Lit Up: PROGRESSION, 19-21 July

I'm involved in the Lit Up Indie Arts Festival, coming up this weekend - click here for the website, or below for the programme.

And how am I involved, you ask? Why, I'm helping performance artist Lee Wen carry out an idea he's had for a while: a durational 24-hour reading of Singapore literature, from Sat 20 Jul 7pm to Sun 21 Jul 7pm at the Courtyard!

We're also putting together an installation made of local lit books - am preparing to bring over my collection soon (below is a small portion thereof).

If you're a local writer, please come to me (if I'm on duty at the time) and give me some of your own writing, and I'll read it for 3 minutes or so. Or you could bring work from one of your favourite local playwrights, poets, fiction or non-fiction writers - I'm not picky.

I may, of course, be woefully sleepy when the time comes. Hope I can still do your treasured work of literature justice!

UPDATE: In total, I'm bringing 390 individual books in five suitcases and a backpack. Count
'em!

Several Announcements for January!

1. Flying Circus Project!

I'm going to Myanmar from 3 to 15 January, to be part of the Flying Circus Project! Here's the blog I'm maintaining at Weebly.

2. OH! Marina Bay

This means I'm gonna miss Evil Empire's OH!: Open House at Marina Bay, a series of interactive art tours that are happening this weekend and next weekend - that's 5, 6, 12, 13 Jan - at Marina Bay. I contributed a short story to their program, titled Block Quotes. If you wanna go, better go early - lines are kuh-ray-zee.

3. Campaign City

I actually designed a poster for Evil Empire as part of their Campaign City: Life in Posters exhibition. It's showing at the National Library, Level 11, from 9 January onwards - huge light boxes on the walls, each featuring an artist's reinterpretation of one of the PAP's propaganda campaigns! I worked with the Speak Good English campaign in a way that celebrates local experimental writing.

4. Choice Cuts

And there's actually already an exhibition I'm involved in on show, at Jurong Regional Library, called Choice Cuts - a little installation by my friends at Studio Kaleido that gives you personal recommendations for Singapore literature, by Singaporean writers. As you can see, I'm featured as a recommender (not as a recommendee), as are Boey Kim Cheng, Wena Poon, Enoch Ng, etc, etc. (Gwee Li Sui is both a recommender and a -dee, ugh.)

The show will move from library to library until it opens in Central Lending around March. I should be able to make it for that launch.

That's all for now. I think!

Archiving Cane/Microcosmos

I´ve written material for two art exhibitions opening this Thursday. Sadly, I can´t attend either of them because I´m in Scandinavia - I´m a blogger for the ILGA Conference in Stockholm next week!

This means you´ll have to attend in my stead. Pop over to the Substation for Loo Zihan´s Archiving Cane, which I´ve written an essay for:

Archiving Cane

Date: Fri 7 Dec to Sun 16 Dec

Venue: The Substation

Reception: Thu 6 Dec, 7:30pmPlease note that this exhibition contains material that is rated R21

Then get a cab to Goodman Arts Centre for Amanda Lee´s Microcosmos, a photography exhibition for which writers like myself have written poetry and stories inspired by the art:

Microcosmos

Date: Fri 7 Dec to Wed 12 Dec

Venue: Goodman Arts Centre, Block B, 90 Goodman Road

Reception: Thu 6 Dec, 8pm to 10:30pm

Click the links if you want to find out more!

Straits Times review of Lan Fang Chronicles, Sat 26 May 2012

Click for a bigger pic.

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!

A whole bunch of news this week!

1) I've been given a shout-out in my sister Ng E-Ching's op-ed on the Yale-NUS controversy:

http://www.yaledailynews.com/news/2012/apr/09/ng-show-singaporeans-some-respect/

Not sure if I agree with the spirit of everything she says, but it's quite true that most of us live with a certain cognitive dissonance for the sake of pragmatism.

