あたしの町、明日の町

Finally I managed to drag myself to Barbican to see this exhibition.
On the last day, nonetheless!

I had originally planned to come before going back to Jakarta. However, packing up took more time than I originally planned, and it didn't help much that I chose to spend one day seeing a number of superbly preserved specimens of aesthetically arranged human cadavers.

Since V&R's run until September, I thought that it is wiser to go to Manchester first and Barbican after Jakarta. Which was fine, except that I seemed to conveniently gloat over newer exhibitions after returning. You'll notice that it wasn't on the list. There was nothing monumental about remembering the exhibition, really... other than the slight nudge that "it was a good exhibition". (Coming from Anne, who is averse to spend money and rather disinterested in many things, it was enough indication that I'd better make the effort to go.)

A few things I noted:
White PVC/satin dresses installation
Captivating, and sublimely spooky.

The perfume hoax
So, one could technically eke off the wax top of the hoax perfume bottle? Or maybe shatter/cut the glass bottle and extract the perfume onto another re-closeable storage space? Or is it just 'plain' yellow liquid?
I want one to play with. No, wait... I think I want a few.

Mini-tiny-weeny dresses
The structural seams of the grey strapless dress were left unfinished. Was it genuinely because of 'fabric thickness consideration', or 'no overlocker small enough', or 'not enough time to pull this off'? Hrm. But they did hand-sew the hem facing's top edge.

Gold dresses and shadow-like black fabrics laid underneath
I... don't get it. But if the visual cue point was gift wrappers, then it reminds me of the garish gold cellophane wraps stashed at home. They make me shudder and I wish they would mysteriously disappear, conveniently replaced with textured bronze giftwrapping papers. Or washi papers. Or something less fiddly and easy to manipulate. Or simply, something less shiny.

The Dolls' House
Wo-awe-inducing. It's good stuff in dimly-lit rooms... which made the task of taking decent pictures (generally disallowed by the "no photographs ma'am" swarms) hard. They do make life more difficult, these folks...

'Russian Doll' preparation
I'm starting to get an idea of the kind of girls Messrs Horsting et Snoeren prefer. It reminds me of toy doll dress-up games on a real-life, we-need-to-sell-perfumes level. On another hand, their meticulous attention to even the model's slightly misaligned hair is finely notable.

Bluescreen
Let's face it... I like the silhouette. I like the detailing. I like images of twirling highway roads and helicopters superimposed onto it. In three words: I like it.

The balooned suits and stuff
Wasn't thinking of much of it when one of my classmates presented it as part of her tailoring project. But today, I thought it was reminiscent of Kawakubo's lumpy-bumpy collection. (And so did the curator think, apparently.)

Black Lights
Couldn't believe my eyes at how deceivingly two-dimensional the white suit looks like. And so, at how thin silk gazar could be.

Bells
Aw! Ow! Cheat!!
(can I say that?)

Silver-dipped
I wonder how they did it...

Tilda Swinton
"There is only one." Yes, only one. (It applies both ways, %&@*#.)

Bedroom
A proof that someone who put that song on the show knows a thing or two about reading (raiding?) the Bible as source of inspiration.

Ballroom
I remember that this was on the paper when I started in Fashion Portfolio. It was... okay. And, YAAAAY! when it comes to the perfume advertisement part. Chandelliers and dancing men! How could I say no to them? ;))

...and many more.

I'll find out if this exhibition will travel the world (I hope it will.)
And in the meantime, you can get your hands on one of these sweeties. V&R and/or Barbican better pay me for singing praises to them...

That's it, folks. Good night.

Think of Me

List of so-called 'high culture' I'm going to tackle:

V&A museum - this, this, this and maybe this
Wellcome collection - these two
The Rothko exhibition (because Mag would go too.)
Bits and bobs at Hayward/Southbank Centre: this, that, that (ooh yes), this (?), and most likely that
Trip to Chatsworth to see this.
Greenwich market on a weekend
These two movies.

I think those make this term's expeditionary learning.

(dA reactivated)

After neglecting it for a few years, I'm back on dA with a [pseudo-]vengeance.

