The compactness of everyday experience is aided in part by micro-managing impulses sent via the short messaging service where tasks are accomplished in 'real time’. SMS Tour Singapore delineates an event space to reflect on movement in the city. Fluxus event score inspired instructions are sent via SMS to a roaming audience in the city space. The messages are poetic impulses that slow down the experience of real time.
Zeenath Hasan (IN / SE) is a media artist and researcher who investigates mediated experiences through performative interventions using media from the everyday. Zeenath was raised in India and resides in Sweden. Her works have featured at the Pixelache Festival of Electronic Subcultures, Helsinki; Cabaret Voltaire, Zurich; Overhead Projector festival, Malmö; Videotage, Hong Kong.
Rune Søchting-Denmark(Sound Artist)9-22 March 2010
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Biography of Rune Søchting Rune Søchting is an artist and composer of electronic music based in Copenhagen, Denmark. He works in the intersection of sound based art, performance and music composition. He has made numerous installations, field recording projects as well as composed music for videos and live music for performances and dance-performances that have been shown around Europe. His work has been presented in exhibitions, concerts and festivals in Europe and Asia. He is the coordinator for Nordic Sound Art a joint study programme developed as a collaborative effort between 5 Nordic Art academies. (www.vaesen.dk)
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During artist Rune's residency at INSTINC, he collaborated with artist Yeo Shih Yun on a film/sound project titled, "RandomA". It is a 16mm film with a duration of about six minutes. This 16mm film was created in Bergen, Norway during artist Shih Yun”s residency in USF in 2009. Everyday a section of the 16mm film is hand-painted and then stamped with a date/month/year stamp. This was created over seven days consecutively. This film is shown is in its raw form without any digital enhancement. The intention of the sound was to work with materiality and texture. The sound is based on field recordings from public spaces (Airport and malls) in Singapore. Custom made software divides the sound signal into tiny bits making the source of the sound virtually unrecognizable. The signals are then recomposed according to principles of density and particle size and different scales of silence are introduced into the sound. Concepts of time, memory and materiality are addressed in this work. This work was premiered at Lasalle College of the Arts on 18 MARCH 2010. The following night, artist Rune performed the very first sound art performance at INSTINC. He played with interesting objects like porcelain containers and sparkling water, together with his sound devices to create a truly ear-opening experience.
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Tjasa Iris-Slovenia (Painter) 2 -28 Feb 2010
Hirofumi Matsuzaki-Japan(Painter) 26 Dec-10 Jan 2010
Hello Hiro by Shih Yun
SY:Welcome to Singapore. You told me you have been to Singapore for one day in the past for transit. Now, having been here for about 10 days, what is your second impression of Singapore? HM: l am very surprised.... I cannot believe that within such a small country,there are so many different ethnic towns like little India, China town, big city etc.
SY: Can you tell us more about your art education and how you became an artist that paints in this style? HM: I studied painting in Hiroshima. After graduation I studied at Hannover as guest student for 2 semesters and later I got a studio in Berlin Tacheles. So I moved to Berlin and was in there for 4years. As my training is in painting, I wanted to find a way: what I can do with painting at this moment in time.
SY:Generally Japanese are perfectionists and takes pride in all they do, like their packaging design for example. Do you think Japan culture influence your works in some ways? HM: I didn’t think that Japanese are perfectionists. I think that I am influence in a way but I can’t tell exactly what. SY: When and how did you discover using Processing-programming? When and why did you decide to incorporate into your body of works? HM: In 2006, I read a book by John Maeda and was inspired to find out more about programming and eventually discovered processing.
SY: Your new works created @INSTINC are paintings and animations. Tell us more about this, the process ..etc HM: First, I wrote a program for animation with processing and then using this program, I projected these images and drew the images with color pencil and took a picture for every frame. The animation consists of 2100 still shots. In my works, I’d like to create new relationship between programming and hand-created works.
