as for why twin tailed? you tell me.

now this next logo happens to be my favourite one. you might be shocked. that i chose..

We live to deliver! what has me all hyped up about this design?? you might think it is terribly boring, and how such little effort was spent coming up with a logo. i mean it’s just mainly the name of the company, thats all! right? Nope! take a closer look, can you spot the arrow? i spent about 5 minutes looking at the big FedEx logo upon the top of a building opposite the Singapore Expo the day my friend asked me the question. my eyes traced through each letter.. what arrow was she talking about? what kind of arrow? there’s no arrow! and then suddenly, like BOOM i saw it. A wonderful optical illusion, a innovative play of positive and negative space, a hidden sign symbolising the  speed and precision and forward moving of this courier office. i was amazed. i was in a whole other dimension! lol what makes me most captured by this logo is how it cheekily plays with you, where at first you could not find the arrow, or never knew there was that arrow, upon finidng out, every single time you merely glance at the logo, the arrow JUMPS out at you, seriously, and you wonder why you never saw it before.

Go FedEx!!

Containers

 

 

 

 

  

 

Title: Containers – Medium: Acrylic – Size: A3 - Approx. date: Oct 2007

This was the 2007 GAP end of year exam. Where the title is “containers”, these may seem rather irrelevant but i was trying to express containers in a perspective different from conventional interpretations. Definition of containers: Something that holds something else such as a box, bottle or can. Well, doesn’t a dictionary contain knowledge, a photo frame contain memories, a scrunchie contains hair, tying everything together, a flower bud contains potential… etc. there’s so much more to containers than boxes, jars, and tins. 

 

 

 

 

some of my research sketching and paintings.

One big fat egg!

 

 

 

 

 

Title: SUNNY SIDE UP! – Media: Clay; Poster paint; – Approx. size: 13cm x 10cm x 3cm – Approx date: 2006

Here’s a few photos of my egg made of clay back during art lessons in sec 2. i had  made a char siew pau too and a turtle but those have since disappeared this was my favourite piece out of the lot though, and thats why it’s been nicely kept since then.

there’s something about using your bare hands to create art, moulding the piece of clay into the shape you want it to, feeling the texture beneath your hands that i really like. creating a 3D piece is nothing like creating a 2D one. a lot more thought of perspectives go into it, you can’t simply think about how it looks from this angle, or that side, but you really have to understand how the item you are creating looks, in every possible angle.

of course looking at my egg, it is definitely terribly unrealistic in terms of proportions. xD have you seen THAT much egg yolk or egg white in one egg? its very exaggerated. what can i say, haha its really like how the whole media industry does things isn’t it? look at a picture of the delicious, humongous, brightly coloured and *juicy* burgers on advertisements and then think about how they really look. dull. flat. actually abit un-appetising. lol! did you know that too make food look good on ads they actually spray like wood polish on the food to make it look goood! and pictures of ice cream are usually made with mash potatoes, cause, real ice cream melts! lol ok a bit off-topic here but well, just a train of thought.

Interval

 

 

 

 

 

Was just playing around with adobe illustrator the other day during art and came up with this. it says, well, interval.

Keys

 

 

 

 

Title: Keys - Medium: Pencil – Size: A3 - Approx. date: May 2006

This was a sketch from Sec 2 of keys!

One dried leaf.

 

 

 

 

Title: a dried leaf - Media: Water colour - Size: A3 - Approx. date: March 2006

Collage

 

 

 

 

Title: Modern Living - Medium: Mixed media - Size: A3 - Approx. date: 2006

a collage from pieces of paper cut from magazines. i like the pastel colours a lot (: named this modern living because, well, thats the message i think of when looking at it. kind of like subtle, trying, pleasant, easy, clean, squashed, fragmented, rigid… quite a bit of irony eh?

Pattern

 

 

 

 

 Media: Marker; Later wood carving and print - Size: A3 - Approx. date: Oct 2006

Final design for a wood print piece way back in sec 2.. patterns patterns patterns..

 

 

 

 

(a draft exploration prior to that)

 

 

 

 

Medium: Pencil - Approx. size: A5 – Approx date: Feb 2008

 

we had gone to the National Museum for a exhibition of greek masterpieces from Louvre, which was indeed a rare and fascinating opportunity. this was a sketch i did. there were many beautiful sculptures there, which really takes your breath away, yet quite a few with chipped parts which you wish weren’t. to think that some of these were 2000 years old..

i have to admit it was a pity i weren’t more aware of Greek mythology and the lives of ancient Greeks, and could only take in the masterpieces for what i saw them as. still, it was a very interesting experience (:

Portrait of a girl

 

 

 

 

  

 

Medium: Acrylic - Size: A3 - Approx. date: July 2007

A reproduction of a portrait of Mademoiselle Irene, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, done for GAP last year using acrylic. i think the girl is really pretty (:

for some reason my works turn paler after scanning.. my original painting has a more intense colour.

Reproducing someone else’s work is really not as easy as it may seem at first. while working on this, mixing the right colour, getting the right position and size of the eyes, an identical shape of the nose, etc. all proved very challenging.

 

 

 

 

Here’s the real thing.  my version really pales in comparison ): the original artist managed to paint the girl with a lot more depth and much more realistically. He managed to make her look really pure and beautiful.. there’s this glow to her which i was unable to produce.