Needless to say, the link is listed on the usual spot... so enjoy :D

Vivaldi's "Spring"

Spring.
It's a time of new beginnings, renewals, etc etc.
And a good time to learn new skills (when is not a good time to learn, anyway?)

Anyway, armed with a Wacom tablet and oC, I'm launching myself into a digital/illustration skills acquisition project. Here's an example of what I did! Needless to say, I just threw myself into a weird world of pricey computer accessories. I haven't even worked out how much the software's proper activation would cost...

Anyway, today's temperature is less summery and more like spring.
Take care!

Please Don't Stop the Music

Out of this week's sketchbook: a drawing/illustration.

The title is aptly named - it randomly came from this morning's pre-class brainwash music. The sun came up at five, which is not a bad thing as the days are longer for now... but could be potentially catastrophic when people forget to keep an eye on time. The sun sets after 9PM these days!

Summer... the stifling and sticky gloriously sunlit days are ahead. Well, to be honest I like spring better.

Wall and Piece

Last month, I was going through my list of possible researches. On the suggested list of artists (which are often composed by proper first and last names), the name 'Banksy' pretty much stood out. His works are often bordering on the illegal side of things, but they stand as a refreshment in the midst of the often stuffed-up world of art. The controversy and myth surrounding his true identity and his track record with the Met (a.k.a. the policemen and -women of London) only fuels to his rise to fame.

I have gone through Wall and Piece twice, each time snickering happily at the satirical jokes he pokes at the establishment... although I wouldn't consider him as a pure anti-establishment graffiti artist. He's just rebellious in a refreshing way ^^ However regular and strict our sense of decorum may be, there is always going to be a part of human character that is slightly offbeat and evil, no matter how rational and proper humans attempt to be. Banksy's works are what makes me think of tagging as a public nuisance, but of proper graffiti art as a means of providing some food for thought.

If you still believe he has not the slightest eligibility to be considered an artist, let me say one thing... how many people get their artworks auctioned in Sotheby's while they are relatively new to the art scene, with a starting bid of over £100,000?

Well then, I rest my case ^^

Brown Eyes

This post is dedicated to... myself ^__^

I did this really nice tonal drawing at visual studies on Tuesday, something that I might have mentioned previously on my blog. I was labouring and hunching my back over it, too afraid to take out or leave too much charcoal marks on the paper, and came out of the class with a dizzy head. The drawing is something really spectacular, although it could've been better (I won't get too technical here.) It reminds me of Escher and his prints. Image of the drawing I did is located here.

At the end, it was a satisfying achievement indeed. Although Tuesday is generally a long day with two lots of studio-based classes, I'm looking forward to it! As for tomorrow, it's a day sheltered away in the library and the computer lab, as the weather for this weekend is going to be rainy (with some gale-force winds thrown into it.)

(I also did something pretty cool in 3D accessories class today, but I still need a card reader to transfer the files to the laptop. Will do it at uni tomorrow.)

The song was the picture's mood music - I am sooo not in a relationship! End of disclaimer :) Take care.

Remember the first day, the first day we kissed
Remember the first day we had an argument
We apologised and then we compromised
And we haven't argued since
Remember the first day we stopped playing games
Remember the first day you fell in love with me
It felt so good for you to say those words
'cause I felt the same way too

The way we held each other's hands
The way we talked, the way we laughed
It felt so good to fall in love
and I knew right then and there you were the one

I know that he loves me cause he told me so
I know that he loves me cause his feelings show
When he stares at me, you see he cares for me
You see how he is so deep in love
I know that he loves me cause it's obvious
I know that he loves me cause it's me he trusts
And he's missing me if he's not kissing me
And when he looks at me, his brown eyes tell it so

The Rain in Spain

In the lifestyle arena, Fashion is often represented as the fickle sister of Style. This is common thinking... until today's catalyst question at class bothered us: what does the word 'fashion' mean?

After a lengthy discussion, we came to our conclusion. Here is our account on what fashion means:
- an individualised representation of group identity
- more than just the clothes and the accessories; it encompasses art, music, food, lifestyle and many other things...
- a constantly moving way to project oneself
- a means to maintain the mental health and wellbeing of a large number of people by introducing change in stagnant lives
So far so interesting. What do you think of it?

