Sight - An Oracular Insight ( A Singapore Art blog)

An interview with the wonderful and exciting Jane Lee - Part 1

2009-11-18T10:15:00.006+08:00

There is a wonderful new artist in town. I last saw her at her first major solo at Osage Singapore end of Sept 09. Who is she? What is her pedigree? Here is her amazing profile, one that reveals that we have still got it here in Singapore - to spot a talent in the making despite our numerous estwhile faux pas.

Jane Lee was born 1963 in Singapore. She graduated from LASALLE-SIA College of the Arts with a BA in Fine Arts and a Diploma in Fashion. Her works have been exhibited in a number of notable exhibitions in the region such as Wonder, Singapore Biennale 2008, where she presented Raw Canvas. Other exhibitions include CODE SHARE: 5 continents, 10 biennales, 20 artists, Contemporary Art Center, Vilnius, Lithuania (2009), Coffee, Cigarettes and Pad Thai: Contemporary Art from Southeast Asia, Eslite Gallery, Taipei, Taiwan (2008), Always Here But Not Always Present: Art in a Senseless World, Singapore Management University, Singapore (2008) and the solo exhibition, Transformation / Process, Taksu Gallery, Singapore (2006). Lee has won several awards, most recently the 2007 Sovereign Art Prize (finalist), Hong Kong, and was also the first recipient of the Singapore Art Prize in 2007.

I asked her some questions through an email interview. Here are the questions and her responses:

RJ: Jane, how would you describe your art? Are they paintings? Are they sculptures? I sympathize with you if you find this question irrelevant. We use our analytical knife to demarcate areas in our fields of endeavor to be able to make sense of them.Perhaps there is an in-between category for your art? A “fabric sculpture” perhaps? Or a “dressed painting”?

JL: While my works are about painting, it is also about challenging what we understand painting to be. They are about pushing the boundaries in painting, and seeing the impossible. The emphasis, or fetishisation, about the medium is not as important as what my work is about.

RJ:Is there some area of art making that you are challenging with your work? I see the weave,the contours and creases and some sensuous feel in your work that reminds me of fabric.(Perhaps this is further accentuated by the fact that I am cognizant of your background in fashion).

JL: My works question painting—what constitutes a ‘painting’, and how paintings can be made. In other words, my paintings explore the possibilities of constructing one. They are not about fabric at all.

JL: Paint has its own tendencies, so I just let things happen. Sometimes things don’t turn up well,and certain parts have to be retouched. These are parts where you see a thicker layer of paint. Therefore, any similarity to fabric is incidental.

RJ: A famous example cites that if you take a teacup and line it with fur, it has to be considered a work of art, because perhaps there is nothing else left to consider it as. Perhaps this is how you pitch your art work against our increasingly static perception of art (which of course needs to be violently jarred at its very foundations every now and again). You have created a new type of fabric. One that is no longer a fabric. Perhaps you have taken a potentially craft-like area of work into the realms of art? Can you comment?

JL: It’s not my conscious intent to incorporate dress-making (craft) elements into my artwork. The influence of my fashion background on me is subconscious, something that I cannot escape. The concern in my paintings is not for fabric; it’s for the material components of a painting.For example, the canvas—as a material—, which is part and parcel of painting.

RJ: It would be interesting for my readers to understand how you came to using the particular material for the making of your art. What was the process? How long did it take? What influenced you and what were the considerations or the criteria for you to narrow down your choices.

JL: I don’t set out to use particular types of material, although I do explore alternative sources other than fine art shops: everyday life for tools like spoons, forks, cake-making icing nozzles, ham slicers, syringes, and even simply my own bare hands, and industrial suppliers for alternative qualities of acrylic and oil paint and mix media materials. Any and all kinds of material may come into play.

JL: Of course, the tools chosen have to interact well with the paint. They have to be able to bring out the beauty and/or interesting qualities of the paint; they have to be the means through which the paints manifest a certain character. To me, (the characteristics of) paint is what’s important—the tools are merely a medium.

JL: My technique is largely trial and error. As part of my primary motive to push the boundaries of painting, I test and pursue all possibilities.

JL: It all started back when I was painting in the traditional style. One day, I noticed the beauty of the acrylic paint that has dried onto my palette. This made me realise my painting had already begun on the palette, even before the first application of paint onto canvas. Painting can exist without a canvas, I realised. This epiphany inspired me to explore indirect means of painting, such as by working on a painting’s components before sticking them onto the canvas, as opposed to through the direct way of applying paint straight onto canvas. It takes me about a year to complete each project.

RJ: Finally, I am wondering if there was a conscious effort in your part to de-gender or to ‘genderise’ your art. Do you for instance want your art to be recognized as woman-made, bringing perhaps feminist meanings into your work? You might not have consciously thought of it in that vein. Has there been anyone who has suggested that your artwork is essentially feminist?

JL: The delicate details on my paintings may look ‘woman-made’, but then the large scale that some of them are constructed on also implies a ‘man’s touch’. There are both masculine and feminine connotations taking place at the same time. This, I think, reveals my belief in the notion of Yin/Yang, in the idea that a duality exists in every individual. This duality results in elements of masculinity in women, and of femininity in men.

