Monday, May 28, 2012

SPORE Art Salon tomorrow!!!

Hope you'll come! I'm co-hosting!



AGAINST all heat this May, a beautiful line up of musicians, a poet, a singer, a filmmaker, and a never-seen-before first-time Super-enthusiastic model to pose for drawing has come together and fallen in place pretty nicely and in a timely manner to boot! We had an absolute blast in the month of April and there's no expecting what might be different this time around... so come join us on 29 May to find out!! See you then!

WHERE: BluJaz Cafe, 3rd Storey (12 Bali Lane)
WHEN: Tuesday 29 May 2012, 7:30PM onwards

FB Event Page : https://www.facebook.com/events/446812438679744/


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SPORE Art Salon is a non-profit initiative created for visual artists to meet, mingle, inspire, and share with performing artists. During the event, we alternate between drawing sessions with live models, and performances from musicians, contortionists, poets, dancers, actors and more. We also feature works of, and demonstrations by visual artists, individually or collaboratively.

For those who are new to the art salon, our event is modeled after world famous Giles Larrain's Art Salon in NYC, with a distinctly Singaporean twist and flavour!

There is a minimum donation of $7/person at the door, and proceeds will benefit our featured artists. The bar and kitchen will be open, so come have some drinks and dinner, meet, mingle and inspire with fellow creatives of various disciplines. Guests are encouraged to participate in the life drawing sessions in between performances, so, bring your sketch materials along!

For information on our archived editions, please visit
www.sporeartsalon.blogspot.com

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FEATURED MODEL

LAURA
It's always very exciting (and nerve wrecking) to take a budding idea and trying it out for the very first time. Laura is inspired by music and the fashion movements it can inspire, and believes in using the body as visual tool for self expression. Her set aims to challenge the image of innocence by taking the whimsical and giving it a twist of grunge. She is also keen to explore the relationship between artist and the mode - whose inspiration or work of art will it be this edition?

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FEATURED VISUAL ARTIST
LI LIN WEE (filmmaker)
http://www.bobbingbuoyfilms.com/
Li Lin is known to be the most prolific female short filmmaker in Singapore with almost 10 short films under her belt. Most of them award winners, in 2005, Li Lin’s short film “Autograph Book”
was the first ever Singapore film selected for the prestigious Tribeca Film Festival in New York. A graduate of Brown University in Rhode Island, USA with a BA in Art Semiotics, Li Lin also spent a semester in Tisch-NYU doing “Sight and Sound”, an intensive filmmaking production course. She recently completed her MFA in Dramatic Writing at Tisch Asia on a Media Education Scheme Scholarship.

Earlier this year, Li Lin received the honorary award from the Singapore Short Film Awards for her outstanding contribution to the Singapore short film scene. Li Lin has made two feature films, the critically acclaimed “GONE SHOPPING” in 2007 which was partially funded by the Singapore Tourist Promotion Board and well received “FOREVER” in 2011 which was funded by the MDA’s New Feature Film Fund and supported by Iceberg Design.


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FEATURED PERFORMING ARTISTS


COLD SHOULDER (soundmakers)
Hi, we are Cold Shoulder. We love making sounds. Sometimes it resembles music. Ask us anything but what we play, because most days we aren't sure. Whatever it is, we sincerely hope we're going somewhere with this. Thank you for having us, SPORE Art Salon!








AMBER LIN (poet)

http://www.anbarsky.wordpress.com/
Amber enjoys being a contradiction. You could probably spot her screaming at zombies, or strangling adorable stuffed toys. She considers herself pretty well adjusted to the strict eduction system in Singapore, but outside the lines of social expectations and traditions, she's found various shades of her personality that just can't be ignored.

Amber strongly believes that dancing, singing and writing have helped her keep sane and loves telling, and being told, stories of any medium. She hopes that one day, she'll see the Northern Lights, Love will hold her hand and people will stop asking her why she dislikes chocolate. Currently studying performance in Lasalle College of the Arts, she tries her best to be a good student, daughter, friend and human being.


