[event] Deepest Sympathies & Synonyms // 19th Oct 2011 @ 15 Minutes Cafe

In this exhibition, artist-duo Seelan Palay & Shikin Ali apply a newly developed visual ensemble to reflect on the chronic dichotomy of Singapore's social structures.

The exploration into both the artists' approaches to the portrayal of the evolving civic system lent itself to the stylistic application and conceptual framework in the created set of drawings, installations, collages and photographs. The eventual works displayed in the exhibition are the shared products of both artists, intertwined in form and intellection.

By visually translating the relativity between Singapore's public memory, social landscape, critical discourse and modern history, the artists seek to portray the paradox of power and experience in the island state.

[event] Casa Nostra!! // 7th Oct 2011 @ Port Tumasik

PORT TUMASIK proudly presents

CASA NOSTRA!!

7th – 22nd of October 2011, 5pm to 10pm daily

24A Bali Lane, Straits Records level 2

drawing painting installation performance photography sound music sculpture video

“CASA NOSTRA!!” transforms the alternative space into a living room, bringing 20 local artists of together in a multidisciplinary presentaion; the exhibition emulates a homely atmosphere for the audience and artists to mingle with one another in hope to integrate everyone through the arts with sincerity.

“HOUSE WARMING” Potluck
Opening Event
7th and 8th October, Friday and Saturday.
5pm -10pm.


“INCOMA LISTENING PARTY”
EP Launch by INCOMA.
14th October, Friday, 7.30pm - 9pm


“TEA PARTY”
All about different tea.
15th October, Saturday, 3pm-5pm

Sponsored by ARTS FUND and National Arts Council

Supported by: Dahlia Gallery, SCYA, Straits Records, & Bestman Installation and Fixtures

[event] Grapheme Zine Mosh // 15th Oct 2011 @ Grapheme Zine Lab

Grapheme Zine Lab is brewing at Goodman Arts Centre. Expect an experimental space where anyone can come craft a zine, learn book-making techniques, hang out with analog pets, or browse/buy an array of books and zines.

The Zine Mosh; the opening of the Grapheme Zine Lab, is an exhibition-cum-distribution experiment: 1 part tangible creativity, 2 parts freedom of self-expression. A heap of micro-publishing, a liberal sprinkling of the DIY ethos.

Join the people behind the Grapheme Zine Lab as they serve up independent book/zine forms of all shapes, sizes & contents. All manners of unique, locally-created zines & artist's books will be on exhibition & for sale. Zentai. Transient places now demolished. Haight-Ashbury free love. Polka-dotted bats.

Partaking in their vision and contributing works are an assortment of comrades, ranging from FALSE independent fashion anarchists Le Messie & Amanda S, to illustrators Twistii, Zxerokool and Sheryo, comic-book artist Troy Chin—and you, if you so wish.

Make a zine, bring it down, and you can sell it in the Lab. Or simply turn up with curiosity in your maw and leave satiated, pockets full of zines, inducted into the orders of indie-publishing.

Feat. Bani Haykal & Co. (experimental music), Polarity Press (zine distro), & Word Forward (performance poets).

15th Oct 2011 (Sat), 8pm

Grapheme Zine Lab

Goodman Arts Centre, Block B, #05-06

[event] Image, Materiality and Space // 21st Oct 2011 @ Goodman Arts Centre Gallery

A group exhibition featuring works by:

Abednego Trianto Kurniawan
Jason Lee
Kelvin Atmadibrata
Marla Bendini
Willis Turner Henry
Yang Jie

Venue: Goodman Arts Centre Gallery
90 Goodman Road, Blk B, #1-08, Singapore 439053

Opening Reception:
21 October 2011, 7pm – 10pm
There will be a performance by Marla Bendini at 7.30pm.

Exhibition Dates:
22 – 28 October 2011, 10am – 7pm
29 October 2011, 10am – 3pm

For more information, please email: jason@jasonlee.sg.

Image, Materiality and Space explores the relationship between sculptures, installation and photographs. This exhibition aims to bring forth the concept of materiality aspects in photographs, and how photographic prints, as a physical material, are able to amalgamate with 3-dimensional mediums or vice-versa. It hopes to bring out the awareness that photograph can also be considered as a form of material instead of solely as a two-dimensional image. Furthermore, it serves as an experimental platform for artists to explore the various possibilities of fusing photographs into the making of a three dimensional work. The inclusion of photographic images into a sculptural or installation artwork would motivate artists to think and work differently. At the same time, it seeks to push photography beyond its boundaries as 2-dimensional and allow photographs to work with surrounding spaces with the accompanied sculptural and installation work, be it site specific or not.

