we all know that art is extremely subjective. but when you use art as an expression, how does one judge the art then? is it through the degree of emotion that is felt when one views the artwork? by how well the artist has managed to portray his/her emotions through the art?
i think emotion plays a big role in producing art. when one feels a certain way one usually acts a certain way. and when this happens, the art also conforms the same way. one good example would be frieda kahlo. with all her negativities in life she cannot help it by showing it in her artwork. all the pain and suffering she has to endure, it has to go somewhere right?
but i cant help but wonder where these artists get their concentration from when theyre under so much negativity. dont they break down when theyre literally re-painting that time of sadness in their lives? does being depressive produce a certain kind of art? a different art perhaps?
i used to think about negative things as well. didnt we all? i used to draw things that people would cringe to look at. like demons and people dying. dark sinister things which i do not even want to think about now lest it brings back all the memories.
then i think, not wanting to think about these things in the past. not wanting to think about the real world, where the real emotions happen. did that make me turn to fantasy art? where everything is surreal and composed? where anything can happen? come to think of it, it does seem like an escape route. a haven to hide from all the unwanted things in life.
having said that. art is making me go on a discovery of self. of my identitiy. it questions me about myself. what am i and what do i do? what is it that i want? maybe this is why we're encouraged to do all those self-portraits.
Saturday, September 27, 2008
Friday, September 19, 2008
a thought on the contemporary
with recent visits to the bienalle/artists village/substation and my newfound reading of neo-classicism, i find that art is becoming more and more of a contemporary playground. but maybe it is because of my nature of loving fine details in work though i dont have the ability to do so yet.
i just feel (note that its just a strong emotion) that we should bring back the old art like realism and neo-classicism back into the picture. im not certain whether it is still present or not but i kind of noticed that its just not here in our hot and humid oasis.
shouldnt there be a really really good portrait of lee kuan yew done like how jacques-louis david did it?
now that's thats a good idea.
i just feel (note that its just a strong emotion) that we should bring back the old art like realism and neo-classicism back into the picture. im not certain whether it is still present or not but i kind of noticed that its just not here in our hot and humid oasis.
shouldnt there be a really really good portrait of lee kuan yew done like how jacques-louis david did it?
now that's thats a good idea.
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
a short one
"a corkscrew uncorks a wine bottle because it only knows how to."
"a swiss army knife uncorks a wine bottle because it wishes to."
i dont know if im making sense. i thought of this while lying on my bed and the time was 2am i think. basically what i was thinking at that point of time is the difference between an artist that knows multiple media as compared to an artist that sticks to one media.
the multi-media artist (knife) can do whatever the other artist (corkscrew) does and he can do more than that. i wasnt thinking of indirectly insulting the one media artist but more of like, seeing the positiveness of having to be able to work with different media. if you can do more than you should. i think.
"a swiss army knife uncorks a wine bottle because it wishes to."
i dont know if im making sense. i thought of this while lying on my bed and the time was 2am i think. basically what i was thinking at that point of time is the difference between an artist that knows multiple media as compared to an artist that sticks to one media.
the multi-media artist (knife) can do whatever the other artist (corkscrew) does and he can do more than that. i wasnt thinking of indirectly insulting the one media artist but more of like, seeing the positiveness of having to be able to work with different media. if you can do more than you should. i think.
Sunday, September 14, 2008
Artists Village Exhibition/Substation
New Castle
Chua Chye Teck
i think photos 1(seascape) and 5(melted dumpster) has left more impact on me than the other photographs. for the first photo, i think it has quite a balanced composition. the horizon of the sea is masked by the heavy fog and thus we cannot really see where is lies. does it lie exactly in the center of the image? or is it off-center? also, the colors and the contrast between the fog and the sea is not really contrasting but more of a monotone so it doesnt evoke too much presence. this view of the sea kind of evokes questions like 'what is beyond?' or 'what's going to happen next?'.
as for the dumpster, i kept thinking about the story behind it. was it a fight? a protest? or just silly vandalism? the details of the dumpster is so clear that you get immediately drawn to it. the contrast between the slightly blurred housing and the different colors (red brick houses/bright blue dumpster) helps to do this as well. i could also feel that the incident of burning the dumpster was only recent. the plastic looks and feels as if it is still melting.
some of the pictures are cleverly composed to force the audience to question the image. to seek the story behind it. however, i find that this thing of questioning can get too repetitive. some of the pictures more or less gives you the same feeling and with that it gets boring to view the same scene over again.
The Artists Village: 20 Years On
Under The Table, All Going One Direction
1992 Mixed Media
Tang Da Wu
"the issue of unrestrained crocodile hunting for their skin in the making of leather handbags. the spirit of the crocodiles enter the spiritual world through and altar stained with their blood due to the insatiable greed of the humankind for leather products"
the artwork evokes a sense of dynamism and establishes flow going towards the audience when viewed from the front. here the sense of scale provokes the audience and gives a sense of fear, as the white cloth-like crocodiles look threatening even when portrayed as spirits and gives the audience a brighter picture of how large this problem or crocodile hunting really is.
the audience is first drawn by the elaborately detailed crocodiles and then moves up towards the altar and then the blood on the altar. upon reading the contextual information the audience will then understand the whole meaning of the work.
