Asian Public Art News

The Tree

2009-07-12T16:04:00.003+08:00

question,
originally uploaded by draken413o.

Lovely public art intervention as part of the Singapore Night Festival. Inspired by the banyan tree just nearby, with dangling microphones substituting for aerial roots. It responds quietly to the ambient sounds. This is a slightly "drama" capture by Draken413o. The Tree is created by FARM, the art/design collective that runs the ROJAK series of events.

Other interventions as part of the Night Festival were also successful and popular, including Sun Yu Li's LED piece and Donna Ong's Crystal City inside the Museum. Attended the first part of Substation's entry, Amanda Heng's Let's Walk Some More, which paid attention to the lost and missing as well as the spectacular.

Aerosol Arabic in Malaysia

2009-07-01T23:10:00.002+08:00

Check it out here...

Intriguing project announcement - (on the invaluable Farm.sg)

2009-05-24T13:30:00.001+08:00

"Are you bold enough to challenge the official strategy? Are you humble enough to listen to your surroundings and cooperate with the general public in shaping your art project?

Window for dialogue want to open up familiar sites in Singapore and develop tactical responses to exclusive city planing, commercialization of everyday life and public exclusion in decision making. Concerned with the shifting notions of site-specific art, and the emerging informal public sphere, it is the objective of Window for dialogue to experiment with public participation in the constructive process of public space and initiate a dialogue about how the public sphere is utilized. This will be achieved by inviting the general public, in corporation with artists, academics and the authorities to partake in the creation of public site-specific artworks."

Contact: Nik Tao. theoperativeoffice@gmail.com

LINK

Horse-Head

2009-05-10T17:40:00.002+08:00

Bohemia,
originally uploaded by chooyutshing.

Last Tuesday I walked across Raffles Place for a meeting nearby. I purposely chose a route that would allow me to walk through the area, one of the more important (and usually quite pleasant) public spaces in Singapore. My mood was spoiled very quickly.

I'm not sure I've ever seen anything quite as disturbing as these "Fashionista Horseshoe" things placed around Raffles Place. This amalgam of hindquarters, high-heeled shoe and horsehead pressed to the ground is simply spooky. As I read in the Sunday Times of May 10, the sculptures, commissioned by the Singapore Turf Club, are shown "perched atop giant shoeboxes". (But not giant enough to actually be capable of holding the horseshoes I can't help but note.)

From the Sunday Times I also learned that these "Fashionista Horseshoes" were placed at Junction8, Plaza Singapura and Clarke Quay by CapitaLand, in addition to Raffles Place.

I guess this blog's (fading) commitment to cover public art means I have to look at stuff like this an comment, but really it's too depressing.

Cow Under Surveillance

2009-02-08T10:46:00.005+08:00

Cow Under Surveillance,
originally uploaded by Sentosa Girl.

Asian Public Art News welcomes good advertising in public spaces. We're not like the Mayor of Sao Paolo, Brazil, who banned billboards.

A recent self-promotional foray by Singapore outdoor ad co, Moove Media, an arm of public transport giant Comfort Delgro, raises questions. Today's Sunday Times had the news that more than 200 of the 600 CNY-themed cut-out cows placed in public spaces had been stolen, despite the presence of "cows under surveillance" signs. So, the natural question, in law-abiding Singapore: why did so many people steal the cows? 1) Because they loved them so much and wanted to take them home? 2) because they hated them and thought they were a blight on the urban landscape, and wanted to remove them?

Purely aesthetic motives don't begin to capture it -- this sort of "theft" is all about authority. My guess is that the cow-eye-lash surveillance signs and the ease with which the cows could be removed together constitute something just short of an invitation to vandalize... (it wouldn't be vandalism if you were overtly invited to "steal this cow"). You are invited to transgress in a safe and relatively wholesome way that will give the advertising company lots of free publicity. And this almost-invitation to transgress is probably quite powerful, especially in law-abiding Singapore. I'm guessing that "number of cows stolen" was a KPI for this particular campaign - how else to get this sort of publicity (well timed for a slow news day)?

What was the ostensible reason for placing the cows in public spots around the island? Says Moove Media CEO Jayne Kwek, "to bring cheer and hope to Singaporeans". (Makes me a bit depressed, really. ) When asked whether the cow campaigns have a commercial point: "Even if the benefit is intangible, it doesn't matter as that's not the point. To me, the landscape is my canvas and this is art..."

Well, I think outdoor advertising execs should try and be just a little more humble or thoughtful about the public space which is "your canvas". As for your art, we thought the white elephants of Buangkok were actually a lot more interesting and cheerful than your cows. They were also the victim of some sanctioned vandalism...