This exhibition is supported by National Arts Council, Arts Fund, and The Old Parliament House.

[event] SlutShot: A Photo(graphic) (Exhibit)ion // 23rd Oct 2011 @ The Substation Random Room

Slut. Sundal. 贱货 (jiàn hùo). தேவடியா (thevadiya).

What is a Slut? Who is a Slut? What makes a Slut?

In this work, the photographer attempts to unpack the meaning of the word Slut together with her subjects, at the same time questioning and challenging cultural and societal notions of the word. An interactive exploration, the artist serves as observer and executor, her subjects each telling the viewer their own relationship to the word Slut.

========================

Part of Rahim.

Photos by Cher Tan

A SlutWalk Singapore initiative

[event] Rahim. // 23rd Oct 2011 @ The Substation Random Room

Rahim: womb [wu:m]

The cave of my mouth is a constellation of sour stains;

a pulsating redness of an open gaping wound learnt in the womb.

I am a woman who has paid for all future sins.

The womb in evolution or the brain in gestation.

I am you.

An Exhibition By:

Charlene Shepherdson

Haseena Abdul Majid

Nabilah Husna

Vanessa Victoria

Gallery hours:

Daily 12pm - 9pm

The Substation

45 Armenian Street

Singapore 179936

[event] Rooted In The Ephemeral Speak #04-2011 // 24th Sept 2011 @ Emily Hill

R.I.T.E.S: Sound Gig #04 / 2011 presents:

Evan Tan (SG)

Yuzuru Maeda (SG/JP)

Jordan Johari Rais (SG)

Chong Li-Chuan (SG)

5pm, Saturday, 24th September 2011
White House, Emily Hill
11 Upper Wilkie Road Singapore 228120
Map here.

This is a free event, donations are welcomed.

More info - www.rootedintheephemeralspeak.com

Artists' Biography

Evan Tan is a self taught sound innovator. He has been involved in the local music scene under various guises since 1988. He was in prominent music band, Opposition Party, which had set precedence during the 90s hardcore music scene of Singapore and was an active member in the Indie Space Rock band The Observatory, Evan’s creativity has allowed his practice to expand into various genre of musical styles over the years. Since 2002, he has also been active in the laptop music and in the sound art scene, exploring digital noise, minimalist and electro-acoustic/electronic music, as well as conducting numerous audio walks and performing solo or as experimental noise band, Minister.

Yuzuru Maeda (born in Ogaki, Japan in 1978) She had received a Music BA from the LaSalle Collage of Arts, Singapore in 2009 and currently lives and work in Singapore. In her daily musical practice, she produces soundtracks, jingles and music compositions for independent films, commercials and her own video works. She performs mainly with the Sanshin (Japanese), Sarod (Indian) and Violin (Classical) in accompaniment with digital compositions. Her musical lineage is La Monte Young and Ustad Ali Akbar Khan. She explores music and sound in cross cultural contexts and her musical works had been described as ‘beyond time and space’ which experess about divine energy and spirituality. She has performed in Choppa, Singapore (2007), Black Market, Singapore (2009), Guang Music of New Millenium, an international composers’ symposium in Bali, Indonesia (2009), Sugar Jar and 10th Open Art Festival in 798 Art Factory, Beijing (2009), Mekong River Project, Bangkok (2009), Post Museum, Singapore (2010), Sculpture Society, Fort Canning, Singapore (2011), “Fête de la Musique” presented by Alliance Française, Singapore (2011). http://yuzuru.weebly.com/,

