attracting smiles

<p><a href=”http://vimeo.com/49893942″>Yusuke Shimura live drawing at the little dröm store & K ki</a> from <a href=”http://vimeo.com/thelittledromstore”>the little dr&ouml;m store</a> on <a href=”http://vimeo.com”>Vimeo</a&gt;.</p>

the power of child-like illustrations and life drawing… it attracts smiles. 🙂

 

Yusuke Shimura Hello Mello exhibition at the little drom store.

Read Full Post »

How do stories look like to Chip Kidd?

this talk by book cover designer Chip Kidd is too funny not to share!

 

I never knew that the Jurassic Park dino bones image began as a book cover and that this is the same guy who designed the recent special edition cover (the one everyone was talking about) to Haruki Murakami’s latest bestseller, 1Q84!

 

 

 

and I also couldn’t stop looking at his spectacles as he was speaking!

Read Full Post »

a sub-blog.

I have been posting lots of inspirations since my final undergraduate year entails that I do a massively big Final Year Project. So as not to flood this personal blog with too much, I have posted them in a separate blog here: www.surprisestumbles.wordpress.com.

on the other blog I wouldn’t post as much of my viewpoints as I do here but it acts more as an inspiration bank for design and art ideas. (I have been getting quite a few people favouriting blogposts and following the blog which has been very encouraging.)

Read Full Post »

on Second Thoughts.

went for the Goodman Arts Centre Open House today and it was quite a place!

attended a art forum by Felicia Low about the meaning of ‘community’ in ‘community arts’…

had a look-see into the artists/ theatre groups studios which was opened to public…

popped into some short film screenings…

and visited some small exhibitions within the rooms!

 

i liked the idea of all these art/creative practitioners being all housed in the same area which allows for collaborations isn’t it? I thought i saw a hint of that in one of the films “I want to remember” by Sherman Ong which was had bits of narrative nature of film yet interspersed with contemporary dance sequences that worked to tell the story in a poetic way!

 

the work however which really stuck was a work by film-maker, Nawapol Thamrongrattanarit found in the “Second Thoughts” exhibition. the title of his work already made me chuckle a bit ”Nawapol Can’t Go to Singapore, so He Sent His 20 Sad Photos to Show Instead”. And that already gives you an image of the work. it features precisely 20 postcards, of the usual size and each is accompanied by the title and a short narration not more then a person’s attention span. But I was surprised by how despite its simplicity in presentation, I really enjoyed it! The photos he presents are ordinary photos which looked like it could be taken with any camera phone (especially with its size) and feature ordinary man-on-the-street in public spaces. what makes the work interesting is really in the accompanying stories! With his film background, these are written like a narration to the figure(s) in the photos.

A man with his head cocked to the side as he stares at an artwork in a museum is accompanied with the story of ‘neck pain’ as Nawapol tells a story of a man in a constant dilemma as he suffers from neck pain but also enjoys art.

A photo of passengers on a platform waiting to board the train is accompanied with the story of an alien invasion and how everyone is hurrying to get on to the mothership…

another photo of a lady in a dark subway station is accompanied with the story “vampire with no sunblock” of a lady who is a vampire and therefore is afraid of the light but after watching the movie twilight has more confidence and is venturing out to the light for the first time. 

I like how he infuses in pop culture like that which adds to the humour! he throws in references from movies, theatre (waiting for godot) and fine arts (nighthawks) and even manage to put in some Singaporean quirks (the believe in feng-shui) making the work very successful in eliciting soft laughs.

the format of the work also aptly expresses his non-intervention method of working, the figures are always captured from a distance with a faintly voyeuristic quality. The small size of each photo makes for an intimate set-up for the viewer to look at the work.

Maybe because as someone who likes to photograph people too, I can relate well to the work. Often, due to my shyness (and a bit of fear) I am reluctant to go to close to my subject and prefer instead to photograph from a distance. I also enjoy people watching and often conjure up back-stories to the characters I meet. While my stories may not be as imaginative as Nawapol’s, I think they also stem from seeing the extraordinary in the mundane, everyday living.

Read Full Post »