JL: I do understand the imperative to categorise—there is safety and security in knowing for sure that man fit a certain type, and women another. However, I don’t think it’s right to label artists that way, viewing their work through the lens of gender expectation, and thereby possibly interfering with the meaning. After all, the beauty of art is in its exploration of ‘in-between’ conditions and spaces.

JL: I definitely do not take conscious effort to implicate gender into my work. I do, however,consciously discard the limiting notion that I am a woman. During my process, gender identity ceases to exist for me.

RJ: You art is beautiful. It is immediately seductive. What is your view on the aesthetics of your art? Are you seducing your audience to draw them closer to reveal and perhaps hide new interpretations? Is aesthetics to you more than seduction?

JL:I do seek to create a compelling quality about my artworks, compelling enough to draw people closer. This is perhaps the essence of all visual art.

JL: However, I feel that seduction is cheap. Seduction requires effort, conscious intention, and therefore will not last long. Rather, I see myself offering viewers stimuli that evoke the beauty inherent in each one of them. The beauty comes not immediately from what I present to them, but comes instead from my prompting them to slow down and surrender to their inner nature, allowing joy to overtake. My works are purely the trigger.

An interview with artist John Westmark

2009-09-22T14:38:00.004+08:00

I recently attended the opening of an amazing artist from Florida,US here in Singapore at Collector's Contemporary. See here for John's work and here for Collector's Contemporary Gallery

John Westmark was born in the Southern United States. John’s first exposure to artmaking was watching his mother draw on paper scraps during long Baptist sermons.

John holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Kansas City Art Institute and a Master of Fine Arts from the University of Florida.

He presently works and lives in Gainesville, Florida. Westmark’s work has been exhibited widely and is held in collections worldwide. Recent acquisitions include the Council on Foriegn Relations, Washington, DC; and the Frederick
R. Weisman Foundation in Los Angeles, CA. John is a Florida Individual Artist Fellowship recipient, was recently featured in New American Paintings, and has been selected for the Bemis Center for Contemporary Art Artist-in-Residence for the summer of 2010. Westmark has earned a position on the watch lists of museums and institutions.

John’s solo show at Collectors Contemporary marks his Singapore debut. The show is on view through September 30, 2009.

I spoke to Dr Koh from Collector's Contemporary gallery and here is what he had to say about John:

My partner and I started collecting John's works before we actually met him. We were in Miami for Art Basel and saw his works which was part of a group show in a local gallery at that time. After 3 intense days of art overload we chanced upon that group show and found his works refreshingly original.

About 6 to 8 months after that, we started communicating by email. We gradually, acquired more of his works and kept the communication channels open.

John's works are so strong and distinct that we found it difficult to fit into any of our group shows. As we acquired more, we felt that it would be best to give him a solo show.

Finally, I had a few questions for John. Here are the questions and his responses:

A. Tell us a little about both your flight series and folklore series.

The flight series was the beginning of my work with the sewing patterns. The close visual relationship of the sewing pattern pieces and sections of aircraft was quite attractive to me. So the first pieces were these Orwellian winged contraptions. The exploration into flight and how it forms and impacts our lives led me to mythological references, such as Icarus, and many others. The notion of flight and myth and
mankind is still a very fertile place to conceive work from – a kind of faith versus reason argument.

Gradually, my focus has become two-pronged, the flight work and most recently, the folklore series. With the folklore work, the sense of narrative becomes a key component to the work - the sense of a story. Several key sources of folklore/storytelling are the Brothers Grimm and the rich heritage of storytelling from the Southern United States. I'm also looking at folklore from around the world, and interestingly, the are many similarities in the moral and message of stories from very different cultures/societies. There is a common human thread that speaks to good versus evil and finding the "right" path. But I will also say that a great many tales are very dark and do not always have a happy ending. The "happily ever after" line is pure Disney.

B. Brockelman links collage to a postmodern knowledge system rooted in paradox. You use collage extensively in your work. Do the epistemic contradictions of collage find any bearing in your work?

“Collage practices—the gathering of materials from different worlds into a single composition demanding a geometrically multiplying double reading of each element—call
attention to the irreducible heterogeneity of the “postmodern condition.” But,insofar as it does bind these elements, as elements, within a kind of unifying field ..”

- Brockelman, T. P. (2001). The frame and the mirror: On collage and the postmodern. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press.

Ah yes, well put.
Collage has been a pleasant surprise. If you would have asked me about collage a few years ago, I would have scoffed. For many years, I embraced the definition of the artist as a pure painter and nothing else. It's naive and embarrassing, but true, I would not consideranything other than paint and canvas. Now, things are different, and I do agree with Brockelman in that the postmodern condition is and must be inclusive of any process or material, there is a pluralist approach to making art now – and at the root level heterogeneity is the catalyst for metaphor. And I don't just mean the implied material metaphor that collage presents; rather, conceptual metaphor, the ability for a work to "flip" meaning for the viewer. For me, as a viewer and an artist, I get the most joy out of artwork that oscillates from one place of conveyance to another without being obnoxious.