2) This Saturday night my poems are featured in The Art of Rebellion, an art exhibition at a shophouse, organised by poet Amanda Lee's design house studioKALEIDO. They're haiku based on on Chinese idioms, also known as 成语 (chengyu).

Date and Time: Sat 14 Apr - Sat 22 Apr, 2-8pm, opening 7-11pm on 14 Apr
Address: Unit 11 Lorong 24A, Geylang, Singapore 398535.
Website: https://www.facebook.com/events/110371715763513/?ref=ts

April in Unit 11, The Lorong 24A Shophouse Series
24 artists and 3 poets execute a contemporary exploration of Chinese culture; a play on the power of idiomatic suggestion.

The Art of Rebellion ▷ visual interpretations of idioms ▷
eeshaun / winnie goh / ben qwek / adeline tan / brick / xiaobao / antz / kittozutto / xiao yan / zxerokool / roy wang / michy witchy / messymsxi / tiffany tan / sun lee / pigologist / xinjie / leonard wee / cleo / kristal melson / XOTL / pamm hong / zhao renhui / SUSEJ

The Wanderlust of Words ▷ idiomatic haiku scrolls ▷
ng yi-sheng / amanda lee / rebecca toh

Opening night: 14/4, 7-11pm
feat. DJs
pamm hong / sarah chan / troupemaster / nat h.

Exhibition week: 15/4 - 22/4, 2-8pm

Sponsors:
42Below / The Lorong 24A Shophouse Series / Pocket Projects / Orita Sinclair

3) Of course, there's the book launch of The New village on Friday too. Seeya there!

More info here: http://theartshouse.com.sg/Programmes/EventPage.aspx?EventID=1568

THE CITY LIMITS COLLECTIVE PRESENTS: "RHYME AND PUNISHMENT"



I've helped to put together this little event for the Singapore Writers Festival Fringe. It'll be on 21 October, 8:30pm, at the SMU Steps. Basically, we were programmed in the middle of a bunch of acts extolling the virtues of poetry, so we've decided to create an event where we ritually execute bad poems instead.

Help us make the event a success by uploading some bad poems on the Facebook page!

https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=232728086778744&ref=ts


WE WANT BAD POEMS! PLEASE POST THE WORST OFFENDERS BELOW!

A time of reckoning is upon us. Bad poetry must die!
For too long, we have tolerated its presence in our libraries, bookstores, schools and festival programs. We have been tortured by its slipshod rhythms; we have been oppressed by its tyranny in literature syllabuses. We have been scandalized by the repugnant politics of some of its texts – why, some of the damned things just won’t stay banned!

But just as a good poem should be praised, a bad poem deserves to be punished. (Never mind subjectivity – we’re readers, dammit, we know what we like!)

We have therefore resolved to hold a series of bloody executions, so that these miserable verses may die for their sins. And we look to you, the audience, to nominate those worthy of death.

So from now until 14th October, we ask you to post bad poems on this wall, along with your accusations thereof (e.g. banal rhyming, flaccid imagery, inciting civil unrest). You may also submit poems that you feel have been wrongfully charged as 'bad' and deserve a fairer trial in public.

At our event on 21st October, your poems shall either be acquitted or found guilty as charged. You will have the power to choose their fate: whether they enjoy a swift and painless death or suffer the agony of disemvowelment, or worse.

Let the killing begin!

SPORE ART SALON 8!!!

I'm a little brain-dead right now, so I'll just advertise this quickly: there's a SPORE Art Salon tomorrow, only it's at THE PIGEONHOLE, a lovely little shophouse bar, instead of the normal venue.

In short:

SPORE Art Salon 8

THE PIGEONHOLE

Mon 25 July, 7pm drawing, 8pm performances

$15 entry (inclusive of food, catered by the Pigeonhole)

Directions are as follows:

From Tanjong Pagar MRT Station: EXIT A
Choon Guan Street - Wallich Street - cut through Orchid Hotel - Craig Road - 52&53 Duxton Road

From Outram Park MRT Station: EXIT G
Cantonment Road - Neil Road - Craig Road - 52&53 Duxton Road

But you want to know what's actually happening on the day itself, don't you? Well, here's the info:

SPORE Art Salon is a non-profit opportunity 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.