Creative Home - an interview with founder of Social Creatives

2008-12-23T08:43:00.003+08:00

Today's Agatha Koh Brazil interviews Faris Basharahil, 20-year old founder of Social Creatives. We like what he has to say about images of home in Singapore:

“If you ask a Singaporean to draw a house, a typical interpretation would be a square-shaped building with a triangular roof. Perhaps there is a chimney while on the front there are two windows and a door.
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“But where can you find a house like that in Singapore?
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“Surprisingly not many people draw HDB flats with poles hanging out by the many windows ... This exercise shows how there is a misalignment to what we see and how we feel for our home.”

Faris was behind the recent project to paint public dustbins along Orchard Rd. For more pix, go here. While it didn't excite us as much as Farm.sg's Stamp project, it still shows some very useful thinking about urban landscape. Good luck Social Creatives... keep it coming!

Image is found on the Social Creatives homepage... to think - what a nice fantasy of the relationship between young people and their urban environment.

nice capture - some current Singapore graffiti

2008-12-20T10:46:00.001+08:00

Chinatown Singapore - December 2008-16
Originally uploaded by images by helen

The backlanes... it's all happening in the backlanes...

Globalization and monuments - let's move the Little Mermaid to Shanghai (or the Merlion to Venice)

2008-11-22T14:39:00.001+08:00

Well, if we are really globalizing, can't monuments move across continents too? Once upon a time, monuments were thought to be the very embodiment of a spirit in place, crystallizing shared memory and community-created meaning in a landscape or cityscape. But in today's world, we can't imagine communities that can fit any monuments (or is it that we just lack the ability to dream up monuments to fit the non-communities we imagine?). So we are left with the next logical step - put those monuments in a container and ship them around the world. At least we can celebrate the fact that some of our monuments work just great as marketing icons, as the city's equivalent of the Nike swoop.

Architects working on the Danish pavilion in Shanghai's Expo 2010 have proposed to move the Little Mermaid to China. Hate to say it, but it seems a bit derivative of Lim Tzay Chuen's proposal to move the Merlion to Venice for the Venice Biennale 2005. However the public debate around this (see the Art Newspaper article) seems a heck of a lot more enjoyable and juicy than the Singapore equivalent: "We asked Cabinet to approve and they said no".

The Wall St Bull - great public art photo illustration by Ji Lee

2008-11-16T15:10:00.002+08:00

This illustration by Ji Lee accompanies an article by Michael Lewis in Conde Nast's Portfolio. It's a fine illustration, messing with an iconic piece of art. And it allows me to connect this public art blog and the compulsive reading I've been doing on financial crisis and economic slowdown...

Singapore Biennale in the public art biz - a win-win?

2008-09-08T11:37:00.005+08:00

In 2006, Singapore's Biennale organizers used the pulpit of Singapore's first Biennale to secure a series of public art commissions for VivoCity - major shopping center development. This approach continues, as an article in Friday's Business Times reveals. Relevant bits below:

"In fact, the Singapore Biennale committee is banking on the event to boost the city's public art scene in a way that people can still enjoy the works of some of the Biennale artists long after the event is over. That is why they are working to match artists with prospective 'clients' such as property developers to commission artworks for new buildings that the public can enjoy.

Win-win situation

'Part of the Biennale is to secure public commissions so that the (public art) landscape will change quite dramatically with each edition (of the Biennale),' explains Low Kee Hong, assistant director (visual arts) of the National Arts Council and general manager for the Singapore Biennale.

'Working with developers is a natural fit, since that enables artists to work closely with architects for new buildings. The advantage is that the artwork can interact intimately with the architecture,' he adds.

The win-win situation is that the Biennale gives developers access to different artists, local and international, most of whom are up-and-coming if not already established. These public sculptures and installations will act as landmarks and navigation points for malls, says Mr Low, likening it to Tokyo's Roppongi Hills where one can rely on public art to navigate the area.

'For the commissioned work this year, we're working with two developers: Sino Land which is developing Fullerton Heritage and its sister company Far East Organization, which is building Orchard Central mall,' says Mr Low.

Orchard Central will have the biggest commission to date, budgeting $10 million for 12 artists to come up with at least 12 works. Fullerton Heritage has commissioned two artists for the first phase of its development.

For this Biennale though, only the two works at Fullerton Heritage - by Frenchman Daniel Buren and Danish Jeppe Hein - will be ready for viewing. The pieces for Orchard Central will only be unveiled next April when the mall opens.

In 2006, Mapletree Investments commissioned a collection of 13 art pieces for VivoCity, at a cost of $1.5 million."

Anything to educate property developers on the possibilities of public art would seem like a very good idea. However several questions come to mind.

How does this activity, of matching developers and artists, work with (or against) the curatorial project of the Biennale?
Is this activity meant to make money for the Biennale?
Is the Biennale now competing with the small group of curators and gallerists who work to secure public art commissions in Singapore currently?
And my hobby horse, what is the Biennale's approach to the process of commissioning public works?