Bertolt Brecht remarked that the mechanics of collage run contrary to the organic model of growth...assumptions of harmony, unity, and closure. The idea that collage is an act of disruption through assemblage of pre-existing images is appealing. It is a fascinating premise: the appropriation of material created by machines of reproduction with a specific intent opens the work up for a new set of associations – essentially reactivating it. Yeehaw!

There is something really interesting and appealing about arrangements of letters..

2009-08-07T09:46:00.005+08:00

Text-portraits by Ralph Ueltzhoeffer and a word cloud for this blog by wordle.net

Art is politics

2009-08-06T10:11:00.002+08:00

I was at the opening for an exhibition at VWFA entitled Curating Lab: 100 Objects (Remixed) yesterday. It was a crowded opening and there was little time to look at many of the artworks there. I will head back before it ends on the 30th of August.

I write this because I am intrigued about a comment made by Heman Chong in his opening question in the transcript of an interview between curators for the exhibition.

A quote from a german art critic Jan Verwoert was used -" Art and politics belong to the same trade".

I am intrigued.

I have always thought of politics as a struggle for power in the Max Weber's sense. You talk about the politics of a country or corporate politics where oneupmanship is the salient defining trait.

So Jon Verwoert must mean politics in a different sense.

"They [art and politics] share the medium of gesture, which, in its expanded sense, encompasses all the physical manifestations through which people confront each other and seek to evoke desired responses, whether by speech and expressions of body language or by the display of signs and signals in images, texts, music or architecture".

Is Jon Verwoert saying that politics ( and art) is about invoking a desired response?
In the case of art, the above statement seems to subscribe to the aesthetic theory of utile. Art has a function. It evokes a preconceived, premeditated response.

But the above position is trite and I am not concerned about it much. It is discussed forever in art circles.

But what about the other position, vis-a-vis politics is about invoking a desired response? Is this only in a limited sense? Perhaps.

Read another look at art is politics taken from the great xurban.net

Art is politics. It is political as opposed to politics as management (ie. of state), a profession, a power play, manipulation or propaganda. As a matter of existence, art aims at the political as the ultimate means of emancipation, absolute freedom from commodification, if such is still possible. Art is a critical necessity as long as it fights being a part of the spectacle, as it aims to turn the spectacle upside down, as it exposes the 'culture industry.'

The crisis of art and with it the artist in the 'center' (West) stems from the impossibility of politics as such, within the captured psyche of the consumer culture. Political correctness without the political agenda, or art as expression of the ethnic and sexual self is bound to be neutralized through the all encompassing spectacle. While this appears, as it did to Baudrillard, as the 'complete liberation' of art and the artist, free from the historical drive that kept the tradition alive, it also marks the disappearance of the impulse, the loss of the cause: Not that of a liberation en masse (a revolution), but it renders the production (ie. of culture) irrelevant as such.

In the periphery the situation is just as bleak, as the tranquillized masses are more prone to turn into a mob of fascist/nationalist/religious thugs. The lie of globalisation, besides creating a monster as such, aims at a liberation of a different order, that of the capital and free enterprise. While it is business as usual, the power (ie government), already corrupted, becomes more oppressive, more violent. Yet still, if 'pockets of resistance' are a possibility, they are possible within the very pores of the military-police state, as the unavoidable necessity of existence, of simply 'being.'

Ironically, the last refuge of art as politics comes around a full circle, to that of the historical avant-garde in the time of crisis, but with a difference, not as the history repeating itself in the historicism's bordello. To expand on Benjamin's 'optical unconscious' one demands a 'geographical unconscious', a slip of the tongue apart from the genetic, folkloric, regional, traditional and 'oriental.' In these parts of the world, the 'reflexes' of the totalitarian regimes are without a doubt on the oppressive side. But for the ordinary man, the accidental/instinctive favors a special blend of violence, pity and a deeper sensation of poverty that is peculiarly geographical. Already in Istanbul, owing to a long tradition, the civil organization of social space displays an autonomous charity of its own, rarely disturbed by the authority. While the post colonial sphere is marked by inept institutions of the western kind, Istanbul leads a life of its own, again disjunct between tradition and change, but nevertheless with a sense of decency, a comraderie as it surfaced after the 1999 earthquakes. The will of the artist-intellectual in this geography should follow from this, that is an acknowledged belief in the best intentions of the civillian majority, a kind of third world humanism.

Hence the imposibility to turn inwards, a subjectivity of the work of art that misses the catastrophic existence, the scar of social consciousness. Only here the artist avoids being a proffessional and can afford to be a dilettante in order to defy being part of the spectacle as such. The bliss (as in ignorance) is the lack of institutionalized art that turns one's self into a 'specialist' in the specialized sphere of the production at large. Just as Istanbul still resists the logic of late capitalism and the multi-national corporation with its fractured economic organization, so can the artist produce without the burden of consistent, synchronised mode of professionalism that is demanded by the 'industry.' The amateur fascination with 'real life' out on the street leads to an affirmation of sorts: While life supercedes art along the way, emancipation should be sought on varied fronts, indeed through the phantasmagorical fraternity of the cyberspace.