Chong Li-Chuan (A.K.A Chuan) is a musician by training, composer by choice, an academic at large, and a consultant in user experience and strategic design. Chuan lived in the UK for 15 years prior to his return to the island city-state, Singapore, in 2006. He received his formal education at Goldsmiths College, University of London, graduating with a Bachelor of Music degree in 1999 and a Master of Music (Composition) in 2000. Between 2001 and 2005, Chuan was a post-graduate researcher in electroacoustic composition at the Stanley Glasser Electronic Music Studios (EMS) in Goldsmiths College. His research interest includes, but is not limited to, acoustic ecology, aurality, listening, sound and semblance, the aesthetics of noise and silence, musicking, identity formation, gender, performativity, embodiment, and post-structuralism. Chuan is currently the Programme Chair for the Diploma in Design for Interactivity (DDI), under the School of Technology for the Arts, Republic Polytechnic (RP). Over the past five years at RP, Chuan had developed and shaped the curriculum and delivery of DDI, focusing on Interaction Design, User Experience Design, and Design Thinking. http://www.angelfire.com/electronic/phase/

Jordan Johari Rais (born in Singapore October 19, 1978) is a multi-instrumentalist, experimental film-maker, score/song writer, sound artist, and a painter. Jordan have been actively recording solo materials. He released his solo e.p. Rock Lily in 2010. MONOCTOBER, and a few others. Jordan’s material have been selected for the Anthology of Singapore Experimental, a compilation of experimental music from Singapore musicians due to be released this year by Ujikaji Record. Among other collaborative works, the most recent one was where Jordan was featured for a workshop conducted by Bani Haykal from the band B-Quartet at the Substation Gallery for a week. Called “Alternatives” the workshop also featured other Singapore musicians and artists. www.myspace.com/jonettejordan, www.raisjordan.multiply.com

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R.I.T.E.S. is an artists-initiative organised as a non-profit event to platform new ideas and artists in sonic art, time-based and performance art-related practices. Its objectives are to present an eclectic mix of performances that is informed by visual aesthetics, technological integration and conceptual integrity involving art making and the social and cultural contexts that are related to performances. It explores art activities that are spatial, the way in which performance is linked to cultural, ethnic and geographical elements of the body, and at the same time exploring how all these elements can be bounded to the global, technological, cultural and economic shifts in our daily life.

[event] The Resistance Movement // 17th Sept 2011 till 8th Oct 2011 @ TAKSU Singapore

THE RESISTANCE MOVEMENT: Street Art Revisited

A group exhibition by:

Farizwan Fajari (SPEAK CRYPTIC)

Eman Raharno (CLOGTWO!)

Mazlan Ahmad (SKOPE)

Shahril Supangat (ONETWODELTA)

Curated by Razi Razak (STATEMENT)

17th September - 8th October 2011, TAKSU Singapore
Opening Reception: Saturday, 17th Sept 2011, 6.30 - 10.00 pm

TAKSU Singapore
43 Jalan Merah Saga
#01-72 Workloft@Chip Bee
(Opposite Holland Village)
Singapore 278115
T: +65 6476 4788
sing@taksu.com
www.taksu.com

Gallery Hours :
Tues-Sat - 10am to 7pm
Sun - 12pm to 7pm

[event] Rock! Paper! Poster! // 23rd Aug-6th Sept 2011 @ The Pigeonhole

An art exhibition of screen-printed concert posters by celebrated poster artists from around the world. The exhibition runs from August 23 to September 6 at The Pigeonhole, and will showcase over 20 limited-­edition works created for bands such as Death Cab for Cutie, Feist, Arcade Fire, The Pixies and Sigur Ros. Featured artists and design groups include Dan Stiles, Guy Burwell, Invisible Creature, Methane Studios, Vahalla Studios and James Flames.

A launch reception for the public will be held at The Pigeonhole on August 23, from 7pm to 9pm with select local screen printed gig posters available for purchase.

This event is free and open to the public.

Brought to you by KittyWu Records.

Supported by The Pigeonhole & Invsble Studio.

[event] Rooted In The Ephemeral Speak #05-2011 // 19th Aug 2011 @ Emily Hill

[R.I.T.E.S #05-2011]

Rooted In The Ephemeral Speak

presents

Mike HJ Chang

Marla Bendini

Noor Effendy Ibrahim

7.30pm, Friday, 19th August 2011

at Emily Hill, Whitehouse

11 Upper Wilkie Road, Singapore 228120

Venue link - http://www.emilyhill.org/

This event is by free admission, all donations are welcomed

More info - www.rootedintheephemeralsp​eak.com

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Artists' info:

Mike HJ Chang is a Taiwanese American working as an art educator and living in Singapore. He received his MFA from California Institute of the Arts with a MFA. He receive his B.A. from University of California, Los Angeles. Recently he exhibited at Goodmen Arts Centre Gallery, Post Museum and TickleArt in Singapore and at Dobaebacsa in Seoul. He runs a small art space in Singapore, called FOXRIVER. Chang is right now working on multi-discipline projects titled Is What and Night, a Circular Room. Chang’s performance based pieces are often biographical, drawn from personal experiences, but plays out by a pseudo-character in which he invents. In his last performance piece Vampire Lecture Series (2005-2008), he uses the character of a vampire as an analogy to photography: both are light sensitive, both desire something they can’t have, both spend a large amount of time inside a dark room.