the altar is a cold steel/wooden structure that might represent the feeling of the entry into the spirit world. the side ornaments on the altar might be there to emphasize that is is an altar. the use of steel further emphasizes the harsh and cold cruelty in which these crocodiles are slain. the white cloth-like visage makes the crocodiles look ethereal. they have no eyes and look very skeletal due to their opaque covering and their wooden frames.
overall i think is is aesthetically pleasing. the white crocodiles gives a somber tone towards the attitude of the work. what strikes the audience at first is the scale and size of the artwork. the crocodiles are almost life-like both in scale and anatomy and to see so many in a close space gives a direct impact on the audience.
being in a group has its pros and cons. its pros are that you have a very encouragng environment where it is easier to be productive. you get the opportunity to mingle and interact with those that share common interests and ways of thinking, philosophies. the cons would have to be that your work shares the same notion with that of others. the message is along a somewhat similar track and the aesthetic of your work might look similar to the others in the group. you dont get to be different and that unique. it is only to a certain extent where you can be different but overall it is more or less the same.
its like being in a band. if a band plays rock music then everyone has to strike the same chord. there has to be a distinct similar sound to classify the music as rock music and to recognize that the people playing together are a band. having said that, it is possible (in music) to mix and match different genres of music together to form a different kind. that poses many questions to me regarding about how if it is possible to do the same with art. a question for another day perhaps?
Chua Chye Teck
i think photos 1(seascape) and 5(melted dumpster) has left more impact on me than the other photographs. for the first photo, i think it has quite a balanced composition. the horizon of the sea is masked by the heavy fog and thus we cannot really see where is lies. does it lie exactly in the center of the image? or is it off-center? also, the colors and the contrast between the fog and the sea is not really contrasting but more of a monotone so it doesnt evoke too much presence. this view of the sea kind of evokes questions like 'what is beyond?' or 'what's going to happen next?'.
as for the dumpster, i kept thinking about the story behind it. was it a fight? a protest? or just silly vandalism? the details of the dumpster is so clear that you get immediately drawn to it. the contrast between the slightly blurred housing and the different colors (red brick houses/bright blue dumpster) helps to do this as well. i could also feel that the incident of burning the dumpster was only recent. the plastic looks and feels as if it is still melting.
some of the pictures are cleverly composed to force the audience to question the image. to seek the story behind it. however, i find that this thing of questioning can get too repetitive. some of the pictures more or less gives you the same feeling and with that it gets boring to view the same scene over again.
The Artists Village: 20 Years On
Under The Table, All Going One Direction
1992 Mixed Media
Tang Da Wu
"the issue of unrestrained crocodile hunting for their skin in the making of leather handbags. the spirit of the crocodiles enter the spiritual world through and altar stained with their blood due to the insatiable greed of the humankind for leather products"
the artwork evokes a sense of dynamism and establishes flow going towards the audience when viewed from the front. here the sense of scale provokes the audience and gives a sense of fear, as the white cloth-like crocodiles look threatening even when portrayed as spirits and gives the audience a brighter picture of how large this problem or crocodile hunting really is.
the audience is first drawn by the elaborately detailed crocodiles and then moves up towards the altar and then the blood on the altar. upon reading the contextual information the audience will then understand the whole meaning of the work.
the altar is a cold steel/wooden structure that might represent the feeling of the entry into the spirit world. the side ornaments on the altar might be there to emphasize that is is an altar. the use of steel further emphasizes the harsh and cold cruelty in which these crocodiles are slain. the white cloth-like visage makes the crocodiles look ethereal. they have no eyes and look very skeletal due to their opaque covering and their wooden frames.
overall i think is is aesthetically pleasing. the white crocodiles gives a somber tone towards the attitude of the work. what strikes the audience at first is the scale and size of the artwork. the crocodiles are almost life-like both in scale and anatomy and to see so many in a close space gives a direct impact on the audience.
being in a group has its pros and cons. its pros are that you have a very encouragng environment where it is easier to be productive. you get the opportunity to mingle and interact with those that share common interests and ways of thinking, philosophies. the cons would have to be that your work shares the same notion with that of others. the message is along a somewhat similar track and the aesthetic of your work might look similar to the others in the group. you dont get to be different and that unique. it is only to a certain extent where you can be different but overall it is more or less the same.
its like being in a band. if a band plays rock music then everyone has to strike the same chord. there has to be a distinct similar sound to classify the music as rock music and to recognize that the people playing together are a band. having said that, it is possible (in music) to mix and match different genres of music together to form a different kind. that poses many questions to me regarding about how if it is possible to do the same with art. a question for another day perhaps?
Friday, September 5, 2008
portraiture
yes that's me.
in this 'portrait' i tried to capture what i felt at that point of time which was excitement. i was experiencing a 'rock' vibe at that point of time, after listening to some heavy music. i also wanted to show my love for music, especially the drums since i am a half-baked drummer. with that it is only natural to display my influence in music and that is the red hot chili peppers, in the form of their band logo on my chest. the two hands clench the drumsticks in pure rock fashion with the two pair of 'horns'. that hand gesture is the devil's horns as they say in rock music. or sometimes it simply means to 'rock on'. i tried to capture some resemblance to myself though i am not very good at photo-realism so i added that faint scar on my left eybrow to compensate for this. this is done in pen and ink because that is my current favourite medium to work with and i feel comfortable using it.
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