The phantasm of equality in the domain of the great equalizer, that is the world wide web, is bound to give way to a new alliance of the nodes of resistence that demand the recognition of differences. Once the dust is settled and the hype is over, and the commercialization of the cyberspace is complete, the second wave of the telematic revolution should aim at the politicizing of the web via truly artistic means. Referring back to Adorno, if the technique of the concentration camp is to make the prisoners like their guards, the murdered, murderers; and to abolish the difference to an absolute in the sense that nothing different survives, then the resistence is to find its path through the counter-flow of the information technologies, crisscrossing the popular media on the way in order to gather the momentum to overturn the tide. The inverse flow is where the collectivity finds its expression of being simply political, different.

Group show in Malaysia opening on 8th of August 2009

2009-08-04T01:12:00.002+08:00

Cadres RG

2009-04-30T16:17:00.003+08:00

My paintings at my gallery in Paris were recently framed by world famous and Paris' finest framers - Cadres RG. They have worked with the likes of George Braque and Joan Miro. Cool huh!

See here...

Framing is an art and as with any art it takes much learning and practice. Even though I tend to stretch my own canvases, I leave the framing of my paintings to the experts. I have never been disappointed.

My gallery in Paris uses the best and I can't wait to see the result.

Contemporary Malaysia art gets an airing

2009-04-15T23:26:00.002+08:00

The above pic with the collectors Aliya and Farouk Khan with my RAIN painting in the background appeared in Business Times last week on the recent IMCAS. Read the full article here

The opening at IMCAS 2009

2009-04-10T13:24:00.002+08:00

Here is the pic of the opening at IMCAS 2009. I am chuffed to be standing with the very very best of Malaysian artists. Everyone from Jai to Fauzan to Yusof Ghani to the Matahati group is on stage. And so is the Director General of the National Art Gallery of Malaysia and the two collectors Aliya and Farouk.

This is in my opinion the start of a new dawn for Malaysian art - a private collector is leading the way..

New Straits Times article dated 7th April 2009

2009-04-07T22:15:00.003+08:00

One of my paintings is featured in the article below in NST Malaysia today.

The caption: Rajinder Singh’s ‘Rain’, (acrylic on canvas) at the Iskandar Malaysia Contemporary Art Show 2009.

Farouk's art
By Anis Ibrahim

2009/04/07

CONTEMPORARY art is often misunderstood. It's seen as pretentious, intentionally controversial, even self-indulgent.

Contemporary art pieces, after all, are never just watercolours of pretty flowers or idyllic scenes of village life.

And if the meaning behind a piece of art isn't instantly obvious, some will give up trying to comprehend it and head towards the nearest "friendly" painting in the gallery.

As a result, Malaysian contemporary art is undervalued and unappreciated, says art collector Farouk Khan.

"Appreciating a classical painting is much easier than understanding contemporary installation art," he says. "You need to think a bit harder to appreciate contemporary art."

But therein lies the value of contemporary art, he adds.

"Contemporary art is more intellectual. It's current, it's 'now' and relevant to what is around us."

Farouk and his wife, Aliya, own 800 Malaysian contemporary art pieces, among the country's largest private art collections.

They own works by established artists such as Jalaini Abu Hassan and Ahmad Shukri Mohamed, and Farouk is always on the lookout for emerging artists and encourages others to do the same.

Young artists whose works he started collecting in 1996, he says, have developed into some of the country's best contemporary artists.

Identifying a good artist involves looking at profiles and not simply picking out famous artists.

"I look at where they've exhibited and whether they've been at art residencies," Farouk says.

"That's a good guide to see how far someone's gone and how far he will go."

Farouk is involved in the Iskandar Malaysia Contemporary Art Show 2009 (IMCAS).

Currently running in Johor Baru until June 14, the show features 1,000 works by more than 100 contemporary artists. Some 150 pieces belong to the Aliya and Farouk Khan collection.

Farouk concedes that not everyone can afford to own art, so his tip is to buy art while it's young.

"Buy good quality art by artists in their prime in their 20s to 30s, when it's cheaper. Don't wait until they reach their 60s. By that time, their art will cost tens of thousands of ringgit."

He says the strongest case for contemporary art is that it represents the cultural development of the country.

"Years down the line, art produced this year will be a record of Malaysia's history, its politics and culture. That's what I see when I look at pieces I bought 10 years ago."

Prospective art collectors would be happy to learn that the price of art never drops. Art, especially contemporary art, always appreciates in value. According to Farouk, the prices of contemporary art have risen higher than for classical art for the simple reason that it is more relevant to the times.

"People can relate to contemporary art better. There is no concept of 'the right time to buy'. The right time is whenever the art is available."

Unlike in foreign art markets, Malaysian art prices have not been affected by the recession.

Art works in China and Europe, for instance, have become more affordable in the wake of the economic slump.

"Our base is so low that our art prices have not been and will not be affected. That's another reason to buy art as and when it's available."

