February | 2013 | spunktitud3

Pentateuque by Fabien Merelle
Visual interpretation of the phrase “carrying the weight of the world on your shoulders.”

Asia’s art scene descended in full force to the garden city for Art Stage Singapore 2013 during 24-27 Jan 2013. The third edition of the art fair at Marina Bay Sands welcomed 40,500 visitors and 131 art galleries representing 600 contemporary artists from all over the world. As with previous years, the fair featured a predominantly Asian-centred selection of art with a focus on Indonesian art, responding to the theme “We Are Asia.”

Art Stage 2013

The fair took up three halls at the Marina Bay Sands Convention Center, and one could easily spend a whole afternoon getting lost in a myraid of diverse artworks. There were so many to see, I spent five hours there. There were pieces which I really liked, some cute ones, and some plain weird.

I love this. Even scooters know how to love, so why can’t we? Show some love today!

Someone immediately came to mind when I saw this artwork by Tracy Emin :)

The Waves Waifs by Sookoon Ang
This Singapore artist extends the surrealist inspiration where seven gold-haired brooms are left against the wall “like abandoned princesses”

Zodiac Animals by Jiang Shuo
I would love to have all 12 of them. At S$67,500 each, I better invest in a real good security system as well.

This piece by Chinese artist Chen Chun-Hao looks nothing out-of-ordinary at first glance. Come upclose and you realise that it is formed entirely with tiny mosquito nails – small headless pins about a third the size of a toothpick. Using a nail gun, Chen nails these small pins into canvas-covered wood, creating reproductions of traditional Chinese ink landscape paintings.

It was lovely to see these kinds having fun with this new media artwork.

Boys transfixed by Shinji Ohmaki’s installation

Terra Incognita, et cetera is an art exhibition game where the audience can participate in cutting up a blank map of the world into bordered territories. Presented as a party game, Terra Incognita, et cetera is an exercise in collective painting and, simultaneously, a spin on collaboration and territorial marking.

Love is like a Bomb?

Luxury Therapy by Mauro Perucchetti
After buying this S$82,500 artwork, think I would need some aspirin myself.

Silver Streak (Standing Gorilla) by David Mach (Scotland)
This has to be one of my faves at this year’s fair. The 3-metre creature is made up of a very common household item – coat hangers!

South Korean artist Lee Lee Nam’s artwork uses new media technology to create moving surrealistic scenes. Lee believes that video art could express imagination thoroughly and is able to convey more atmosphere and surprises with each variation he chooses, eastern and western objects. This piece was really quite interesting to watch.

Shadow Shimmers in the Corner by Pan Jian
Although it was quite a simple piece, the huge size and composition of the artwork somehow had a special allure.

Berlin Buddha by Zhang Huan
This installation involves two Buddha sculptures facing one another. One remains still, while the other crumbles as the floor underneath it trembles. Berlin Buddha conveys the idea of samsaras of life starting from birth, senility, illness and death till rebirth.
Globally acclaimed, Zhang is best known for provocative performance that subject his own body to challenging tests of endurance. He often uses symbolically charged materials such as ashes, ancient scriptures and joss sticks to explore issues around identity, spirituality and history.

Mondrian (2012) by Matteo Negri

Now I know what to do with my old umbrellas.

Visitors are invited to take a photo with their favourite cityscape at Thai artist Anusorn Charoensuk’s photographic installation World Tour. This piece here is specially commissioned for Art Stage 2013, and the artist painted two bodyguards to help him carry his purchases from Orchard Road.

Rukunegara 2: The Voice by Zulkifli Yusoff (Malaysia)
A Malaysian artist recognized for his sharp commentary and deep insights into the Malay/Malaysian psyche and historical situation through his art. Rukunegara is derived from the artist’s ongoing dialogue on nation-building and the making of a people. Quickened by the deep trauma of 13 May 1969, the artist examines the reactionary five guiding principles of governance of an emerging nation struggling to mould its diverse and sometimes dissolute ethnicities into one. Strips of cloth printed with the guiding principles are painstakingly assembled into the artwork piece by piece.

Chair lamp

This would look good over the dining table…

It’s a Damien Hirst. Household gloss on canvas. 1.14m x 2.37m x 2.2cm. It’s USD1.2million.

A flying machine or a big fly?

Pretty interesting to paint on the insides of glasses

S.O.S. by Santiago Montoya
A very telling sign of the current American economy

Contemporary Colombian artist Santiago Montoya follows a multidisciplinary approach that embraces traditional painting, found objects and video documentary. In carefully structured series, he uses the aesthetics of materials to introduce meaning, resulting in collections where appearance and concept bear equal weight.

