Perspectives from the Ideal City - Peter Chen (Post Museum, 24 Feb 2011)

Stadium



Library



Highway

Peter Chen's "Perspectives from the Ideal City" features some stunning panoramic prints documenting what seems like a systematic demolition of unbelievably iconic pieces of Singapore's Post-Independence architecture, deemed by various policies to be of architectural unimportance, or overridden by a competitive market driven by practicality and money.

From the Artist's Statement: "However, one occasionally sees a momentary rupture in the fabric of the city as it leaves in its wake a physical presence that reveals itself through the fissure in its arithmetical logic. It is the intention of this research to capture the momentary isolation of such 'reveals' - urban slippages that betray the conditions of the capitalism where progress was unable to erase or assimilate."

I enjoy the idea of these spots being a kind of "urban slippage" - the same way I relate to the Singapore River being some kind of psychogeographical faultline. Through the demolition of such sites which have already etched into people's hearts and memories, even the empty spots where they used to lie still remain haunted for those who find meaning in spaces and memories; it is the punctum of the image. I am also glad that someone has taken the pains to document these places before the connection becomes more and more faint and the dots can no longer be connected between memory and place.

The Pearly Gates (Post Museum, 15 Jan 2011)

A collaboration between Marc Gabriel Loh, Clare Marie Ryan, Jon Stahn and Jes Brinch.

"THE PEARLY GATES is a collaboration between 2 Singaporean and 2 Danish artists. It is an installation incorporating murals, landscape paintings, sculptures, objects, lights and music, integrated into a total experience. The theme of sexual liberation has fueled a series of humorous artwork that equally depicts and transcends the conventional stereotypes of both art and sexuality."

The merlion dick is a personal favourite.

There is also a story involving us standing outside Post with cans of GODFATHER when a strange, possibly slightly drunken arabic man from yemen carrying a bottle of gin walks past and insists that me and Ivonne eat this box of mexican chili with him immediately. We determine that the food is not drugged after inviting more people to eat (and no one falls over dead). I ask him, "would you like to come in to see the art?", but to our great confusion he seemingly mishears it as "would you like to smoke a joint", because he suddenly bursts into a diatribe as such: "YOUNG GIRL YOU MUST NOT SMOKE WEED IN SINGAPORE!" "No no I did not say anything about drugs, I said, would you like to see the art inside?" "NO! DRUGS ARE BAD FOR YOU! STAY AWAY FROM DRUGS!" "Sure, but I said, art, not drugs..."

(WHAT?)

Digi Daub (Post Museum, 21 Nov 2010)

two images which I particularly liked at the small show at Post Museum - creating organic shapes out of purely digital medium. the show consisted of digital painting works from students from School of Art Design and Media (Nanyang Technological University).