The cultural significance of contemporary art should be reason enough for the country's public institutions to expand their art collections.

Farouk says that while private collectors dominate the art scene at present -- "They don't mind parting with their money to buy art" -- he is happy to note that the National Art Gallery has increased its budget for acquisitions.

"I'm very glad that the new director-general, Dr Mohamed Najib Ahmad Dawa, has raised the gallery's annual budget for contemporary art to RM1 million.

"Ever since he took over, there's been a strong movement towards buying more contemporary art, which is very good.

"The gallery should keep its collections up-to-date, so this is a move in the right direction."

The irony is that Malaysian contemporary art has sold for much more overseas.

In May last year, an artwork by Malaysian artist Yee I-Lann, which sold for RM12,000 locally, fetched RM117,000 at a Christie's auction in Hong Kong.

Similarly, a piece by Jalaini Abu Hassan sold for RM196,000 at another Christie's auction.

As his eyes sweep over the creations on display at IMCAS, Farouk says: "Look at this. Anyone can see that Malaysian contemporary art is a world-class product.

"What a shame it would be if we can't see that ourselves."

Why has the British establishment never quite accepted the Singh Twins?

2009-04-01T12:25:00.001+08:00

Why has the British establishment never quite accepted the Singh Twins?
Written by independent.co.uk
TUESDAY, 31 MARCH 2009

Amrit and Rabindra have always produced their fabulous art the only way they know how: together. Peter Stanford meets a singular pair

You're doing very well telling them apart," Amrit and Rabindra Singh's elderly father remarks as he watches me talk to his daughters. "I still get them confused." The identical twins, dressed in matching Punjabi outfits, right down to the earrings, necklaces, bangles and jewelled bindis in the centre of their foreheads, smile indulgently at his joke. Even their laughter sounds the same.

But these Sikh sisters long ago stopped worrying about being mistaken for each other and have turned being twins to their advantage. They have made it part of their brand in the art world, where they are known and celebrated as one artist: the Singh Twins.

Their style is a fusion of Indian tradition and contemporary Western influences which they label "past modern". Each canvas is produced jointly and combines the bright colours, intricate designs and flattened perspectives of intricate Indian miniature paintings with modern political, social and cultural themes. Among their best-known are From Zero to Hero, featuring the Beckhams, and Art Matters, a piece commissioned to mark Liverpool's tenure last year as European Capital of Culture, but Singh Twins' works are to be found across major national and international collections. In 2002, they were only the second British-born artists, after Henry Moore, to be accorded an exhibition at New Delhi's National Museum of Modern Art. And the windowsill of their neat, calm, book-lined studio, next to the family home halfway up a sandstone hill between Birkenhead and the Irish Sea, is lined with awards that are sparkling in the spring sunshine.

"One thing that might help," offers Rabindra, as I once again address her as Amrit, "is that I tend to find myself, almost subconsciously, standing on the right." Indeed, the reddish shawl each wears is, helpfully, over her right shoulder and Amrit's left until the photographer mentioned it and Rabindra duly moved hers to match her sister. There is undoubtedly an element of playing with hapless visitors' confusion over which is which, but the twins regard their shared identity, I quickly come to realise, as more than a game or a marketing device. They have turned it into something to highlight the tensions they have encountered, as citizens and as artists, in being both British and Asian.

"Western contemporary art is all about the individual, the inner self," reflects Amrit, the more talkative of the two, as the three of us perch at the end of the long studio table where their latest painting – based on events in Palestine and looking at the impact of politics on everyday lives – lies half-finished. "So in Western art, it doesn't matter if anyone else understands the work, as it is about the individual artist and what they are feeling. This was certainly the view when we were studying art at university [from the mid-1980s until 1991 first at University College, Chester, later Manchester]. We were constantly being told that to be individual was healthy, that we had to be more different from each other, be influenced by different Western artists from each other, but that didn't seem valid to us. From the point of view of Sikh, Indian or even Asian philosophy, the community comes first and the individual is second."

The clash between the two codes, say the twins, left them, like many other British Asians, under sustained pressure to abandon their cultural heritage. Their final degree grades were even reduced because they wouldn't yield – though they subsequently had the marking overturned after a seven-year battle with academia. The prejudice they encountered – at one stage an examiner was reported to have remarked, "Give them a 2.2, they won't mind because they'll soon be in an arranged marriage" – might have broken some, but it brought out the rebel in the sisters. "It was when we were at college," Rabindra recalls, "that we started to deliberately wear the same clothes to challenge the notion of individuality. We'd always had the same clothes, but until then had not necessarily worn them on the same day."

They see their art, too, as a challenge to questions of identity and what is acceptable or fashionable. It favours narrative, detail, colour and time-honoured techniques – none of which are qualities likely to see them lionised alongside their contemporaries, the Young British Artists. Yet it is also very modern and even edgy because of its exploration of what it is to be British and Asian simultaneously.