On Friday I went to a Modigliani exhibition at RA. It was amazing to see a man whose life was cut short by alcohol and substance abuse achieved a level of maturity in his works. What I mean by maturity is not how photographically representative his pictures are; it is about expressing his ideas of his paintings' subjects using his 'vocabulary' of colours, strokes and shapes. Modigliani is well-known to paint his subjects with oval heads and elongated necks, and with a tranquil grace that belies whatever rage was going on between the subject and him.

What also impressed me on a personal level was the fact that a certain lady by the name of Jeanne Hébuterne played a major role in his life. Well, we all agree than anything can happen when sparks fly. She was an up-and-coming young female artist, talented in her own right, who ended up becoming the love of his life (good on her.) The conclusion I draw from this case is that it's amazing to see how companions help each other. A friend of mine at high school once mused, "for every great man, there is a great woman behind him." Each half inspires and complements the other half.

This brings me to the chicken-or-egg-first-like issue: what is the exact relationship between science and art? Surely science has donated much to the advancement of the humankind (e.g. longer life spans, better medicines, chemical and technological breakthroughs). What has art done other than a few pieces in need to be perpetually shielded and cared for?

This boils down to our brain: our brain is divided into three parts (the left side, the right side and the 'trunk'.) The 'trunk' is always needed so the spotlight is now on the left and right sides. The left half of the brain is the logical (scientific) side of brain, whereas the right half is imaginary (artistic) in nature. Scientific advancements are being adopted in artistic disciplines as they greatly improve the way these artists create and deliver their works. However, the scientists themselves need to be inspired... and who tickled their inspirations? None other than the artists themselves. The feeding-off action doesn't work in a strictly linear and measurable manner (it is contemptuous to assume every idea will flourish into a full-scale innovation.) Without one, the other cannot survive.

I wish the public understands how important general art education is to improving a well-rounded understanding of the world, and so that they act in an accordant manner to this aim.

Today's vent-my-spleen is enough for the time being. Now, on today's choice of song.

In My Fair Lady, a certain rough and uneducated girl was transformed into a high-society lady who is creme de la creme of every young women. This illustrates transformation comes when one makes a decision to change and persevere towards realising that goal. I was talking to a long-time primary school friend over the phone the other day. We shared about the peaks and troughs of what we are going through, and it dawned on us that we need to start the change ourselves if we want to bring one into our lives. We can't bicker, sit around and just wait for change to somehow fall upon us like a durian would. Well, I won't recommend sitting under a durian tree either.

As for me, I need to change. It's one month into living at somebody else's residence (not of someone related by blood to my family), and I am learning more that I would or could have learned had I lived in a students' hall. My landlady is notoriously strict with safety procedures, and my [other] housemate particularly finicky with things being in order! I'm grateful for having to go through this whole experience. The interactions I have in this house, although not always pleasant, are definitely useful in shaping my characters. To be an ideal tenant/housemate/landlady, I still have a lot to learn from them.

(And yes, the Swedish has a lot to offer on storage tips. Haven't quite made it to Ikea.)

Alright, it's beauty sleep time now :)) Comments are most welcome. Have a good day!

Dead Man

It's important to keep a cool head at all times and not do things reactively. Why am I saying this? I originally planned to write about the exhibition I went to at Hayward Gallery, but got distracted by my hot-headedness on that scratch-and-run gentleman. I just realised that I completely forgot about it until I was on the bus to the market this morning. Well then, isn't a composed mind an important state to attain?

(This is where art comes in; studying art helps one to reassess one's actions and intentions from a bystander's point of view. More funding for grassroot art studies, please! :p)

There were a lot of weird things in the gallery. It's a pity we weren't allowed to take pictures... I'm guessing the museum's management may want to milk some cash from its visitors through purchase of exhibition catalogues. Anyway, a work by the name of Nunhead was made from two crystal-encrusted BMW engines. The artist poured copper sulphate all over the engines, and consequently blue sapphire-like crystals grew on it. It's pretty cool... I guess I'll find some rotten engines and pour copper sulphate the next time I need some stones to make jewellery with ^^

[Interlude: I didn't go to BBC Proms this year. The fireworks can be seen and heard from my room, but I was a glutton. More explanation on this later.]