Mike Chang’s “Upright Monologue” is a monologue performance based on the format of standup comedy show. The piece traces the evolution of homosapian, different types of society, and the language component that we often take for granted. A mixture of science, time travel, autobiography, and a slice of art humor. The monologue piece explores languages through different human times, from cave to our modern high raises: the subtlety of our languages is correlated to our living dwelling, architectures, and space design for our bodies. In the beginning of time our ancestors stood up on their two legs, from quadruped to bipedal, so they could get better view of the horizon (predator, food). What happens to our evolution with social media and comfortable computer chair? Perhaps the answers are in the words.


Marla Bendini lives and works in Singapore. The artist’s multi-displinary & highly personal works has become her signature, expressing ideas about transgenderism, gender binaries and the dysfunction of social and cultural structures, particularly with her personal physical body as an articulation tool. Born Ong Boon Kok, Bendini Junior in 1986, “Marla Bendini” was created in 2007, an ongoing process of the identity as the “art form”. Her first self-titled exhibition “Marla.” brought her to Pattaya, Thailand in 2008. Sponsored by Fridae.com, Asia’s largest LGBT portal, she presented Conversations between father and son (2010), a multimedia installation performance supported by The Substation Gallery, Singapore. She is a founding member of the Sisters in Solidarity (SIS), an educational campaign that seeks to address, educate and take a stand against the stigma that transgender people in Singapore face in everyday life.

Marla’s performance, “Surrogate N°3”, is developed from Surrogate, a series of performance pieces that explores the relationship between art and the subjects, spearheaded with a focus on spontaneity in the interaction between performer(s), space and time. A bedsheet is a common motif in the performances- as a billboard in Surrogate N°1 and Noah’s Ark in Surrogate N°2.


Noor Effendy Ibrahim, living and working in Singapore, is a recipient of the Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (JCCI) Singapore Foundation Culture Award 2007, He has served as a member of the Singapore National Arts Council Board from 2004 to 2006 (7th term), and currently sits as a Board Member of the Singapore Film Commission (2010-2012) and the Malay Heritage Foundation (2010-2011) At present moment, Effendy is the Artistic Director of The Substation, Singapore’s first independent contemporary art centre, Effendy has also served as the Artistic Director of Teater Ekamatra, a Singapore-based contemporary Malay Theatre company, from 2001-2006. An interdisciplinary artist, Effendy has created solo and ensemble art projects and performances in several countries, and has worked with Teater Kami, Teater Ekamatra, Teater Artistik, The Actors Studio (Malaysia), Cake Theatre, spell#7, Maya Dance Theatre, and Five Arts Centre (Malaysia), among other arts groups and collectives.

Effendy’s durational piece, “Dancing with the Ghost of My Child” is the first of a new series of physical rituals that the artist is researching on how the mind, heart and body reconcile personal and intimate notions of impossible needs and desires through visceral acts and habits. Through such rituals, it is hoped that the ghost of the impossible will be conceived to fill the painful void left behind by despair when the needs and desires of the person is not fulfilled.

[event] Etiquette II // 3rd Aug-28th Aug 2011 @ The Substation

Etiquette, an annual event in its second installment, is a multidisciplinary showcase of art, writing and film, created by, and about women. Addressing gender as a subject of discourse, it uses art as a tool to create spaces within which critical and creative conversations can take place. Featuring an all-female crew of over 30 artists, writers, filmmakers and curators, this year’s event gets down and dirty with pertinent women’s issues that people would rather not discuss at the dinner-table.

Art
Wednesday 3 – Sunday 28 August
The Substation Gallery
Admission: Free

Reception: Wednesday 3 August, 7pm

Documented surgery set to music, photographic setups of family tension, secrets whispered in a back room. Showcasing the work of 12 artists and contemporary craft collective Popin, expect the poignant and poetic as well as the creative and critical with this multidisciplinary exhibition that features established names such as The Substation’s Associate Artist, Hazel Lim, and internationally exhibited, Lynn Lu, together with emerging talents such as photographer Geraldine Kang. Curated by Tania De Rozario & Zarina Muhammad.

