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?