Another work that was captivating and personally liberating was done by Gustav Metzger, titled Historic Photograph: To Crawl Into - Anschluss, Vienna, March 1938. The work, a photograph printed on foamex and covered with cloth, was spread on the floor and was supposed to be seen by literally crawling into it. This guy's way of thinking is ingenuous as he successfully guides the viewer through his theme and evokes the kind of emotions he wants the viewer to experience. The way the artist delivered his work was somewhat similar to the kind of PK games Yaki used to play. In the end, Mag and I dared ourselves to get down and dirty 'the proper way', and we were laughing out loud when we came out. Everybody who went saw the work the way it is intended to be seen were laughing hard as we shared our experiences.

Now, about the BBC Proms (you can Google it up.) I was planning to go there, but I was still at home by 4PM... and chose to be a glutton instead. So I ended up meeting with Fi to have a huge dinner at Chinatown. Chinese food reminds me of ICM... hahaha... it used to be easily accessible and so affordable! Nowadays I can only have it once a week, or twice at most. There were a lot of stories and perspectives to be shared over dinner this evening. She turned out to have a sweet tooth! Yay! ^o^ Afterwards, we were clueless about what to do, so we decided to grind some pavement with our shoes (i.e. wander around town) as we weren't too keen on getting some desserts. Central London's a bit like Jakarta: always awake but can get a bit unsafe at night. Thank God nothing happened to us ^^

I also crashed the Portobello Market earlier today. It was a long strip of road compared to Camberwell Market's squarish layout, so it took me more time to explore the market than I expected. There were all sorts of cheap and expensive things. I happened to like a particular piece which is way out of my budget... which is sort of good, as I didn't have the ability to pay for it (and hence wouldn't blow my budget.) Sometimes inability to do something may prove to be a blessing in disguise after all... hehehe... I'll be coming back for it :p

Also, there's this interesting article about the battle against the adoption of iTunes as a portal of legal digital music distribution. It may prove to be a David-and-Goliath case in the near future. It makes me rethink my plans for paying for MP3s through iTunes. I don't think I will be using Weedshare though, as its MP3 coding may not be supported by SonyEricsson's proprietary music player program.

Finally, about the blog-posting time. I moved it to GMT, which means this post should really qualify as a Saturday post... we'll see whether it works.

Take care, have a good rest and happy Sunday to everybody else on the other side of the world!

I woke up from a dream about an empty funeral
But it's better than a party full of people I don't really know
Well, they've got hearts to break and burn, dirty hands to feel the earth
There's something in my veins but I can't seem to make it work
Won't work

(my version of 3:42AM)

Exhausted from flat-hunting, all day long. Being in a position to make choices is empowering although somewhat burdensome... I don't like rejecting something in which I have a keen partial interest. Sigh. Let's pray that what will happen tomorrow morning is the best that can be. Fingers crossed! :))

Tomorrow's set for a visit to the V+A Museum. The exhibition on Che Guevarra's icon seems interesting so far. Looks like it will be what I'll be doing for my written paper.

On the other hand, I took loads of interesting pictures this weekend, especially from BM. Ancient Egyptians embalmed not only the dead body of important personalities, but also cats! I will upload more pictures when I do get my computer... whether it's a PC or a Mac... whether it's a laptop or a desktop... fingers crossed too! ^^ One thing I'm not well-prepared for is the 2003 Microsoft Office Suit installation CD, which I completely missed out in comparison to the hype of bringing along the respective suites of Adobe and Macromedia. However, when you think about it, MS Office costs significantly less than the two combined. Which means it wasn't too bad of a decision either...

Finally, sleep! I'm off to bed now. This compulsory diary thing is kind of bugging me, but then again it's about developing the right kind of habits for success :-} So yes, I will keep up with it.

Take care!