Words – Women Out Loud
Thursday 4 August 2011, 7:45-10pm
The Substation Theatre
Admission: Entry by donation

Be a part of the inaugural Women Out Loud, and listen to poetry, prose, and dialogue from nine writers for whom the personal need not necessarily be private. Including readings from award-winning novelist, short-story writer and playwright Ovidia Yu as well as published author-artist Dana Lam, listen your way through an emotional night of first love, supermarket rage, mother-daughter tension and clinical regret in this line-up of words created not for the faint-of-heart. Curated by Tania De Rozario & Zarina Muhammad.

Film
Friday 5 – Saturday 6 August, 7-10pm
The Substation Theatre
Admission: $25 per night or $45 for both nights, available from the box office
Contact Mish’aal at 6337 7800 / boxoffice@substation.org

"Action" has always been a word voiced traditionally in the history of cinema, by a man behind the camera. Action in general, is an activity, an effort, a deed, a step – an initiation. Etiquette’s inaugural film event showcases ten Singaporean and Singapore-based female filmmakers under one roof over one weekend, in celebration of the just-do-it spirit in the film industry. The Saturday night screening will be followed by a Q&A with all participating filmmakers. Curated by Mardhiah Osman & Mabelyn Ow.

Friday 5 August

1. Dirty Bitch | Sun Koh | 10 mins (R21)

2. Substitute | A.D. Chan | 20:32 mins (M18)

3. Come | Kirsten Tan | 22 mins (M18)

4. Overhead Clouds | Yeo Lee Nah | 5 mins (PG)

5. Shout | Lillian Wang | 18 mins (PG)

6. Still Life | Lillian Wang | 9 mins (TBA)

7. Smell of Rain (feature) | Gloria Chee | 93 mins (PG)

Total screening time is 178 mins. No discussion on Friday.

Saturday, 6 August

1. She Shapes a Nation | Dana Lam | 21 mins (PG)

2. Bullet Proof Vest | May Lin Au Yong | 5:34 mins (TBA)

3. Under the Storybook Sky | May Lin Au Yong | 14 mins (PG)

4. Rahim | Murni Mastan | 21 mins (PG)

5. Durai & Saro | Prema Menon | 30 mins (PG)

6. Pink Paddlers | Jasmine Ng | 63 mins (PG)

Supported by Objectifs. All profits from ticket sales will be donated to Associate of Women for Action and Research (AWARE).

Satellite Events:

POPIN Workshops
Saturday 27 – Sunday 28 August, 8-10pm
The Substation Gallery
Admission: by donation

Contemporary craft collective POPIN addresses the undeniable anxiety that accompanies women who feel the need to ensure that their menstrual cycles remain both verbally and physically hidden. Inviting audiences to participate in the creation of a sewn-installation made from materials derived from tampons and sanitary pads, members of the public are drawn into conversations about menstruation, while sitting around the table and contributing to the organic growth of an artwork.

A Short History of Modesty in Southeast Asia: From the Control of Womens’ Selves to their Bodies
by Dr Farish Ahmad Noor
Saturday 6 August, 3-5pm
The Substation Theatre
Admission: by donation

Feminist theory has, since its inception, made inquiries into the relationship between women’s bodies and selves. In this talk, author and political scientist Dr. Farish Noor will present his research on the historical narrative of women’s bodies and roles as well as the social construct of gender-appropriate behaviour through two particular garments made for women over the course of history.

[event] Rooted In The Ephemeral Speak #04-2011: New Threads #01 // 21st July 2011 @ The Substation

[R.I.T.E.S #04-2011] - New Threads #01

Rooted In The Ephemeral Speak presents

Chand ChandraMohan

Elizabeth Lim

Justin Lee

Jason Lee and Arif Ayab

8pm, Thursday, 21st July 2011

The Substation, Theatre

45 Armenian Street

This event is by free admission and donations are welcome.