FEATURED PERFORMING ARTISTS:

NG YI-SHENG (featured model)

SUZANNE SUBHA CHEW (Laughter yoga artist)
http://mylaughingjourney.b​logspot.com/
Suzanne zests for continuous learning and upgrading herself has motivated her to sign up for the Certified Laughter Yoga teacher (CLYT) course. She was trained under the world renowned guru Dr. Madan Kataria and had successfully obtained a certificate on the course in January 2010 conducted in Bombay, India. She is convinced, upon completion of the CLYT course, that the world could go HOHO-HAHAHA !!! and enjoyed the cheapest way to a healthy and happy living with little and best no medication. It can also be said that laughter is the best medicine to a stressless life.

JURANE (musician)
21-year-old Jurane Solano has been singing since the age of 4 in her native country, the Philippines where she spent a part of her childhood. “Growing up, music has always been a huge part of my life, and I think it always will be.” When she migrated to Singapore, she joined and won a few singing competitions, spurring her to purse her passion in the performing arts. Her latest achievements include being the central female character in a musical ‘Paul the Musical’ staged in NUS University Cultural Centre (2009) and also lead actress in the musical ’13:34’ staged in Singapore EXPO (2010) to sold-out.

ZUNI (poet)
Metaphorically speaking, Zuni is part-lion (not lioness), part-flying whale, part-fastest mealworm in the world. Literally speaking, she is a young woman who sang before she spoke, told stories before she learnt to read, speaks with respectful intent to people and objects and is grateful to her pillows for listening to her early compositions which were altogether incomprehensible, violent and vulgar. It is most shameful that she did not discover poetry slams until she turned 19, but throughout her life she has always tried to put words in a hear-worthy order. She tells stories through spoken word or music and she does not compose fiction; everything she writes has either happened, is happening or will. There is a peace sign in her signature and it is easy to forge.

As a poet, she has stuck her toes into Blu Jazz poetry slams and Open Mics at TAPAC. As a musician, she’s performed originals at post-museum and other places with a feminist-male/partner-in-c​rime . She is currently a philosophy student who spends her time in the company of Descartes, an ever-creasing dysfunctional poet family and deathly reassuring music. She writes everyday, half of which is discarded by the evening. Please give her your opinions because she's always up for more angles to frame the English word. Also, persons without opinions simply don't care.


FEATURED VISUAL ARTIST:

MELISSA TAN
http://www.wix.com/melissa​tan/weixiang

Melissa is interested in the idea of the push and pull of opposites. Elements and processes that are seemingly contrasting, and discovering the harmony of the in between, that gives her work its balance. Lately, she has been exploring materials, and learning to manipulate them differently. Merging them with other mediums, allows her to incorporate fragility that harmonizes into organic forms, translating a certain dialogue between the materials to inspire a certain ethereality of the work.

The theme for her recent work is on the transience of reality. Inspired by accidental mark makings, the uncontrollability of change and the constant act of trying to control. Merging the accidental marks with her own renderings, make it difficult to differentiate the two processes, however, the delicate line works that harmonizes the piece, aims to elicit the fragile beauty of the ephemeral.

Poetry Readings Galore!

I'm just back from Southern Africa! And I suppose photos may emerge at some point, but right now I have to gear up for the ridiculous number of readings I'm hosting, reading at, or curating in the next week and a half:

The Contemporary: An International Conference of Literature and the Arts
Friday 24 June, 815pm
NTU, Creative Studio, HSS-B2-01
http://portal.cohass.ntu.edu.sg/TheContemporary/programme.asp

... I'll be reading 5 minutes at the university to academics. Suchen Christine Lim will also have a bit. There's also going be a launch of Spark, the Singapore Poetry Archive.

