26.11 The supposed release date of Where the Wild Things Are.
So what do you do when you’re absolutely devastated that the above movie has been pushed back to February 2010 to ride on the Oscars hype? Ta-dah! You go for an artistic escapade, romp around Chinatown and Tanjong Pagar with Yunita. Oh, what a day, after being cooped up so long at home just watching House, reading, and doing mundane housework.
Singaporeans, the art scene is out there! You just have to take initiative to look in the most unlikely places. Yunita, not unlike a handful of others, claims I have OCD, just because I planned the itinerary for the whole day beforehand. What other method could you use to walk the shortest distance in your killer heels, if not for vector addition, dear? (For the ignorant out there, I was being sarcastic when I mentioned vector addition. OCD? Me?)
Singapore Coins and Notes Museum (21 Trengganu Street, Level 3)
I bet we’re the only ones who bothered to use the complimentary ticket we got from D&D. We really just went for the kicks. Needless to say, we were endlessly bored (to the extent that we were spotting language mistakes in the explanations at the exhibits). I haven’t seen the $20 orange note in circulation before. We were cracking up when we saw 5 US$2 notes, uncut, for the price of S$20, especially since the US dollar has weakened. Do your math.
We did have the curiosity of peeking in behind closed doors of shophouses. We peeked into this Ol Cuban winebar which had red cushy chairs and lovely ambience. A oasis in the middle of the over-commercialized touristy place called Chinatown, where souvenirs don’t match the Singaporean identity, other than scream our attraction towards cheep! cheep! (spelling mistake intentional)
Utterly Art (229A South Bridge Road, Level 2) was closed, despite our waiting for quite awhile. We couldn’t find it, which was very Platform 9 and ¾ according to Yunita, before finally realizing it was just across the road. The shopowners watching us were very amused. Sadly, we missed the exhibition Fabricana: Things made. The exhibitions ends this Sunday so if you’re going, please tell me about it.
Books Actually (No.5 Ann Siang Road)
A place you don’t want to leave after you step in. I want to work there. And the notebook paper is to die for! I’m clearly a sucker for good notebook paper. The bookshelves are so neatly arranged without looking unnecessarily tidy. The random toys placed on the bookshelves behind the counter made the store look cozy, without being excessive. I would say every single item, font and even the music played in Books Actually reflects thought on the owners’ part. There’re discounts on architectural books till end November, for those interested. Reaching the third storey, I saw a person hand-making the to-die-for notebooks, with a screwdriver lookalike tool + thread. I shall learn one day how to make my own notebooks and how to bind books (like Mo in Inkheart.) Oh and throw in a vintage typewriter anytime.
The third storey has non-fiction books and I have a new find- Steven Pinker. I saw him on Ted, didn’t know he wrote books as well. I think coming to BooksActually and to actually see some familiar names from my own hobby of reading as well as Language Arts is a comfort. It is a somewhat satisfying feeling to know that you cannot possibly read all the books out there, the knowledge out there in the expanse of the universe that cannot be fitted in just a 3-storey quaint bookshop. The teaching of science defines the perimeters in which you study, at least this is how it works in Singapore, but you can’t place a circumference on arts, there’re limitless substantiations to throw into essays, imperfection only paves the way for improvement.
Yunita and I were pondering on whether to get wooden pencils with Sylvia Plath, Sigmund Freud and other famous people’s names printed on them. Parker pens, wooden pencils and plain notebooks with to-die-for paper can only do so much for the writer, it still boils down to literary talent. The expectations of such materials persuade me to stick with A4 Hilton rough paper. I don’t want to think anxiously about the ugly cancellations on glossy notebook paper.
Postcards: A random O poem
O was once a little owl
Owly, Prowly
Howly, Owly
Brownly fowly
Little Owl!
Woods in the Books (58 Club Street)
BooksActually’s neighbour which caters for children, and the young at heart. Guess what greeted me when I entered the store?
Where the Wild Things are, the exact same one that I have at home! Just way more expensive. Thanks mum, for buying one of my favourite childhood books when inflation hadn’t burned holes in people’s pockets. The desire within me to find the dormouse and strawberry book arised and I scanned all the bookshelves for it. Disappointed, but I will find you sooner or later! It is maddeningly difficult to search for a book which title you don’t even remember. I felt that Woods in the Books didn’t give as cozy a feeling as BooksActually, partially because it was too spacious. The string-hanged soft toys were a good attempt though.