More info - www.rootedintheephemeralsp​eak.com

New Threads #01: a special platform for new emerging artists in the field of performance art. R.I.T.E.S. had started a new platform to present emerging artists or artists who wish to attempt going into the terrain of live performance as part of their practice of art making normally in other media. Providing an opportunity for multidisciplinary and performance artists to develop and present their works in the realm of performance art, our objective here is to advance the regeneration process specifically in performance art and time-based arts practices. Through the presentations of these promising emerging artists, this platform intends to ascertain and encourage these individuals as potential artistic contributors to the developments of performance art practice in Singapore and beyond.

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Artist Biography:

Chand ChandraMohan is currently a student at LASALLE College of the arts. She is doing the undergraduate programme in Fine Arts specialising in painting. Although she works mostly in a 2D medium, she is very much interested in exploring the relations between space, object, and body which brought about her interest in performance art. In both her paintings and performances, she aims to explore surrealist themes as she wishes to connect the mind and the body as a whole. She feels that these two are very much considered separate in her observations, and chooses to work with these themes as a starting point.

Chand’s piece, “Mind” would be an exploration of material in real time in the context of a theatre setting in reference to the single spotlight. The piece would be exploring the relationship between biology and psychology, testing concentration and the physical limits of the actual body. The theatre reference comes about in the single spotlight adding an almost surrealist aspect to the piece, which further brings about the theme of the mind.


Elizabeth Lim has grown up being exposed to the eclectic society of Singapore. She has been traveling since an early age, which may contribute to her strong interest in the interactions between culture and people from different walks of life. Her upcoming projects are concerned with trying to expand the definitions of "Singaporean Art". More importantly, she is investigating the endless potential and possibilities Art and its mediums have to offer her. She further develops herself, first as a human being then as an Artist, to uncover what she has to offer Art. In her performance practice, she have noticed a compulsive need for a routine or a time where she is in control and everything will be in order, according to the artist. Her performance “Timekeeper”, looks into this fixation with uniformity, the self, and these formed structures in relation to the space, and human interaction (from audience). This will be explored through the use of sound, everyday objects, and items that are important to the artist. The objects reflecting the compulsion to make things just so on a day-to-day basis, and the important items as a hypothesis on the artist’s need for these routines and habits. This work is an exploration into the artist's self and her practice as a performer.


Justin Lee has been actively exhibiting widely since 1996 making an impact with his pop art imageries. His prolific and witty productions offers a unique understanding of contemporary Singapore society and lifestyle with a blend of cultures from the east and west. Justin also seeks to record everyday lifestyle into visual art based on his cultural background and surrounded by doubting questions appearances. He believes that art play an important part in helping people to grow and heightens awareness of them. His current works reflect on how text influences and controls the users in our daily lifestyle. His works also reflect on words and images from the mass media like signage, billboards and consumer products, which control our thoughts and expression. Justin Lee’s piece, “Eat Fast Food Fast” will be a dialogue in which the artist uses fast food to interact with the audiences explores the consumerist tendencies of society and the transpiration of truth in one’s media-fixated urban lifestyle.


Jason Lee graduated from Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts in 2006 with Diploma in Visual Communication, specializing in photography design. In 2010, he obtained a BA (Hons) in Fine Arts from the University of Huddersfield, UK.His current works deals with wide issues that revolve around the urban environment and contemporary society that inspires him. His artistic interest lies in the areas of urbanization, abandoned traditions, and sub-cultural lifestyle. Art to him is a platform to explore issues that are being misunderstood or overlooked. He has participated in group exhibitions and collaborations. He received special commendation in the Digital Camera Photographer of the Year 2010 (UK) under the portfolio category. He is based in Singapore and is a present member of The Artists Village.

Arif Ayab (A.K.A Reef) is a musician member of a Singapore based band Under the Velvet Sky, UTVS. He had collaborated in other music projects with artists like Lee Wen, Zai Kuning, Bani Haykal, to name a few. In mid 2011, Reef began presenting his solo performances combining music, sound, poetry & performance art in his act. Recently, he had also performed in R.I.T.E.S with Wunderspaze, a loose collective of artists and artworkers interested in the research and presentation of art.


Jason Lee and Reef will be presenting their inaugural collaborative piece, “Born From the Wasted”, whereby both artists experiment the sounds and instrumentations on matters that would considered as trash or recyclables and objects associated with nature. The 'trash' include food wrappers, plastic containers, disposable cups, cartons, styrofoam, and so on. They will investigate the relationship between waste and nature, and how humans play a critical role in them. The performance aims to question our awareness towards ecology when disposing our daily waste. It serves as a platform for the artists to demonstrate re-connections with the natural environments and generate conversations with nature.

