The Zou Place

Describe one of Han Sai Por’s sculptures.

Shimmering PearlsMixed media installation by Han Sai Por, located outside capital Land Tower.

     Located at city district of Singapore, Shimmering Pearls was made from glass and steel, dimensioning 20 by 10 metres. The installation consists mainly of colourful glass globes that were raised high on steel stands over a water fountain. Size of each glass globe varies, and the colours on each glass globe were basically monochromatic, with random dark strokes that made up to no specific pattern. Green, red and yellow appeared most often on the lollipop-like glass globes. It is hard to recognise what those glass globes resemble, although from the signature of the sculptor, we know that the installation was inspired by shimmering effect of water. The glass and steel materials used reflected the shimmers of moving water underneath, and probably suggests an imitation of natural movement in art form.

Installation art

1 a) Installation art is one art form that emphasizes much on space. It usually involved artwork from the artist to interact or provide different meaning with the use of space around it. Therefore installation art does not just focus on the piece or pieces of artwork created by the artist, but how the use of space and location plays a part in the whole installation. Sculptures and 3-dimensioned artworks are often used in installation art.
       This art form was first used along with the art movements in the post WWII period, where flat paintings and sculpture were found to be just not enough to express artists’ concern, view, voice. Installation art is more impactful when bringing messages to the people, as it directly interacts with the space we live in. Be the installation big or small, the direct intrudence of an art form into our space often creates more impact and provoke thoughts.

b) In Boonma’s two Buffaloes, we see one single subject matter assembled from varies ready-made materials. There are two rice sacks placed on two wooden chairs, one with tail-like structure made from straws running out from top of the sack and then curls back to the sack, the other with one single animal horn, probably buffalo’s, placed on top. Almost all materials are related to rural lifestyle, like what we could find in a farmer’s house. The rice sacks seem to symbolize the “buffalo’s” body, with the chairs as legs and straw structure as tail. The only material we could identify to be related to what was in the title “Two buffaloes” is the horn, which is still very unnatural to come in single and placed straight up on the rice sacks.
    The whole installation has an earthly and orange tone, due to the earthly nature of the materials used. The forms and shapes at the top half of the installation are quite organic, however the chairs below are very mechanic and rigid, with straight outlines that suggest man-made nature.

c) Montien Boonma was famous for both paintings and installations, although the latter was more of his personal favourite and he devoted a larger portion of time on it. In this installation there is certainly no traits of conventional paintings. First of all the artwork is 3-dimensioned, all materials used have sense of depth, height, breadth and length. Paintings were typically paints applied onto a flat surface and the sense of depth created are illusions, while in Two Buffaloes, ready-made materials were used to assemble into a structure that occupies real space and interacts with the space it fills. Imagine putting the installation into a rice field, as compared to putting it in urban area, the message in the artwork would change with the change of environment around it. However paintings lack such flexibility, as the message or meaning are often tightly secured with subject matter created from lines and colours.

Homage to Newton, Salvador Dali

Big Bird, Fernado Botero       

Homage to newton was done by Salvador Dali in his late years. The sculpture was cast in bronze with a dark patina and was number  5th out of the 8 same sculptures done by Dali. Big Bird by Fernado Botero was his second piece out of the two same sculptures and it was made from bronze too. Both sculptures could be found down the Singapore river near to CBD.

        Dali was a Spanish surrealist famous for his depiction of unrealistic images in a photographic quality in paintings. He was born in Catalan town of Figueras, Spain, in 1904. In 1922, Dali moved into the Residencia de estudiantes in Madrid and studied at the San Fernando School of Fine Arts. Dali experimented with Dadaism there, which influenced his work throughtout his life. The subject matters in Dali’s paintings were usually well-modeled and yet juxtaposed or added with bizarre details to depict the dream world. Homage to Newton reflects Dali’s usual style of surrealism. The subject matter is semi-abstract. We could recognise that a human figure was suggested through the rather realistic forms and proportion of body and limbs, yet parts of the figure, such as the head and the chest, were severely deformed by opening holes or adding of strange bulges.