There was a book titled “Where did I come from?” which helps you describe (with illustrations) to your kid how he came about, albeit in a rather crude fashion and in my opinion, more for the parents’ amusement with the lack of knowledge on the child’s part of such a duh! concept. There are Chinese books which include those from an illustrator I really admire for his skill with watercolours, Jimmy Liao or 幾米. An advice from me would be to obtain the books from China because it is much cheaper there. For those who want to borrow, I have 向左走，向右走，月亮忘记了 （My favourite, hence I was a tad annoyed when I saw photographs taken of a person with a moon at the Biennale 2008）, 履史表， 童年下雪了，寂寞上场了，and我只能为你画一张小卡片. And I really have to explore Jean Jacques Sempre works in the future.
The concept shops in that area are really a breather from the repetitive shopping experience in Orchard and current invasion of neighbourhood areas by shopping centres (*coughs* nex). I spotted doggy poo bags I glanced at before whilst reading a design book a few months back. However, it beats me- the reason of needing designer doggy poo bags.
The book incidentally had the following as well. Novel, yep.
Some shops you can check out: De Walk-in Wardrobe (I’m admittedly not a big fan of words like de, but still…), egg3 (eggthree.com) and The Patissier (for cakes).
In the [mood] for love by Vincent Chow (Fill-your-walls gallery @ 21 Tanjong Pagar Road)
We don’t claim to be art experts especially in the area of abstract art. A kind of art which I constantly disqualify from significant form. My cynicism is also evident in my Language Arts project on Good Art where I found out that Freddie Linsky was actually paid 20 pounds by a Manchester artist and an art gallery in Berlin wanted to showcase his talents. Read more http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-499240/Toddler-fools-art-world-buying-tomato-ketchup-paintings.html
But as we lounged there (on the high chairs), admiring the paintings, we discussed and I realized I’m actually starting to appreciate abstract art. Hopefully it’s not a one-off thing. We were discussing our interpretations of the paintings. We both agreed that colours of ‘I dreamt of a lazy Sunday afternoon’ were very appropriate. Though my initial dislike for pastel colours, I thought pink, a grayish brown and tones similar were suitable. I stared and saw a man, hands flailing in a stop-motion instant, as if taking flight. Yunita stared and said, “I see…Snoopy!” You see, with abstract art, you just never know.
Maybe I’m naturally drawn to poetic sounding titles but I like ‘The last sour cream in a lost summer dream’ too. When I think of sour cream, I think of Ruffles Sour Cream chips, except this painting is not those strong plastic shades, there are tinges of green yet almost purposively smudged as if showing the last of sour cream. The yellow was neither the colour that of yoke-ish crème brulee nor sickly mucus, it was a perfect shade.
I think one of the highlights of the day was that we met the artist himself! The gallery helper pointed him out so we approached him. I’m glad I did approach him. I mean, with my being shy with strangers, a few years’ back I wouldn’t have dared. He has an accent that makes me think that English must not be his first language. He says that he places much emphasis on the experience, at least more compared to the end product. The different works that ranged from “Destruction” to “I dreamt of a lazy Sunday afternoon” were his experimentation of ideas. He pondered for awhile before saying that he could have been influenced on the subconscious level by his previous line of work, engineering. I think one of most striking thing he said was that his favourite pieces are those based on the experience of creating the piece, more than the final outcome. I do believe that artistic works belong to the artist more than anyone else. Someone else may be the inspiration, the motivation, but never should the artist compromise his artistic direction. I’m guilty. I deeply doubt my occasional poems and dismiss my writing style. I think I write more for release than anything else, and isn’t just looking at the final product discounting my experience of released emotions? Through trying out art lessons from p4, writing diaries and poems, all these platforms, I think I identify more with the artists’ need for affirmation.
Back to Vincent Chow, I’m not comfortable with his working style which is his working on multiple pieces simultaneously. I suppose it does show his versatility as an artist but the considerable differences between the themes and emotions drawn from each work causes me to pause and wonder whether the full development of the idea was gleaned out.
That was quite a mouthful. Blogging about Artistic Escapade Part 2 and Illuminate, the Icsid World Design Congress Exhibition that I went with my sister, some other time. Kings of Convenience songs really grow on you after placing them on replay, unlike the mainstream songs that get annoying after a while.
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