Experiment

Hypothetically speaking, what would you do when you are faced with a decision: preserve the artwork, or recycle it?

Uh oh. I had always been a fervent believer in artwork preservation. In my opinion, it is important to conserve artworks so that future generations will be able to see first-hand proof of how an individual lived in the society one was living in. The idea of salvaging artworks to be used for purposes other than the above-mentioned education seemed like an abomination.

Several days ago I came across an antique kimono auction at eBay (don't worry, I ended up not buying it.) Given uploaded pictures, the quality of fabric was spectacular, and it was reasonably priced given the amount of material to be received - some 3.5 metres of royal blue silk heavily embroidered with gold threads. It was in a good condition too, given its age (older than my grandma for sure.) Spiffy! But then what came to mind was, "Of course I wouldn't wear it as is. What about pulling it apart and making a modern outfit from the materials?"

That, my friend, was a dilemma. I believed in conservation but also understood that the materials would have little useful life left should they be left in the state they were in. I love experimenting, but once it is taken apart then it would be impossible to reverse the process done. Probably I would take something apart the next time I come across a gorgeous (yet highly unwearable) kimono, but not now. I'm kinda broke... and then again, I've got to go to class. Take care, and happy Lunar New Year for those who celebrate it! ^^

Experiment,
and you'll see.

Smile Like Mona Lisa

I just have a feeling I'm turning this blog into some sort of crabpatorium (excuse me.)

The plums we brought from Clayton has been sitting around in the kitchen for quite some time now. It will be necessary to juice most of them later on today, in order to prevent it from wasting away.

The importance of art lessons are becoming more prominent nowadays. When you see a picture, you tend to go for the 'big building blocks' while mostly skipping the 'little narrative details'. Let's do an example... OK, take a digital picture with the main subject focused on the foreground and distant crowds in the background. Seeing the foreground, you can work out that this main subject is doing something for sure. However, when you pay attention to the crowds in the background, you will most often find raw expressions that refer back to the main subject. For example, if you see a smiling person as the main subject on the foreground and a sneering crowd at the back, you will come to the conclusion this person may not be well-liked among the crowd. This is because there is some sort of psychological factors regressed into the whole picture. Don't ask me about the detailed technicalities as I am not trained in psychology.

(JYG, if you dare moot me on this, I will do a thorough character asassination on you.)

OK, this blog's getting a bit theoretical. Let's move on to another area.

I wonder what happened with Union House earlier today; it was so quiet. To be honest, there aren't many places where I can go to ask for SS (SS here is not the one referred to in Holocaust history; just my own abbreviation.) Basically I need to refer back to the rhinoceros-thick skin I utilised back in 2001. Oh my goodness, I also keep forgetting to bring my mobile to uni even though someone was kind enough to let me borrow his as a replacement. It might be because of its indistinctive colour (my previous one was aqua green) I happen to miss it frequently.

To be honest, I'm annoyed with Ale due to ignorance. Or should I say it is heavily due to some other factors like lack of respect or a liking to hide-and-seek games? Probably it's more like Scav Hunt nowadays. (It might be fun to join Scav Hunt this year, but unfortunately I won't be at Melbourne for now - sob!) My auntie's in here too, but I don't know whether I should say thanks or not on this; It's a delicate affair. I'm happy with Monce's presence in here but still hoping that it would be minus the ciggies. Hopefully he'll ditch them by the end of this year. And hopefully he won't get into any sort of relationship deviations this time around... hahaha... who am I to control his heart? Even if I control his eyes, it won't translate to faithfulness to the heart.

Lastly, the pictures I ordered from Freeze Frame still looked BAD. Oh well, this means I would need to scan the 10-inch copy and shrink it to a wallet-sized, 350dpi resolution file before printing it.

By the way, I've got less than 71 hours to lap up two assignments. Sorry, gotta rush! Take a good care of yourself ^^

So when you smile like Mona Lisa
my heart falls to pieces
'Cause smiling just can't hide
all the sadness in your eyes
If I could only hold you
Love you like I used to
But girl, what can I do
when you smile like Mona Lisa

Oh, I carry a photograph
Girl of the way she used to be...