[review] mr sterile Assembly - Transit

If there was any one band you could not pigeonhole, it's this one. Most favorably dubbed "outsider punk," mr sterile Assembly (also simply known as the Assembly) has grown since the last time we saw them in Singapore in '07. With Transit, a fifth release just in time for their tenth anniversary, the idealism of drum and bass duo Kieran Monaghan and Chrissie Butler shines through. A collaborative project, Transit is not your ordinary album pressed on CD, listened to x number of times, and then all but forgotten. It is instead a multidisciplinary endeavour of sorts, with each song accompanied by an art piece, which culminated into an exhibition which we here in Singapore regret not being able to physically see.

The title of the album is brilliantly apt. As the tracks flit from jazz to math rock to ska to folk, one imagines themselves being transported from one place to another, and the transitions feel almost seamless. Interspersed with spoken word, shrill/soothing vocals, offbeat signatures, and groovy basslines, this almost sounds too chaotic to even be listenable. But the Assembly somehow manage to execute the album with precision, with their punk roots undeniably creeping in at different points throughout.

And what is music without words, without lyrics? Amidst the discordance lie some of the most incisive writing, as we're taken on another journey yet again -- this time through anti-war sentiments, Hone Tuwhare's poems, New Zealand's nuclear-free legislation, and even an ode to a migrant worker in Singapore. And as if everything else weren't enough, the Assembly have included lyrics to their songs as hyperlinks on their website, for those of us so inclined to delve into the nuances of their artistic offering.

This literary cacophony will be touring SE Asia starting from 15th July, with 2 dates (28th and 29th July) in Singapore. What else can we say? You can't not witness them in their full, live, performative glory.

[event] "Handmade" Art by KILAS // 8th July 2011 @ dbl O Art Space

HANDMADE

For all creation made from scratch, we honor the artistic masterminds behind them. Let your imagination run wild and immerse yourself in a world of everything homespun.

HANDMADE ART

Be amazed as artist KILAS (Keep It Like A Secret) brings to you his very own hand printed designs roused from the very depths of his creativity.

HANDMADE MUSIC

Watch and observe 2 of Singapore's finest eclectic deejays as they go heavy on beats and easy on melodies behind the decks with an improv percussion performance by Rahman of BLOCO SINGAPURA.

HANDMADE COCKTAILS

Give your tastebuds a treat as bar maestro Alex Tan conjures up whimsical concoctions for your drinking pleasure.

8th July 2011

9pm-11pm

dbl O Art Space

222 Queen Street, #01-01/02

www.dblo.com.sg

[event] Dream: Borderlands and Other Territories // 1st-15th July 2011 @ Goodman Arts Centre Gallery

"...this exhibition traverses the dual domain of waking and dreaming; in so doing, the nebulous interstices of hypnagogia are probed as well. These explorations run the gamut of potential angles of attack: From meticulous charts of individual dreams and general treatments of dream phenomena, to the instantiation of phantasmagoric scenarios, collective desires and forgotten futures." - Bruce Quek

Artists Participating:

Mike HJ Chang

Chun Kai Qun

Debbie Ding

Joo Choon Lin

Elizabeth Lim

Yuzuru Maeda

Bruce Quek

Zai Tang

Mark Thia

Mark Wong Wenwei

Come join them for their show opening 1st July at 8pm, where there will be sound performances by Kai Lam, Yuzuru Maeda and Zai Tang, plus a special guest! The show continues until 15th July.

There will also be talks by participating artists on the 9th July at 2pm.

Show opening times:

1st July - 11 am - 9.30 pm

2nd July - 14th July, 11 am - 8 pm

15th July - 10.30 am - 1.30 pm

For more information on the artists' work for this show please visit:

http://dreamborderlands.blogspot.com/

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=225517177466822

[event] Singapura Biarlain 2011 Rumah Terbuka a.k.a Singapore Let it be an Alternative 2011: Open House // 19th Mar 2011 to 16th April 2011 @ Straits Records

We'd almost missed posting this one. One more week to check out the show before it closes, folks!