"We were told by our tutors that the miniature was outdated," Amrit remembers. When they first wanted to exhibit, they would routinely receive "nice letters, saying how much they liked our work, but perhaps we'd do better in an ethnic gallery in the East End of London". They have, with their success of the past two decades, turned the tables – though they feel that a "London, art- establishment elite" continues to look down on their work because of its traditional Indian roots. They decided early on not to sell their works in order to build a touring collection, but do accept commissions and have, of late, allowed some pieces to go into national collections. But it is hard to say what their paintings would command on the open market; substantial five-figure sums are mentioned by dealers.

Though they are "twin-dividuals", they insist, the Singhs spend 99 per cent of their time together. They simultaneously discovered a passion for Indian miniatures aged 13, while spending a year travelling with their father around his native Punjab. They jointly devise and execute most of their works, their skills interchangeable. "We could probably tell which of us has done which part, but otherwise only those very close to us could work it out," says Amrit. Some pieces, especially in the various series they have completed on particular themes (such as "The Hart Project" and "Facets of Femininity"), are wholly by one or the other. "But we don't see it as my work, your work," Rabindra stresses. "It is not that we can't do things on our own, but this is a joint venture. Our thinking, our ideology, our political-social outlook is identical."

She does concede that the sisters have different characteristics. "I am a perfectionist, which is not always a good thing, and Amrit is the one who gets it done." But they also say the last three words in harmony.

Their mode of working, the twins point out, has parallels in the medieval age, when monks would work together on a single illuminated manuscript. And there is something rather monk-like and self-abnegating about the Singh Twins. For all their warmth and humour, they continue to see themselves as outsiders and are more comfortable talking about their work than themselves.

The twins' Sikh father came to Britain when he was nine. They were born in Richmond, Surrey, but moved to the Wirral when they were still small and encountered what they describe as low-level racial prejudice as youngsters – name-calling and, on one occasion, a brick through their window. Though now in their early forties, they continue to live in the extended family home with their father, uncles and cousins. They used domestic settings a lot in their early work – part, as Amrit puts it, "of celebrating the more positive side of the traditional Indian lifestyle rather than girls locked in their bedrooms and forced marriages".

One of their best-known works is based on the wedding of their elder sister, Nyrmla. A print of it is propped up at the entrance to the studio. Typically, it includes both the traditional ritual of the bride's hands being henna-ed with images of globalisation and reminders of consumerism in the Power Ranger toys lying on the carpet. "There is always," says Rabindra as we study it, "a serious message in our work – which includes saying to youngsters who are going through similar pressures to the ones we experienced as teenagers that it is OK to explore your Indian identity, that you can be British and Asian, and have the best of both worlds."

Malaysia's biggest private art collection debuts at IMCAS

2009-03-26T14:11:00.000+08:00

Nearly two hundred masterpieces of Malaysian art from Malaysia’s biggest private art collection, the Aliya and Farouk Khan collection will be the main attraction at IM©AS, Iskandar Malaysia Contemporary Art show in Johor Bahru, Malaysia. The private collection will make its debut at this renowned cultural show of Malaysia’s contemporary art as a preview to the hosting and launch of the collection by Malaysia’s National Art Gallery slated for early 2010 in Kuala Lumpur. The collection will be launched at an invite-only event at 10.30am on Saturday the 4th of April at Level 4 of Danga City Mall by HRH Raja Zarith Sofiah, the consort of the crown prince of Johor. The exhibition will remain open to the public for three months till the 14th of June 2009.

About the Aliya And Farouk Khan Art collection

The Aliya and Farouk Khan art collection represents the largest collection of contemporary Malaysian art in the country, private or public. Both in terms of quantity and quality the collection’s body of Malaysian art is without peer. Comprising some 800 works of art, it features major paintings by contemporary Malaysian artists from the last three decades including iconic works from the Matahati group, works from major artists such as Jailani Abu Hassan and Anwar Zakii as well as young new contemporary Malaysian painters such as Shooshi Sulaiman and Rajinder Singh.

IMCAS invite

2009-03-20T15:44:00.002+08:00

Four pieces

2009-03-19T13:56:00.005+08:00

Three of my paintings will be featured at IMCAS under Aliya and Farouk Khan Art collection. The show is on now at the Danga Mall in Johor Bahru, Malaysia.

About IMCAS 2009

2009-03-19T13:52:00.001+08:00

Malaysia’s largest exhibition of contemporary art will kick-off the 2009 art calendar in a big way.

The inaugural Iskandar Malaysian Contemporary Art Show 2009 or IM©AS 2009 will feature a showcase of major and established contemporary artists, alongside talented and emerging contemporary artists vying for the coveted IM©AS 2009 Award.

Set to become Southern Peninsular Malaysia’s most developed region, Iskandar Malaysia and IM©AS 2009 is a perfect combination considering the rise and rise of Malaysia’s contemporary art movement over the last few years, and the emergence of Iskandar Malaysia as the key driver for Malaysia’s global economic push. IM©AS 2009 is thus well-positioned to showcase Malaysia’s strength in contemporary arts, as well as economic and political stability through Iskandar Malaysia… in a big way.

With the largest gathering of more than 100 artists, featuring more than 1,000 contemporary works encompassing paintings, sculptures, installations, photography, films, videos and new medias, spread over 26,000 sq feet of exhibition space, IM©AS 2009 is the exhibition for Malaysia’s contemporary art movement.

