I was in Singapore last week and since I was there, I decided to visit two museums which is Singapore Art Museum and National Museum. I’m going to split up the posts, and today I’m going to blog about Trans-Cool Tokyo exhibition in Singapore Art Museum.

I have to say that I love the exhibition a lot. Too bad I did not bring down my camera because I was thinking whether I should bring a book or a camera, and I didn’t want to make my bag too heavy when I’m in Singapore. Looks like I need to buy a smaller camera to bring around. So many things which I wish I did take photos of, and some of these artists are so obscure that I can’t find them online. Sighs. I think next time I shall sacrifice my books to bring a camera or just buy a compact camera.

Here are some of the notes of some of my favourite pieces, and some of the images that I managed to take with my low quality camera phone and also taken from online.

Kyoko Murase
I particularly love her piece ‘Nightfall on Her’ as she painted a whimsical, dreamy piece of night time and a girl. I love her style and the way she used the brush strokes.

Since I did not have that image of ‘Nightfall on Her’, I shall just show one art piece which I saw online, to show her style.

Sapphire (Image taken from http://www.likeyou.com/en/node/21084)

Kentaro Yokouchi

Here’s the description from Singapore Art Museum handout:

Born in 1979 in Chiba Prefecture- Yokouchi has been creating pictures by staining lustrous satin with dyes. In his ‘Book’ series, he enlarged photographs from art and craft auction catalogues and transferred them into his pictures. The individual works that were once materials such as carpet or ceramics became photographs and were printed in these catalogues, in which the pages were then transferred into Yokouchi’s pictures. Through this process, they ceased to be made of cloth or porcelain and were reduced to distorted colors on the curved surface of the pages of the open books. Yokouchi crosses the line between concrete and abstract, reaffirming the very essence of painting.

This artist is known for his tie dyes techniques on silk or other cloth material. What caught my attention was  the subtle images in the midst of dyes of colours. From far, it looks like another tie and dye work but upon closer inspection, you can see a story being told by looking at those small details.

Book-SLOTH  LO9501
2005
Dye and medium on satin
Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo Collection
(Image taken from Singapore Art Museum handout)

Haruka Kojin
I like her piece titled ‘Reflectwo’. This beautiful piece is create using artificial flowers and it depicts the reflection and symmetry. It was so beautiful to see how she used flowers to create such a serene, colourful piece. I love how at certain angle it looks like a kaleidoscope and how at another angle it looks like two bunches of flowers trying to meet at the centre. I couldn’t stop staring at it as it is so beautiful.

Reflectwo (Image taken from August Man)

Kiichiro Adachi
Here’s the description from Singapore Art Museum handout:

A converted telephone booth serves as a one-man disco for those self-conscious of their body in public. The mirrored interior of the booth reassures (albeit falsely) the person inside that he or she is not exposed to the outside world, when in reality this is so.

Exploring concepts of society’s gaze and its reflection, Adachi heightens one’s perception and sensitivity to the immediate society and community one is living in. The work in particular comments on the supposed anonymity that technology such as the Internet gives people today, but this anonymity is in reality a false one.

I found this concept pretty interesting and how he used a telephone booth to describe of someone is not exposed to the outside world when in reality they are. Reminds me of the world wide web. I did go into the telephone booth but what spoilt the whole experience at that time was when I was in the booth, I could see the video which was projected outside. This installation is meant for you to see yourself only in the booth and you can’t see anything outside while the people outside can see you dancing inside.

The museum people saw me watching the video and asked me to go inside to try it but I didn’t try out because I was carrying my backpack, and also my experience was spoilt when I entered the phone booth because I could see things happening outside when I’m not. There, it made me all self-conscious again.

Disco Booth (Image take from August Man)

Ryoji Ikeda
Here’s the description from the Singapore Art Museum handout:

Using mathematical methods, Ikeda explores the world by reducing everyday stimuli like sound and light into basic data elements such as sine waves and pixels, which he then uses to compose audiovisual installations. The computer generated visuals are graphic renderings of the analysis and reduction of data. These renderings show the digital sequencing and studies of software code that Ikeda has employed. The hypnotic soundtrack layers various pared down components to create an acoustic space in which visitors can experience.

Ikeda’s richly layered works of irreducible elements of the world in digital data format experiments with the way we can experience the world through different senses.

I like seeing those lines, waves and pixels move which was projected on ten different projectors. I was amazed how different data can come up with a different graphics which sync with the different sounds. It is very intriguing to see how logic (the analysis and reduction of data) could create and interesting audiovisual installation.

Here are a few videos of some of the projected graphics:

Masakatsu Takagi
This was my favourite of all time. I was wondering where the serene electronica music come from. I walked around the room and I saw a screen showing Masakatsu Takagi’s work. While Ryoji Ikeda’s work was more towards the logic, Masakatsu Takagi’s work was more colourful and more serene. I actually sat there to view the video many times. I was in awed as I saw swirls of swirling paints going into his videos which forms human faces which transition to some other graphic element. I felt as though I was sucked into the beauty and motion of his beautiful audiovisual work. Not only that, the music is so serene. I found out that Masakatsu Takagi is actually a multimedia artist and a musician. Wow, I’m inspired and impressed.

A great break after carrying my bag pack for so long. His work is so memorable that I keep trying to find works of his online but they are all low quality. Now if I really want to see his artworks, I do need to buy his dvd online.

People watching Bloomy Girls. (Image taken from Artituteart flickr)

Here’s a short video of Bloomy Girls:

And finally… this post is really long but I’m going to end with one art piece which caught my attention and I don’t know why I felt a connection with it.

Yoshitomo Nara
I prefer this than the other one that was used for the brochure (scroll right to the top to see the other panting). But really, I felt the connection with this painting.

Sayon (finally an image from my lousy phone)

So this ends my post on Trans-Cool Tokyo. My next post will be on Natee Utarit’s works.