SY: What is the current state of art in Japan? Are there many installations and videos? HM: There are many different things. Now, I think there are many influences in the art scene from other fields like web, design, manga and even agriculture! How we work with this, How we connect, is very important, I think. SY: You started Studiokura- International Residency Program in your home town in 2007... What was the inspiration and motivation behind this? HM: I want to connect my home town with all over the world! Artists bring new ideas all the time. It’s wonderful! SY: What is so special about Studio Kura? HM: studio is ideal for artists looking for a peaceful place to make work and engage with Japanese culture. SY: How to apply? Is it Open Submission? Or by-invitation only? HM: You can apply with your portfolio and plan, what you want to do. Visit www.studiokura.info for more information. SY:Tell us one thing non-art about yourself that we should know about you. (Something that will surprise us) HM: I like Tiger Beer!
SY: Something that you cannot live without. HM: Of course art and beer, my girlfriend.
Paz Lopez- Spain(Designer/Painter)2-21 Nov 2009
Peep into Paz by Shih Yun
SY:One thing people in Singapore should know about Spain besides bull- fighting and tapas. PL: About our art and literature.
SY:You have been in Singapore for almost one week, pls share with us your most recent ecstatic visual experience? PL: I was speechless at the trees in the Mc Ritchie reservoir (the tree top walking).
SY: I understand that your work reflects your mood, environment... things that surround you... tell us more about the new works you arecreating@instinc? What are the changes the you observe in your new work as compared to work you did at home in Spain? PL: I am using warmer and lighter colours than usual, along with grey, and this has clearly something to do with the weather.
SY: Colours are very important in your work, can you tell us why? PL: Because they are beautiful...
*SY: What is your favorite color NOW? PL: That lovely blue that Katia painted in a wall at instinc.
SY:What.have you stolen/learned from another artist lately? Who is this artist? PL: I'm very interested in the work of scandinavian illustrators.There is a common somewhat in the work of many of them, and I like their use of naĂŻve drawing. I want to believe that I'm not stealing anything from them!
SY: Name one artist that change your life. PL: When I first started painting, I wanted to be like Egon Schiele. Then years went by and I changed, but I am still really moved when I see his paintings, even though I could have got tired of them like it happened to me with another accesible artists.
SY: You had a solo exhibition in Spain last month, what is your favorite reaction that anyone has ever had to your work during the exhibition? What was the most deflating, if any? PL: People would see animal forms in what I had depicted... just not exactly the ones that I had in mind. Not that I am very concrete, but some of them really surprised me! Anyway this is not deflating, because I was chasing the general idea of "animal".
SY: Which you like better? Being a graphics designer or artist if you can only choose one? Does your painting influence your design work? Or they are very different altogether? PL: Being a graphic designer is cool and I feel comfortable with it. Being an artist requires more effort but the results are usually more self-flattering. My work as painter is very different from what I do as a designer, because you paint for yourself and you design for others. In illustration, though, there can be "interferences" and there's many elements that fly from my illustration to my paintings and vice versa.
SY: What are your methods of visualization? How does the process of creating a painting begin? PL: Most of the times, the first I think about is an idea (an object, or a feeling) and a visual element. Then I organize the rest of the composition, adding things little by little. And sometimes when I have finished a painting I just... wonder how did I come to that.
SY:In a world saturated by images and with the speed of communications now, is two dimensional painting relevant? PL: We will always need images. Nowadays you simply have a far bigger choice. And anyway seeing a picture in a book or a computer gives you a close idea of what it is about, but it can't replace the impression that seeing the original painting will cause you. *SY:Must art have a relationship to the rest of the world? What is your art's relationship to the rest of the world? What purpose does your art serve, if any? PL: I don't think art "must" nothing. Art can be whatever the artist wants. In my case, it's related to the world through a filter, and all I talk about is painting itself.