IM©AS 2009 is the best possible way to kick-off the 2009 art calendar. A statement of intent more than anything, IM©AS 2009 is a revolution in itself, telling the world: Malaysian contemporary art has arrived.

There is nothing like it to date, and if there is only one exhibition to see in 2009 in Malaysia, this must be it.

A failed art thesis..

2009-03-19T13:33:00.002+08:00

I wrote the following wall-text for a figurative art section in, IMCAS, Malaysia's largest exhibition of contemporary art which features the Aliya and Farouk Khan Art collection.

"This section of Aliya and Farouk Khan’s collection is curated under the theme of figurative art. The term figurative art today is used as a counter point to abstract or conceptual art and more often than not refers to any form of modern art that retains strong reference to the real world. Nevertheless, figurative art still holds a strong connection with representation of the human figure. It holds the potential of exploration of identity and the articulation of personal and social values and beliefs. The one element that remains constant between the artist and the audience is the human body. In figurative art, the human body becomes the representation of the real, the ideal and the symbolic.

The production of images is discouraged in Islam and the Malaysian art scene saw a marked absence of this basic form of art making in its early years. Malaysian art revolved in the precincts of abstract and geometrical art for a period. In seeking the authenticity of personal experience, Malaysian artists remained away from the intrinsic nature of the human form as a sign of their personal and social ideological believes.

Breaking the shackles of censorship, postmodern Malaysian artists such as Rajinder Singh, Jeganathan Ramachandram, Kow Leong Kiang, Yau Bee Ling, Jailani Ahu Hassan, Ivan lam, Bayu Ridjikin, Ahmad Fuad and Steven Menon use the formal aesthetic effects of line, shape, color and light to amplify their conceptual concerns with the treatment of human figure as other representational forms in their art."

Farouk Khan, wrote back with the following comments on the above:

"the thesis of censorship of arts in any forms has been proven to be false in light of the constant imaging of art using figurative by artists such as ibrahim hussein, yusof ghani in his topeng and sri tari series, by malaysia's foremost figurative asrtists amron omar and countless other artists.

in fact, the thesis is now considered to be an attempt to marginalise malaysian malay artists as being either prone to censorship or as govt lackeys propogating propoganda. The origin of the thesis is now a major source of embarrassment to the writers of the earlier period of malaysian art who took comfort in the lack of opposition to their writings to mean that they could write like idiots and not justify their statemnets.

i most certainly would not like to be associated with a failed thesis in the introduction of my collection to the general public.

The deconstruction of the failed curatorial era is contained in the book , susurmasa which the national art gallery has put out and was written by hasnul jamal saidon. It is also generally felt that hasnul was a bit kind to the idiot art writers of the earleir era in his deconstuction of their thesis.

i appreciate that being in singapore that u would be a bit behind the progresison of new art thesis's of the region as they develop and would be stuck in era's gone by. In the contemporary art development one has to keep up with the times.

Try again pls. "

Titty brain

2009-03-03T08:26:00.005+08:00

I am going to be a dad in 6 weeks and I cant seem to stop painting big breasted abstractions...hmmmm?

"Because the Lord did there confound the language of all the earth"

2008-12-22T19:49:00.002+08:00

A new piece for Gajah Gallery painted mid 2008:

Title: Because the Lord did there confound the language of all the earth
Dimension: 63” x 74”
Mixed media on Polyester cloth

2008-12-14T10:20:00.002+08:00

Title : Here and Now

Venue : Pace Gallery
64 Jalan Kemajuan, Section 12
Petaling Jaya

Opening Hours :
Daily: 11am - 7pm

Date & Time : Fri 12 - Fri 26 Dec 2008 (11am - 7pm)

Tickets : Free Admission

Phone : 03-7954 6069

Synopsis : An art exhibition featuring recent works by 16 prominent Malaysian artists, namely Ahmad Zakii Anwar, Bayu Utomo Radjikin, Ahmad Shukri, Rajinder Singh, Hamidi Hadi and Yusof Majid among others.

Part of proceeds from the paintings sale will be given to Force of Nature, a grant making foundation that helps rebuild the lives of those who were disaster affected.

The opening of the show will be held on Fri 12 Dec 2008 at 8pm.

"Here and Now" group exhibition in Malaysia

2008-12-14T01:46:00.002+08:00

I am presently participating in a group exhibition with artists such as Ahmad Zakii Anwar and Shukri at Pace Gallery KL. The exhibition is in support of the Force of Nature initiative. The invite is attached.

First solo in Australia

2008-11-17T10:58:00.004+08:00

I am busy preparing for my first solo in Australia. I will be showing my Number-Trance-Face collection there.

The problem with mathematics

2008-09-30T23:01:00.001+08:00

The problem with mathematics by itself is that it doesn’t provide the big picture; it’s limited to a particular discipline, so it’s merely a shadow of the form of the Good.