Moving Words Poetry Slam
Saturday 25 June, 630-8pm
Esplanade XChange Burger King
http://www.facebook.com/?tid=1869389166914&sk=messages#!/event.php?eid=180821831975252


This deserves a whole post to itself. Akan datang!

SPORE Art Salon
Monday 27 June, 7-11pm
ECHO Loft, Chinatown
Corner of Smith Street and South Bridge Rd, Second Floor
$15 for entry (including performance, sketching and food)
http://www.facebook.com/?tid=1869389166914&sk=messages#!/event.php?eid=126847487396738


I've curated Indonesian slam poet Stephanie Milani for this multidisciplinary performance!

Carnal Stash, the House of Incest Reading
Tuesday 5 July, 730-9pm
Post-Museum, 107 Rowell Road.
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=210225729018745

Erotic texts and artworks curated by Amanda Lee. I'll get 15 min to read alongside folks like X'Ho, Alvin Pang, Pooja Nansi, Madeleine Lee and Tania de Rozario, in front of works by Genevieve Chua! The art show's opening tonight, in fact.

LangDetecten>zh GoogleC

诗歌朗诵嘉豪！

Hello 2111!: a collaboration with Michikazu Matsune

If you happen to be in Vienna/Wien, Austria, this coming week, why not head down to a performance art/art installation I've helped to create called Hello 2111?

It's featured in Wiener Festwochen's "Survival Strategies", and it's initiated and mostly created by Michikazu Matsune, a Japanese artist working in Austria whom I last met at the Flying Circus Project 2007.

The performance segment is a letter to the people of the year 2111, performed by Mich himself. I helped generate the text (in fact, I just got off Skype with him as we hammered out the final version). Can't fly over because I'm currently in Zimbabwe.

Anyhow, details are:

13 to 18 June 2011
Kunsthalle Wien, project space karlsplatz
brut at Künstlerhaus

(The performance is on 18 June!)

More info about the exhibition here.

I've a bunch of gigs coming up!

1) I've got a poem in Man/Born/Free: Writings on the Human Spirit, edited by Gwee Li Sui. It's being marketed in South Africa right now as part of Spotlight Singapore. I hear it's doing rather well.

I'll be speaking on a panel at the Singapore launch! Here's the info:

Launch of "Man/Born/Free"
Friday 26 March, 11am-12pm
Living Room, Level Two, Arts House

And here's a blurb from this site:

"This literary anthology – centred on the travails of the human spirit – is like none other published in Singapore. It testifies to the social reflections of generations of Singaporean writers and their inquiries into issues of freedom, equality, humanity, and hope. The selection brings together works originally written in English, Chinese, Malay, and Tamil across almost six decades of Singaporean life. They are arranged here in a compelling way that argues for the inevitable interconnections of these concerns. Man/Born/Free is an exciting initiative to commemorate the relationship between Singapore and South Africa as extended through the 2011 event, Spotlight Singapore in Cape Town.

2) I'm performing stuff at the SPORE Art Salon. It's an event cooked up by Ryan Beck, a dancer at Resorts World's Voyage de La Vie circus show (no, I'm not kidding). He and his fellow artist/performers have been longing for a way to connect with the greater Singapore arts scene, which is really hard for them since they're usually working Wednesday to Sunday.

They've set up this monthly event where they can gather and showcase works by both Singaporean and expat artists - plus, there's live models present for sketching, so you can practise your drawing skills. Unfortunately, it costs $20, but the proceeds go to charity, and there'll be a lovely tapas spread to boot.

This month's will feature myself, musicians/comedians Jacqueline and Bill Landsman, pianist/songwriter/performer Johnny Kim and accordionist/singer/songwriter Faizal Bohtiar.

SPORE Art Salon
Tuesday 29 March, 7-11pm
ECHO Loft, Chinatown
Corner of Smith Street and South Bridge Rd, Second Floor
$20 for entry (including performance, sketching and food)

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=187152654659220

3) I was involved in a collaboration between artists and writers, organised by the literary journal CERIPH and the Substation. Not a lot of publicity materials out yet, but I'm just gonna announce the launch of the art exhibition:

Synaesthesia Launch

8-17 April (launch 7pm on Friday 8 April)

Substation Gallery, 45 Armenian St

Thankyee, y'all!