SY:What is something that not a lot of people know about you but you WISH more people COULD know? PL: I sing when I'm alone and not that badly i must say. But I don't WISH anyone to listen, hehehe
SY:What is your favorite tradition from your childhood, that you would love to pass on if you were to ever have children? PL: When I was I child, I read a lot and had a lot of books to do it at home. If I had children they should have that too.
SY:If you were written about in the newspaper, on the front page, what would the headline say? PL: They'd surely take advantage of my sometimes random speech and use a dummy sentence :P SY: One word about Singapore (cannot use humid) PL: PANDAN! SY: Free-style, write a sentence about your experience here so far. PL: I'm having a grrrreat great great time! And I cannot thank you all enough.
Katja pal- Slovenia (Painter)15 Aug- 29 Sept 2009
KOPI with KATJA PAL by Shih Yun
SY: How long have you been painting/drawing/etc? How has been your experience as an artist in Slovenia? KP: To be honest this is one of the hardest question you can ask, and the answer to it might sound a bit stereotypic; as far as I remember I never been, or let’s put it this way: anything that does not contain a need for creative thinking, is bores me. Drawing, painting, assembling things has always been part of my everyday life. Since 2007, I have been working on my MFA in Fine Arts (Painting), so it is hard for me to consider myself as a practicing artist in Slovenia. I have been active in organizing artists colony in Lendava, my home town for the past three years. Each year, we invite up to 12 artists internationally for a period of 10 days to create new works. This is also how I met SY.
SY: What inspires you? And do you use that inspiration directly to create a piece of art or do you channel towards something you are already working on? KP: It’s hard to trace a painting back to its roots, to find one’s direct thought or inspiration that has govern its creation. If I look back, I could say that my recent work is a result of interests I carried around even as a child. Back then, I spent a lot of time making up new games or toys we could play with or simply to change the old rules of common plays. This element of playfulness somehow got stuck with me or my works even today.
SY: Are there any historical or contemporary artists that you specifically admire at this point in time? KP: I don’t have a specific artist that I admire…there are many art and artists around that I appreciate though… I admire simple things that work (works that “hit” you directly). And from this point of view, I am a fan of so called minimalist beauty.
SY: How would you describe the your works, in one word. KP: playful
SY: Why do you like painting? Everyone else is doing video and installation these days... KP: I suppose I’m a beauty seeker. Painting is an aesthetic means. While other so called new media expose other kind of experiences. They usually have a secret agenda…a message, a story, to share… I could even say that I belong to those old-fashioned artists, who still believe in the power of its medium.
SY: Is there a purpose to your art? KP: I kind of despise painting that has a certain purpose. I think we have enough other media that is much more suitable for this kind of moralizing. My view on art, or my personal work is much more naĂŻve. And in a way just a big joke.
SY: Would you give us a preview of your upcoming exhibition, ' Reflections' @instinc? How does this new series of works relate to your past works you did in Slovenia? Are you exploring the same idea or experimenting with something totally new? KP: What is similar about my past paintings and this new series is that they are about the relationship between a painting and its beholder, and questions,” What happens when we look at a painting? “My past works invite viewer to physically interact with the works, whereas my new works invites viewer to interact (only) mentally.
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SY: What's the best thing about being an artist? KP: We are joking around this question with friends, saying that the best thing about being an artist is that you can do what ever you like. The society seems to be more tolerant to artists…
SY: What's the worst thing about being an artist? KP: But the negative side of this is that, they do not take us seriously.
SY: What did you want to be when you grew up? Did you ever imagine being an artist? KP: I wanted to be a fashion designer when I was a kid. But as soon as I understood that artists exist, I wanted to be one of them and this stayed with me till now…
SY: One word to describe your experience here in Singapore so far. KP: Humid ;)
SY: Any other thing you want to say that is not mentioned? KP: One more of those stereotype answers: thank you for the given opportunity and the wild river of inspiration! (but I really mean it)