- taken from here

The Problem With Mathematics

2008-09-30T22:53:00.001+08:00

We like to think of ourselves as rational, logical creatures. We are far from it. Rational behavior, behavior directed to obtain a goal or avoid unpleasant consequences, has to be learned, studied and practiced. Logic is a recent development forced upon us by a growing awareness of the universe and is a subset of language governed by strict rules that have to be learned and obeyed for logic to function. Neither comes with the package we call language. They are both additional features that have to be purchased with hard work and study.

Mathematics is a diverse set of tools developed to help us understand the universe. The basic tool upon which all others depend is logic, for it is mathematical logic that justifies and validates the remaining tools. All of the tools that are mathematics must conform to a number of criteria, such as having consistent rulesets by which operations within the tool are defined. Any inconsistency will invalidate the tool and make it useless. Mathematicians go to great lengths to test their tools and demonstrate that they are up to the tasks set for them, the dreaded "mathematical proofs". These 'proofs' are logical meta-tool examinations of the basis and validity of the tool's ruleset.

And that statement highlights one of the biggest problems we have with mathematics: it is hard to talk about mathematics and even harder to teach to someone to whom the tools are unfamiliar.

When we teach arithmetic and basic logic in elementary and middle school, we don't stress the concept of layers of meta-language, of talking about language itself. Many of the tools of mathematics function like language. Logic is, as I have mentioned, a strict subset of natural language. When we apply logic to geometry, logic doesn't become a part of geometry. Our proofs are done in the meta-language 'logic' as applied to the tool 'geometry'. But we teach it as one subject.

Geometry is simple enough, once you learn it. So is algebra. Trigonometry is based on geometry quantified, although too little is done with imaginary numbers. Calculus is based on geometry, algebra and trigonometry with the concept of infinitesimals thrown in. They build upon each other, so that if one is learned well, the student has a solid basis for learning the next. There are lots of little fiddling details to remember and some people have enough of a problem with spacial visualization that they are unable to conquer geometry, but apart from the complexity, the tools are pretty simple. Once you learn them, they are easy to use, particularly now with the computing problem eased by the use of calculators and computers.

But mathematics isn't being sold as simple. It's being painted as being horrible difficult. For some people, it is.

Some people are incapable of learning logic. They will never admit it. In fact, should you suggest it they will shout you down or bully you into withdrawing your suggestion. Being capable only of highly emotional thought patterns, they don't have any idea what logic is and are incapable of learning it. Such people will most likely do sports while in school, then get into politics or business, where they can strive for alpha status, later. They would make poor scientists.

Still, for those capable of learning and using the tools, there is no point in confusing them by starting them off with the misconceptions we are currently generating. Mathematics is a heirarchy of little tools, each simple enough in its own way, integrated to work together. We can teach the tools individually.

We have to learn how to talk about mathematics.

- taken from here

Poincaré Conjecture

2008-09-30T15:59:00.003+08:00

This Millenium problem was recently solved and the mathematicians collected US$1 million dollars for their solution. Grigori Perelman used the Ricci flow developed by Richard Hamilton tp develop the proof.

If we stretch a rubber band around the surface of an apple, then we can shrink it down to a point by moving it slowly, without tearing it and without allowing it to leave the surface. On the other hand, if we imagine that the same rubber band has somehow been stretched in the appropriate direction around a doughnut, then there is no way of shrinking it to a point without breaking either the rubber band or the doughnut. We say the surface of the apple is "simply connected," but that the surface of the doughnut is not. Poincaré, almost a hundred years ago, knew that a two dimensional sphere is essentially characterized by this property of simple connectivity, and asked the corresponding question for the three dimensional sphere (the set of points in four dimensional space at unit distance from the origin). This question turned out to be extraordinarily difficult, and mathematicians have been struggling with it ever since. - taken from claymath.org

In an ordinary 2-sphere, any loop can be continuously tightened to a point on the surface. Does this condition characterize the 2-sphere? The answer is yes, and it has been known for a long time. The Poincaré conjecture asks the same question for the 3-sphere, which is more difficult to visualize. - Wikipedia

The problem with religion..

2008-09-30T08:24:00.001+08:00

... our visions and arguments concerning the "reasonable" and "the public" are infused with and are significantly and discrepantly shaped by particular histories, doctrines, perceptions, and sensibilities with which we identify - in ways that seem powerfully to elude transparency. (p.246 Beyond Gated Politics)

International school and art

2008-09-25T10:50:00.002+08:00

I was invited recently to go talk to several classes of 9 year olds at an International school here in Singapore. I was around a hive of energy and fresh inquisitive minds for the day. It was fun talking about being an artist and trying to frame what I do everyday and comparing that with a regular job. It got me thinking too. I rarely go straight into my study after breakfast in the morning.I usually stay up all night painting and don't leave my studio or bother to have breakfast..

But it was fun albeit a little tiring. It was a full-on a couple of hours and what an amazing lot the kids were. Some of them were quite good. And what characters! They kids wanted to know all about me and there was one round little one that even asked me if I still lived with my mum and if I had more than four bucks to rub together. Cheeky sod but it made me laugh. Preconceptions eh! At such a tender age!