        Botero was a Colombian abstract artist renown for exaggeration of proportions and corpulence of human and animal figures in his work. Botero was born in Medellin, Colombia in 1932. his upbringing was marked by isolation from traditional art venues such as museums and other cultural infrastructures. His Colombian heritage thus informs his art. Teenage Botero studied art in Paris, and then moved on to Florence, where he was influenced by the techniques of the Italian masters. The Big Bird was a sculpture done inhis typical style of abstraction. Like most his sculptures and paintings, the subject matter in the Big Bird was easily recognised yet the forms were largely simplified into bloated spherical shapes.

        Although the subject matters in both sculptures were semi-abstract, they were exaggerated in different style. The subject matter in Homage to Newton was exaggerated at the details of a human figure. muscles, veins and other body parts on the figure were either simplified to suggestive shapes or enlarged on small details. Openings on the body and the head, an exposed spinal cord at the back of the figure are absolutely abstract on human figure. In the Big Bird, the subject matter was simplified to geometric forms, mainly spheres. Feathers and other details on a bird were neglected for simplicity.

       The texure of Homage to Newton is mainly smooth to imitate realistic skin texture, yet exaggerated joints on the finger and the spinal cord are bumpy and rough. While the texture of Big Bird is mainly smooth and polished as the forms were simple geometric shapes with minimal details on them. Homage to Newton is not symmetrical yet well-balanced. The head and body faced opposite direction asit’s stretching arms, hence creating a balanced composition. Big Bird, however, was perfectly symmetrical.

     Once upon a time a movie was screened in class and we were asked to write review on it afterwards. Here is what I came up with… the problem is that I barely remember the discussion question we were supposed to address… 

     Pleasantville, a title that sounds totally delightful and pleasant. It was a movie filled with artistic imagery and social commentary symbolism that art classes like us just love to study on. As describe by Wikipedia.org “Pleasantvilleis an Academy Award-nominated 1998 film written, produced, and directed by Gary Ross. Released by New Line Cinema in Canada on September 17, and stars Tobey Maguire, Reese Witherspoon, William H. Macy, Joan Allen, and Jeff Daniels. Don Knotts, Paul Walker, Marley Shelton, Jane Kaczmarek and J. T. Walsh are also featured.”

For the full story I recommend you to watch the movie itself or read its plot at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pleasantville_(film).

     I took down some notes in point form below:

1.Living style.
i)The “big” breakfast prepared by Mother defies all laws of “healthy diet” in jennifer, a mordern high-school girl’s concept.
ii)Routines. 5 to 9 for Father and sunny weather all year round. With no fail, everyday is so pleasant that no accidents can ever happen, resulting to firemen doing nothing other than saving cats on the trees.
iii)Dressing style. Typical 50’s dressing style, however even casual wears appear formal and rigid.
2.Social conduct.
i)Politeness from any stranger.
ii)Wives cook and iron. Dinners should be prepared by no one but Mother.
iii)Maintanence of healthy/clean/Plato-style relationship even with loved one. Even Mother don’t seem to understand what sex is about. Showing of sexuality in forms of art or pulic showcase of affection were dreaded by the public.
iv)Everyone fulfills a role in the community, and is totally devoted to that specific role. Be it a bar tender or high school basketball player.

        The movie celebrates freedom but questions the true nature of it at the same time, and criticises society’s attempts at achieving perfection. When vibrant colours slowly dyed the little town into what we now recognise as ordinary but truthful way of living, notice that shadows began to form in the once “perfect” society too. Jealousy, anger, fear, as though Pandora’s box was once again lifted to release all the darkness into life, the people of Pleasantville learnt not only the joy of a more adventurous life, but also hardship from challenges that came along it. Should we celebrate “true” freedom then? Or is it better to stay in ideals and embrace the safe side?  Gary Ross depicted the latter with hues of rainbow, and it do seems like the real world favoured his practical choice too.