Agitatsiya / Siti Zuraida / OneTwoDelta / Fidz / Siti Salihah Omar / Zaki Razak

OPENS DAILY:
Mondays to Fridays 5pm-10pm
Saturdays & Sundays 3pm-10pm

Straits Records (Straits) presents Singapura Biarlain 2011; Rumah

Terbuka (Singapore Let it be an Alternative 2011; Open House), its fifth launch since it was inaugurated in 2005 at 43 Haji Lane, a small quiet street on the outskirts of Kampong Glam city area. The aforementioned launch neither signify an ascension of profit nor to boast its new series of products, but to stamp a statement of Straits’ 16th year entrepreneurial spirit: by championing local artistes and independent labels, its seemingly ‘stubborn-feat’ for maintaining its existence within the premise of Kampong Glam and the advent of a fundraising initiative to upgrade its space to facilitate more community-driven activities; gearing toward an inclusive and encompassing social space. Singapura Biarlain 2011; Rumah Terbuka, is not to be perceived in alignment to the state’s supported Singapore Biennale scheduled from 13th March to 15th May 2011, but to be recognized as an alternate representation (a would-be-comparative event between the ‘spectacle and sensational’ and the ‘modest and closer-at-heart’) of a similar theme with a much streamlined intent: inviting guests with an open heart and open arms to Straits’ yet to be upgraded ‘open’ space with artistic installations, interventions and activities.

An event-based exhibition taking place from 19 March to 16 April 2011, Singapura Biarlain 2011; Rumah Terbuka features six contemporary Malays of various diverse interest, supporters of Straits, with a common aim: which is to develop the space into a facility that advocates knowledge and ‘encompassing art’. The exhibition aims to expand Straits’ entrepreneurial spirit and social sphere, to articulate Straits’ existence within the premise of Kampong Glam and to generate funds for Straits’ forthcoming artistic and educational initiatives.

Other features in the exhibition include:

• Installation of Straits Records’ historical archives organized by Agitatsiya

• New Paintings and T-shirt design by Shahril OneTwoDelta

• Prints based on the structural analysis of Jawi writings as well as workshop by Siti Salihah Omar

• Ballots, Bullets or Ballets, a mobile-election-installation and Heavyweights, T-shirt art with auction; by Zaki Razak

• Poetry Writings by Fidz

• Actions by Siti Zuraida

All the above objects are for sale excluding Straits Records’ historical archives.

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Brief Bios:

Agitatsiya is a non-music branch of Straits Records, exists to "experiment" other art forms¬. Agitatsiya’s attitude towards its works and ideas are provoking yet sincere.

Siti Zuraida is a theatre practitioner who regularly performs for various theatre productions.

OneTwoDelta is a graphic designer and a street artist. He is also a member of street art collective, ARTVSTS.
http://www.seekglory.com/

Fidz, a graduate from National University of Singapore is a freelance writer.

Currently an Art Educator, Siti Salihah Omar graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Education from National Institute of Education/Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

Zaki Razak who recently completed his Masters in Fine Arts at LASALLE College of the Arts is interested in the human consciousness and the hermeneutics of art. He is also a member of street art collective, ARTVSTS.

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About Straits Records:
Straits Records is a local record label dedicated to develop and promote original local and regional music. We believe in integrating music with various art forms, cultures and social issues/politics as a channel and vehicle, for both entertainment and creativity as well as education. Straits Records believe that music play an integral part of Singapore's cultural and artistic progress.

In existence since 1995, as Straits Distribution, serving the hardcore punk community by bringing in hard to get hardcore punk music from all over the world. In 1997, we change our name to Straits Records, and commit to release local English music. Our first release as a record label was The Jabs “Time of Negligence” CD EP. To help promote local and regional music to the masses, we have also actively organize music events at venues such The Arts House, The Substation, Esplanade and many more. Bands under our label have also tour regionally to promote Singapore music overseas.

Straits Records does not restrict to just promoting music, as we had collaborated with artists of different art forms, as to give a more visible experience to music. Ultimately, it is about individual equality, freedom of creativity and artistic excellence.

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Singapura Biarlain 2011; Rumah Terbuka is a fundraising initiative by Straits Records and its Supporters to open up an ‘open-call’ calling for participants and potential collaborators for its open space. This initiative is self-funded by Straits Records and interdependent between its Supporters.

Singapura Biarlain 2011; Rumah Terbuka opens on 19 March, Saturday at 7.30pm till late.