THE PEOPLE

Sam Jinks makes disturbingly realistic sculptures out of silicone. The Melbourne-based sculptor has a background in special effects for cinema and television where he learned how to mold and cast sculptures while working on TV ads making puppets and props.

Doghead
Every part of the sculpture is so realistic, right down to the fingernails, spine, hair-down-under…and the penis! hee. I felt a bit shy looking.

Woman and Child
I half-expected the woman to start moving anytime, or the baby to start crying. So scarily life-like. eek.

Fix by Mu Boyan
Mu Boyan focuses on creating images of fat people as a creative motif in order to express his impressions of contemporary China and the satisfaction of desire. I hope I never become this artist’s muse.

Miyu by Knoike Miyoko
Now I know what “looking at someone with dagger eyes” literally looks like.

Memories of China No. 28 by Zhu Yiyong

The Granny’s comical expression made me laugh.

Oh, the pop icons of the 80s – Coca Cola and Andy Warhol

Even Chairman Mao went hip at Art Stage.

Zustand de Seins (Kinderhand) / State of Being by Chiharu Shiota
Chiharu Shiota is a Japanese performance and installation artist best known for creating room-filling, monumental yet delicate, poetic environments.She finds diverse visual expressions using impenetrable installations made of black thread that often enclose various household or everyday personal objects. These disorienting cocoons of black yarn aroe from the artist’s desire to ‘draw the air’ and represent nphysical anxieties the artist experienced.

THE CUTESY

A cute bunny sofa

God never taster better, yumz.

Civics Lesson by Walter Robinson

Oh cute cute cute…

Still Three Little Pigs by Mauro Perucchetti
These piggies are one of my faves of the show cos’ they are so cute! I would like themn in my room. At S$11,800, I would be careful not to accidentally kick them though.

Light installation

The Other Dream: I Love You Too Much by Entang Wiharso

I can’t decide whether this poodle has an upside-down body, or that’s his big ah-hem.

After Party #3 by Eddi Prabandono
Now you can seat many, many people on a scooter! Eddi shuttles between Japan and Indonesia, and is known for his exploration of material, form and space. After Party is a sequel to his previous works featuring vehicles which have been transformed in his imagination to take on a strange or novel experience.

Now this is a phone which I wouldn’t be chatting with – so long!

Really cute, cheery paintings

These whimsical drawings by Eddie Kang makes me happy.

Now you can have your portrait done by Murakami.

I have heard “the world is your oyster”. This looks more like “the world is your melon.”

Pfeiffer by Joana Vasconcelos

Hand-crochet snake by Joana Vasconcelos

Artwork formed with lots and lots of stickers

EXCUSE.ME.WHILE.I.KISS.THE.SKY

The phrase made me think of chum D. :)

Unscale Reality by Aditya Novali – Happyland

THE FASHIONPIECES

We are a consumer society

Art Stage 2013

One trillion dollars. One piece of this and I can retire for good!

Guangzhou Station: Land of the Fakes?

I wonder if all the bags in the installation were the real deal…if so, this much be a really expensive artwork.

Storefront by Cyril Le Van

NATURE-INSPIRED

A very expensive polka-dotted pumpkin by Yayoi Kusama

Rice is Art by Maitree Siriboon (Thailand)
Maitree Siriboon’s artwork created for Project Stage nhints to communal involvement. By collecting rice weighing 450kg donated to him by his friends from his hometown in the Issan province, Maitree recreates rural Thailand. His childhood landscape permeates his art, a colorful two dimensional text filled with trees, rice paddies, farmers, and water buffalo.
I wonder – what is the buyer going to do with the 450kg of rice? Display, or cook and eat it?

Maitree Siriboon

Your Love Is Like A Chunk Of Gold by Ang Sookoon
A series of bread with crystallised growth. I wonder if the crystals will continue to grow further.

Down the Bear Hole by Mylyn Nguyen

Left: Dirt (Octopus)
Right: Dirt (Wrens)

The wolves knew where bear was by Mylyn Nguyen

Red Fights Back by Geraldine Javier
Philippine artist Geraldine Javier re-enacts her 2012 installtion Red Fights Back by displaying photographic mementos of Red’s adventure along side a tridimensional installation which includes a wall for a tree wrapped in tatting below which cutting boards are painted with different kinds of plants and flowers and positioned at various depths. Real leaves and clothes cover the whole space.

Red Fights Back by Geraldine Javier

Memory of Nature by Arahmaiani
This installation and performance is based on the artist’s on-going project that addressses environmental issues on the Tibetan Plateau and which involves the active participation of Tibetan monks. Memory of Nature is an installation consisting of a mandala assembled from natural materials – soil, plants and water – and placed on the floor. The installation will be destroyed and all the soil and plants removed by the end of the exhibition.