Brief introduction to the South Beach exhibition site, vandalised walls in the canteen and tatched roofs.

This is my personal favourite. The whole story goes like this. One day, this cresent befalls on the roof of a man's house. Then the responsible man started taking care of it, feeding it apples, carrying it across the bridge, rowing it in a boat to cross a river..

I think its super sweet! btw, not all the photos are here..i chose my favourite ones.=P

This is also another piece that i like. The story goes like this. One day, Jiamin decided to open up her own hair saloon. Her friends came for a haircut and found out that there are no mirrors on one side of the wall and decided to crawl through. Okay i dunno how to continue.. btw, its really cool!

This piece is called "REFLECTIONS". It actually has 2 identical saloons side by side. But the wall that connects the two don't have mirrors at all. This illusion is caused by a reflection of the two rows of mirror at the further end of both rooms. OMG WHAT A COOL CONCEPT!!
From left to right, the first one consists of many boxes of belongings, full of books, softoys, cans, clothes, which is built up into 4 walls and within these four walls is a small room with no shelter. This artpiece is trying to show the llife of philippines immigrants, who work overseas to send money and such necessities back to their families for them to build their homes.

Can u spot me? I am in the second photo!

From left to right, the first one is called "breathing space". Its just a vacant room with four plain white walls. The second one!!! It shows a photo of a landslide and an overturned car. Guess what,all of them are made up of food!! The trees are made from vegetables. COOL!! The one on the extreme right is the famous "BEAUTY AND THE BEAST". Can you spot them?=D

29 Sep 2008

noon

Hey Orange,

Yesterday i went to south beach building to volunteer as an exhibition site officer for the art Biennale festival. It was my first time there so spent quite some time familiarising with the surroundings. I was in charge of this exhibit entitled "Tuning fork of the mind" located at Blk 1. The lighting in the room was dim and there was one pathetic air conditioner in the corner which did not really serve its purpose since only that particular corner is cool. Hai..the whole place was super hot and stuffy coz theres no air-con plus the weather was ultra humid. We were all sweating like mad! But its not that bad..coz there are lots of intricate artefacts with interesting concepts that really kept me going.

There are actually 3 major sites for this year's festival. The south beach one represents art in the past. The ones at city hall and marina bay are the more contemporary, modern ones. I hope i'll be posted there next time! Coz theres air-con!

Okay back to the south beach site. It was once a military camp base but now no longer in use. And guess what..its called beach road because the current beach road was previously a beach! So suntec city stands on reclaimed land! Pardon me for my ignorance..coz i really didn't know that part of the city centre is reclaimed! But anyway its rather cool to be in an old army camp. There are 3 main buildings in total and one large parade square, probably where thousands of NS men were once marching on. The buildings are very dilapitated and the floors of the rooms are full of cracks and dirt. The walls are a dirty grey, some freshly painted black to fit the themes of certain exhibits. I like the windows best. It is not like the windows installed in our households today, secured with grills and glass panels. Their windows are the older types. You just push it open and you get in touch with the outside world.

The exhibit i was in charge of had lots of interesting case studies, experimental results and videos on the study of the human brain. But what the artist wanted to convey was that not every scientific findings are true. Many theories have been deemed wrong and new theories are conjectured. I agree=) The room opposite is eerie. It screened a video of a shaman(like priests) conducting a spiritual ritual. The old lady made scary noises! One moment she was breathing heavily, then she started screaming and crying. Throughout my whole 5 hours there I could hear her! Initially i really freaked out but slowly got used to it. Towards the end i nearly feel asleep!

The number of visitors was pathetic although its a sunday. Coz everyone is busy preparing for F1.I met this very knowledgable lady and before i can start explaining the art pieces to her, she was already saying," Oh this artist. She is based in Singapore. That explains why this exhibit is so detailed, because its a lot more convenient than other artists from overseas who have to ship everything over." I was like stunned. Okay.. so i decided to keep my mouth shut and learn from her. The people i met were quite humorous, so i had a rather enjoyable time both talking to and learning from them!=D

At around 4pm, my duty has ended, so went downstairs to meet Jianqing and Ye Wu. ahha.. the ppl at the customer relations counter are quite funny too. So today i got to know a few people. Melissa from NP, really can make me laugh my pants off ahah! Then theres the people in charge of the exhibition site, mostly from TP. Very friendly and had a nice time chatting=)

Finally theres our tour guide who brought us around the whole place after our duty ended. He's very knowledgable and billingual. Thank you although i dont know your name! ahah i had a memorable tour!

Oh i forgot to mention that we all got 12 bucks as reimbursement fees for our transport and lunch and still have CIP hours! Although this whole day have left me dead tired, i think it has been worth my time!

Bade goodbye and went off to Ah gong's house. WootS! Daddy cooked delicious crab, prawns and meat. YUM! I had a sumptous dinner! Then i taught my noisy cousin maths. Ok la, Xinying, you can do it de, as long as you're not lazy. Must get higher than me for PSLE! And okay..and my two other irritating cousins kept disturbing us. Okay..nvm..

Got home at 10plus. Then chat with Erning on the phone. Then fell asleep.

lots of love,

cJiaM