WENDELL JOHN FRANDO (singer)

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Reviews for Lan Fang Chronicles

They've come in from the Business Times and TODAY - sadly, the Straits Times and Flying Inkpot haven't reviewed us yet, even though we were the only opening show in the Singapore Arts Festival that actually runs through the entire festival and thus really could benefit through ticket sales...


"LFC may seem, in its presentation, deceptively straightforward (give or take a few dramatic flourishes) but that’s what I liked about it. Without shoving things in our faces, it nevertheless manages to evoke a sense of mystery and I left the site full of wonder." -Mayo Martin, TODAY/For Arts' Sake, 20 May 2012



"If history could be taught this way, a lot more people would be interested in their local history. ...By approaching Lan Fang as an artist and reconstructing knowledge out of memoirs, records, interviews and suppositions, he [Choy Ka Fai] encourages us to imagine, thus bringing to life what he calls the Chronicles of Disappearance, of the Lan Fang's Republic's history." Cheah Ui-Hoon, Business Times, 22 May 2012


 Also something from a site called Photojournalist! (A lot of spoilers, though.)


"The 兰芳记 Lan Fang Chronicles 2012 (Installation Performance) is highly recommended and I strongly encourage all of you reading this post to watch it there!"

 Hope more press comes over the next weekend!

Friday, May 11, 2012

I'll be promoting The New Village in Southern College, Johor, on Sunday, 12pm!


Hoe Fang from Ethos Books is driving us up. The poet and some academics will be speaking. I'm afraid that's all I know so far.

Monday, May 07, 2012

THE LAN FANG CHRONICLES, 18 May to 2 Jun

I'm one of the collaborators for a multimedia-installation-performance arty-interactive theatre experience called THE LAN FANG CHRONICLES!

It's being performed as part of the Singapore Arts Festival. Please come!


Director: Choy Ka Fai
Date: Fri 18 May-Sun 2 Jun, 7pm (3:30pm matinees on selected dates)
Venue: Ying Foh Kuan (Shuang Long Shan) 9 Commonwealth Lane, Singapore 149551
Tickets: $25 from Sistic


The Lan Fang Republic was the first democratic state in Southeast Asia. It began as an independent settlement of Hakka Chinese gold miners in Western Borneo, and it lasted from 1777 until 1884. It bears more than a few similarities to another struggling republic that we're familiar with.

This performance, taking place on the grounds of a Hakka Clan Association, uses both historical fact and fiction to bring this forgotten civilisation to life.

It's arisen out of a project by acclaimed multimedia artist and theatre director Choy Ka Fai, a marvellous fellow with whom I've collaborated on the theatre projects V.I.S.T.A Lab and Reservoir. An early version of this was previously presented as an installation/project at the Singapore Art Museum.

There are loads of cool collaborators in this - playwrights Zizi Azah and Robin, actors Pat Toh, Najib Soiman, Rizman Putra, Yak Aik-Wee, Bright Ong, Serene Chen and Nora Samosir. (They're not all on stage on the same nights, so you may want to come multiple nights!)
Here's a Vimeo preview, and more info from Ka Fai's website.

Come come come come!
P.S. We're also doing a talk at Library@Esplanade, this Saturday 2-3:30pm!

Friday, May 04, 2012

Writing the City: Spoken Word Performance, Sat 26 May

I'm performing my poems as part of the Singapore Arts Festival! It's part of an event organised by the British Council.


Here's the text, in case you're lazy to click:

Come down to Singapore Arts Festival Village on Saturday, 26 May for an evening of performance and poetry. Surrounding the theme of 'Our Lost Poems', the Writing the City Spoken Word will delve into the world of hidden myths and forgotten memories. The event will feature readings and performances by guest poet Ng Yi-Sheng, as well as the winning shortlisted entries of Writing the City's 'Our Lost Poems' Competition. For more information, log on to http://civiclife.sg/writingthecity/events/ or email writingthecity@civiclife.sg.

 Date: Sat 26 May 2012
Venue: Black Box, Festival Village @ Esplanade Park
Timing: 6.30-8.30pm
Duration: 2 hours
Admission: Free