Singapore Biennale 2008 @ South Beach Road

I went out with my class earlier this afternoon on an arts tour at South Beach Road, one of the few locations in the central district of Singapore that was part of the Singapore Biennale 2008, a display of world-renowned artists' works which takes place once every two years, hence the term "biennale" (pronounced "bee-na-lei", which I only just found out. Thought it was "bi-ann-el" at first. :p)

It was pretty cool. The displays were put up at this really old, run-down building just across the road from Raffles Hotel, built in the 1930s. There are several rooms, and each room showcases exhibits of a unique theme. Although it was so warm in there (it's not air-conditioned) and the kids and I were perspiring as if we were all roaming about in a giant sauna, we still enjoyed ourselves tremendously as we followed the guide around, viewing the art installations. Below constitute interesting displays that evoked many oooohs, ahhhs, waaaahhhhs, wows, and whoas from us. Heh.

Here's a romantic verse on display way up on the external walls of the run-down building, in both English and Chinese. Had one of my boys read these aloud while we were waiting around outside, and he was so "drama" when he did it, despite mispronouncing several of the Chinese words (eg. "kiss" sounded like "smell", which got me teasing him), that he made us all giggle. Heh, he was such a good sport!

These are supposed to be pictures of coastal villages and such, but the interesting thing is that they are created using bits and pieces of leftover food. According to the guide, the artist, like many other artists whose works are showcased as well, believes that art is not confined to certain tools, and that virtually anything can be used in artistic expression. (Think in the above pics, there are leaves of cooked kang kong, crabmeat, pasta, brown rice etc.)

Here're a couple of other exhibits created using a food item. But no hands were involved in this. Guess what? The only material used was chewing gum, and the artist sculpted these using nothing else but his teeth, tongue and saliva. As our humorous guide says, "He just chew chew chew, and then pui! All these come out." Haha. But what impressed me was the first display -- looks like a mother cradling a baby. Genius, man! (But what was a bit disgusting was the wet saliva hanging off the gum statue. :p)

Next, we went into this room where there're overhead projectors, and the screen's on the floor, made of real sand. Video clips are shown on the sand-screen, and the sand complements the essence of what was being screened. The first one portrays the idea of a man being persecuted as his body lay buried beneath the ground while his head was set on fire after it was bandaged several times. (That one horrified a number of us. Luckily the image isn't sharp so not so traumatising.) The second one is a well in which lay a mirror that reflects water, instead of the water lying directly in the well.

Oh this one's nice. Many of us liked this immediately. It's a swing made of flourescent lamp rods made of glass. This one symbolises a combination of the idea of childhood and fragility, which depicts how childhood can be so fragile and easily destroyed if one does not show sufficient love and care to a child.

There's this room with the floor filled with black cards, and the artist wants to offer space for anyone who steps into the room to interact with the display of cards on the floor. The kids had a good time just kicking or shuffling the cards around. Heh. (Erm, me too. :p)

This other room also caught our attention -- it's a tiny room, with walls made of compressed junk materials, with some looking really old. We were scutinising the junk materials, and saw plush toys, old TV, old radio, bird cage, books, oldies tapes etc. Heh, the kids were so interested in this that the guide had to constantly scream in a joking tone, "Don't touch ah! Later the whole thing collapse!" (Think he was really half-seriously concerned cos so many kids were all trying to squeeze into the room. Haha.)

A door? Nope, it's not a real door, but a really good sketch of one on a plain white wall in a dark room.

We also loved this part of the exhibit and even took a few class pics here. It may seem like just a normal paint job done on the walls and ceiling, but in actual fact, it's made of orange translucent tape carefully plastered across the room. (Look carefully at the window panes and gaps at the side of the room and you'll see that it's not paint.) Wow, the pains and patience one must have to create this.

This hair salon surprised many of the kids with its play on reflections/ mirror images. Haha, must be there then can experience it for yourself.

Oh and this is a little mystery that fascinated us. There's this spot under a tree which was all white and a bit powdery and sticky at the same time and had bars of dried-up soap lying about-- many many bars! And when we neared the area, we could detect the strong smell of the soap. There's also a small tub and stool sitting there amidst this pool of soap. The guide says that someone would shower there twice a day, leaving the soap behind. Gee. ??? (Yeah, and half my kids asked if they could visit again at the time when the person is showering so they can see who it is/ see him showering. *faint*)

Well, there are more artworks to be appreciated there; would take a very very long time to post everything. But basically, I enjoyed myself there, particularly cos I was also with my own form class -- great kids, fun-loving but well-behaved-- so I was able to view the displays without having to really discipline them much. Also had fun ooohing and ahhhing with them. Haha.

Good job, Singapore Biennale 2008! ;)