Graffiti

2008-05-25T10:13:00.001+08:00

Graffiti
Originally uploaded by melisateo

Melisa Teo is a book editor who's also a very happening photographer. (Just follow the link to her photostream to see what I mean). Here's a shot she did in Singapore. So tagging could be very cool, if we all had Melisa's eyes to see it... Or at least there's one tag out there that in the right light looks just perfect. I'm guessing this is back of Ann Siang Hill.

Singapore at the Cans Festival

2008-05-05T13:55:00.001+08:00

Uniquely Singapore style fascism
Originally uploaded by WowtheWorld

With all the press hype over the appearance of Singapore films at the Cannes Film Festival, it's a bit disappointing that a Singapore-related entry at the Cans Festival didn't merit a mention in the Straits Times. But here it is... nothing subtle about this!

Public sculpture in the way of retail experience? Off with their heads!

2008-04-19T19:15:00.006+08:00

Look what they've done to my sculpture, ma!

How to react to these latest images from Orchard Rd (by MMS from Lucy Davis)? Can they just speak for themselves? (Maybe not, as the figures appear to have been muzzled). Shall I get all pedantic on you and write an entry on the conflict between the needs of privatized retail space and real old-fashioned public space? If I did I could have the pleasure of quoting Daisy Loo, (a fiction writer would get in trouble for giving a character who is the Head of Retail for Jones Lang LaSalle in Singapore a name like that): "Retail is a living system which needs to be constantly refreshed."

No, I shall just sit back and present the pix, and let you enjoy the latest absurdity of Singapore's urban environment...(But I might just email Sun Yuli and ask him what he's going to do... surely this is a violation of his moral rights of authorship (as they call them in the UK)).

portrait of Thomas Woolner

2008-03-29T08:37:00.003+08:00

portrait of Thomas Woolner
Originally uploaded by Katong

Stumbled across this portrait of Thomas Woolner. He's the artist who created the Raffles sculpture that now sits in front of the Victoria Concert Hall in Singapore. This image is in the collection of the National Library of Australia. Follow the link for more info on the image.

Knitting Graffiti

2008-03-16T14:19:00.001+08:00

Am so loving the new possible angles of attack on the idea of "graffiti" - interventions in public space. Check out "knitting graffiti"...(thanks to Glenn Schloss for the reference - he points out that this recently received plenty of publicity in the US - more than many high profile big name commercial projects.

Move this tin can!

2008-02-10T13:08:00.002+08:00

The Art Newspaper does a story on the backlash against tasteless public art in London. Among the data points: an editorial in The Burlington, and an attack by Tim Knox of the Sir John Soane's Museum on the "epidemic of these Frankenstein monster memorials". It strings together some rather good criticisms of recent works, and speaks to a representative of the Westminster City Council, which is responsible for statuary. Worth a read.

"A colossal sculpture by Paul Day of a man and woman embracing (The Meeting Place) at St Pancras Station is described by Mr Shone thus: “As romantic as a couple who have just been refused a mortgage.” Mr Shone argues that Westminster City Council, which is responsible for the statuary of central London, should enforce stricter controls. A council spokeswoman said that it is “now consulting on plans to limit the number of applications for statues”. But Ian Leith, deputy chairman of the Public Monuments and Sculpture Association, says the problem is that no “government agencies actually audit public art”. This has led to the removal of works by Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth."

UPDATE: Here's an article in the New Zealand Herald covering the UK controversy, and pointing out the the Nea Zealand WWII War Memorial is attracting notice as one of the worst of the lot.

Not so delightful "Turkish delight"

2007-12-28T12:50:00.001+08:00

Public sculpture of the nude remains a crucial genre for Western public art. And there is still room to innovate this ancient form, as per Antony Gormley or Marc Quinn's Alison Lapper sculpture on the Fourth Plinth in London's Traflagar Square.

But I'm not sure that Olaf Metzel's work can claim to be in the same category. His life sized sculpture (left), displayed in the project space of the Kunsthalle Wien, near the Succession in Vienna Austria, portrays a slouching female nude, wearing only a headscarf. To me, the directness of Mentzel's giving a female nude figure a headscarf, and its crude title, "Turkish Delight", moves it from art to polemic, aimed squarely at the Muslim community of Austria. And there should be little surprise that the work has been vandalized twice.

Gerald Matt, Director of the Kunsthalle, has announced "deep respect" for differences in aesthetic opinion and religious feeling, and according to ArtForum "has said that such debates should not occur through violent means". But I am not sure that the public vandalism of a work which is purposely offensive really qualifies as violence. I'm afraid I'm with the vandals on this one. But they could have chosen a more positive way of making their feelings know, as indeed unnamed art activists did when they dressed Copenhagen's Little Mermaid in a burqa.