Singapore Biennale 2011 Young Art Writers Programme

I'm leading creative workshops at the Singapore Biennale on Wednesday and Thursday!



If you're interested in finding out more, e-mail education@singaporebiennale.org.

I'm writing for the Canvas!

Just wanted to let you know that I'm now a member of the Council, i.e. the unpaid staff who write for the National Art Gallery blog, the Canvas.

Why? Because I frickin' love art and writing about it is a good way to waste my time and hasten my death. E.g. I recently wasted time blogging about photographer Alecia Neo, plus I vomited up a piece called 10 Gloriously Cheesy Merlion Artworks, in honour of the Singapore Biennale 2011.

Speaking of which, I'll be attending the opening of that event in eight hours. No costume this time, sadly.

Fries Parade

About a month ago I participated in the following outdoor improv event with Mission: Singapore.



I'm wearing a really ugly T-shirt because the original idea was that we were supposed to exchange T-shirts in a crowded area. (Shrug)

Oh yeah, and I'm thirty years old today! Woohoo!

Child's Play (or why baby Jesus looks so strange)

Yo! Forgot to tell everyone that Alan Oei included me in this exhibition!

The opening's already over, but a series of my poems called "Matriline" is still hanging up there as if it's honest-to-goodness visual art. Go and have a look, since I can't. I also have personally illustrated copies of "last boy" on sale.



Child's Play (or why baby Jesus looks so strange)
Dates: 1 - 31 Apr 2010
Time: 630pm - 930pm
Venue: Evil Empire, 48 Niven Road S228396

Artists: :phunk, Andre Tan, Ang Song Ming, Charlotte Cain, Eudora Rusli, Huang Wei, Kosuke Misawa, Lynn Lu, Rebecca Lim, Tan Wee Lit, Zhao Renhui, Ng Yi-Sheng
Curator: Alan Oei

"Nostalgia"

My short story, "Nostalgia", has been uploaded on the Singapore culture site Five Foot Way. It's based on artist Michael Lee Hong Hwee's installation at the National Museum.

I'm not actually happy with the written version yet, so it's best if you listen to it in audio. It's supposed to be a little creepy. :)

(Image by Stephen Black).

In Bengaluru now!

Did a school workshop yesterday at a Hindu-based school, and I'll be doing another in a couple of hours. Unfortunately, the battery on my camera has gone out (think I left it on by accident) and I didn't bring my charger. What's more, neither Adeline Foo nor Felix Cheong, the other Sg , have brought cameras themselves.

What's a compulsive archivist like me gonna do? Can't use PhotoBooth for everything. Can I?

Evening event tonight at Time Out bookstore on Cunningham Road. 6:30pm - we'll be talking about sensationalism and censorship in Singapore. Adeline Foo, who's a kid's writer, will be reading excerpts of her new racy ho-mo-sexual play!

Oh, and this really deserves a post of its own - but I've finally figured out where my Singaproe Art Show short story "Nostalgia" was uploaded. Click here to download the audio story.

I haven't mentioned, have I, that I've set up another Flying Circus Project blog?

It's on Wordpress this time. Go to http://flyingcircusproject.wordpress.com.

B).

I'll be doing a presentation on my musical "Georgette" next Saturday, 3 October, 2:30 to 4:45pm at the National Library.

Drop by!

Oh yeah! And I'm going to be working with Proletariat Poetry Factory on Saturday (tomorrow) at Raffles City.

It'll be at:

Basement 1, Raffles City Shopping Centre (Outside MPH & Gloria Jeans)
3:00pm - 7:00pm

We'll be using typewriters and headphones to create stream-of-consciousness poetry on order, for $4 or so per piece. Come along and patronise us!

I think we're a run-up event for Singapore Writers' Festival? But I may be mistaken.