The 'mysterious tower' of CBD

2007-12-24T16:02:00.001+08:00

The unveiling of Momentum is beginning ... "Singapore's tallest sculpture" is being revealed, progressively, with the piece being completely unveiled on New Year's Even, "illuminated for the first time by a state-of-the-art lighting system". Says the commissioner:

"We hope the Singapore public will embrace this distinctive sculpture and in the fullness of time we believe it could become as iconic for Singapore's business and financial district as the 'Charging Bull' sculpture is for New York's Wall Street,"

A quick surf turns up no images of the first bits of unveiling...

Roman fountains run red

2007-11-11T13:55:00.001+08:00

In Teheran during the Iran-Iraq war the fountains ran red to symbolize the blood of the martyrs. Neither the Italian Baroque nor the post-modern tourist are into self-sacrifice kitsch, but blood in the water always makes for spectacle. Reminds me somehow of the Goofy Sufi's essay on overcoming tourism. As perhaps the most popular public monument in the world, does the Trevi gain or lose baraka from all these tourists? does it do so when the ~~blood of the martyrs~~ red paint of the futurists runs through it?

Nada Surf - an urban projection

2007-10-22T20:50:00.001+08:00

tip o' the hat to Ben Harrison for this one... Very clever urban projection... and a tune you can sing along to.

Kim Jong Il The Great Architect

2007-10-17T21:08:00.001+08:00

Architecture and authoritarianism, the pointer and the scale model, it's all here. This is how it's done boys and girls!

Courtesy of "We Make Money Not Art"

See also this previous blog entry on North Korean public art.

the bronzes are everywhere... in Singapore and in TV LAND!

2007-10-07T11:14:00.001+08:00

Aesthetic Grounds: has a fine story on a series of realistic lifesize bronze sculptures of television characters that are being placed around the US, as part of a series of donations by a cable tv channel. It's a chance for AG's Weiss to dig into the industry of realistic bronze casts... good fun. And the TV Land series makes Singapore's Tourism Board "pioneers" along the river seem pretty benign (and not without at least a hint of aesthetic merit...).

more from Sao Paulo - city without billboards

2007-08-19T12:20:00.001+08:00

We blogged this move by Sao Paulo (after all the world's fourth largest city) in January. Here's a story from Adbusters: #73 Carbon Neutral Culture / São Paulo: A City Without Ads. The rhetorical move that got this law passed seemed to be to characterise public advertising as visual pollution.

Notes for advertisers and urban designers, in case this measure gains popularity:
- at first, people got lost without billboards to orient themselves, now they find new points of orientation
- corporations are relying on their corporate colors for branding in public, painting their buildings, etc
- sometimes billboards are more about what they hide than what they show - Sao Paulo's slums are more present

And here's an excellent YouTube report that seems to have been the main source of the AdBuster story.

Yankee vodcaster interviews the mayor, anticonsumerist rock bands ("protect me from what I want"), advertising execs and so on. So is was this all a plot against ClearChannel?

an upward spiral? Singapore's "Tallest Sculpture" set for prominent intersection

2007-08-14T00:20:00.001+08:00

On National Day, Keppel Land issued a press release announcing their funding of a major new public art work in the traffic island formed at the meeting point of Raffles Quay, Collyer Quay and
Marina Boulevard. The work by artist David Gerstein is said to be 18.35 metres tall, to have been a technical challenge, and to have cost the developers of the adjacent One Raffles Place some two million Singapore dollars.

The patron's description of the work will have a familiar ring to students of Singapore's public sculpture. Says Mr David Martin, General Manager, One Raffles Quay Pte Ltd, "The sculpture will depict an upward spiral of progress and capture the energy and momentum of the district, Singapore and its people." As Tay Kheng Soon would say, we're getting another "screw-up" sculpture... (For more such "upward spirals" see here, here and, only half a block away from the site of the Gerstein, here.)

No image of the work was included in the press release. I'm going to resist prejudging the piece from what's available on the Internet of Mr Gerstein's work. Most of his work is colorful caricature, certainly populist.

You are not a tourist

2007-08-13T23:10:00.001+08:00

Knocked Down - the press report on Foreign Talents
Originally uploaded by Katong

The Singapore Art Show kicked off at the beginning of August. Should it be called "Singapore: not the Biennale"? Plenty of work in public spaces, including a series orchestrated by Sculpture Square called "You are Not a Tourist". Also a work by two artists known as Vertical Submarine (Joshua Yang and Justin Loke), a rought cement model of a migrant worker confronting the Raffles Statue on Boat Quay. As you can read from the article in Today, or the artists' blog, the piece was knocked over and damaged by a delivery van.

This is not the first time artists have confronted the Raffles statue. An Artists Village project called "Artists Investigating Monuments" performed a confrontation with the work on the same Boat Quay site in 2000 and presented it in a museum setting in 2005. I found these a bit more rewarding.