August 3, 2010

a publication of

ART
MENTOR
two exhibitions
explore the legacy
of mm lee. >> t2

idol judging panel

shaken and stirred.
about time,too.
>> T10
foul things:why art
needs to be messed up.
>> T6
got milk. childbirth
not necessary.
>> T14
 today Tuesday August 3, 2010 T2

arts

Singapore stories
THE portrait at Objectifs Gallery only
offers a partial view of the man’s face. But
it’s not hard to recognise that familiar
He said gaze. It’s the Minister Mentor himself.
The artwork, by visual artist Jason Wee,
is the fourth in his series of portraits of
Two group exhibitions explore the legacy MM Lee Kuan Yew titled No More Tears. It’s
of Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew In a sense, made from shampoo bottle caps — both
MM Lee flipped open and closed — that have been
arranged to create a “pixellated” effect.
Kuan Yew The first portrait was exhibited in
really is New York in 2006. Last year, another ver-
sion was exhibited at the Singapore Art
MAYO MARTIN my father. Museum’s Singapore Art Exhibition, which
mayo@mediacorp.com.sg
Singapore bagged the voter’s prize.
The No More Tears series is part of a
is a coun- bigger body of works by Wee that looks
try that at “monuments to and about” MM Lee,
has never which includes a piece utilising neon lights
and a granite sculpture in the shape of the
needed a number 1 with the words “In Memory Of
mother — My Father, Mr Lee” inscribed on it.
“Lee Kuan Yew is always this big
it wasn’t authority figure and in a sense he really
given birth is my father. Singapore is a country that
to as much has never needed a mother — it wasn’t
given birth to as much as it was made and
as it was sculpted,” said Wee.
made and MM Lee is a big presence this week
with the opening of two group exhibitions
sculpted. that Wee is taking part in. Both tackle,
Jason Wee implicitly and otherwise, the legacy of Sin-
gapore’s first Prime Minister.
Both are titled after him: MM I Love
You and Beyond LKY.

Love is all around

In recent years, there have been a number
of painting exhibitions with MM Lee as
its focal subject: Ben Puah’s Hero in 2008,
Richard Lim Han’s Singapore Guidance
Angel last year and, early this year, Ong
Hui Har’s Harry, which saw MM Lee in his
youth rendered in pop art style.
While the two new shows also fea-
ture a smattering of portraits, they go be-
yond iconography and delve a little deeper.
Objectifs Gallery’s MM I Love You fea-
tures previous works by five artists: Wee,
Ho Tzu Nyen, Amanda Heng, Tan Pin Pin
and Bryan Van Der Beek.
According to curator Charmaine Toh,
the title is a playful take on “Minister Men-
tor” and the idea of “modern mythology”.
“He is a huge part of the mythology
of Singapore, not just in terms of Singa-
poreans seeing ourselves, but non-Singa-
poreans seeing Singapore,” she said.
No More Tears is the only portrait of
MM Lee in the show, but the man who
shaped modern day Singapore is “invis-
ibly present” in the other works that deal
with issues of national identity, language
and history, said Toh. Forming a dialogue
of sorts with No More Tears is Ho’s Utama:
A close-up (left) of Every History Is Named I, a revisionist video
Jason Wee’s No More
Tears (above), a portrait
piece about Sir Stamford Raffles and the
of Minister Mentor Lee founding of Singapore.
Kuan Yew made from Image-making and language, respective-
shampoo bottle caps.
The artwork is part
ly, are tackled in Heng’s online project on
of the ‘MM I Love You’ the Singapore Airlines Girl and an excerpt
exhibition. from Tan’s Singapore Gaga documentary.
>> Continued on T4

arts
ivAlEnt
AmB
H
d
Ap
sA
py
last week
this week
stAtE OF tHE Arts: The local scene
has struck gold with the opening of Asian
Civilisations Museum’s latest show, Suma-
tra: Isle Of Gold, and news of rare Chinese
treasures from a shipwreck being exhibited
later this year. But the biggest haul would have
to go to TheatreWorks’ Ong Keng Sen, who
received the Arts and Culture award for the
prestigious Fukuoka Prize. He is the first con-
temporary theatre director — and the third
Singaporean after visual artist Tang Da Wu and
songwriter Dick Lee — to be awarded the in-
ternational prize. A vindication of sorts seeing
as how funding for the theatre company was
slashed after it was told it was doing works
that weren’t local enough. mAyO mArtin
Artsguide
tHEAtrE
Boeing Boeing
W!ld Rice brings back this hilarious play
about a bachelor trying to juggle three air
stewardesses at one go.
Aug 4 to Sept 4, 8pm, Drama Centre Theatre.
With 3pm weekend matinees.Tickets at $44 to
$69 from Sistic.
Today Tuesday augusT 3, 2010
december rains
The restaging of this Mandarin musical set in
Singapore during the ’50s and ’80s stars Kit
Chan. It is the highlight of Toy Factory’s 20th
anniversary celebrations.
Aug 6 to 15, 8pm, Esplanade Theatre.With
3pm weekend matinees.Tickets at $69 to $129
from Sistic.
Upstairs in the sky
Singapore Repertory Theatre’s The Little
Company’s new production about friend-
ship and loss will be performed using boxes,
clothes and some household objects.
Aug 5 to Sept 11, 10am on weekends and
11am and 2pm on Saturdays and public holi-
days, DBS Arts Centre, 20 Merbau Road.Tickets
at $19 and $22 from Sistic.
visUAl Arts
selected singapore master Arts
This all-Singaporean exhibition features
40 works — some of which have never
been displayed in public — by 18 master
artists including Chen Wen Hsi, Cheong
Soo Pieng, Georgette Chen, Ong Kim Seng,
among others.
Until Aug 29, 11am to 7pm, SBin Art Plus,
140 Hill Street, Mica Building #01-10/11/12.
Admission is free.
the Flaming sphere principle
Singapore surrealist artist Rosihan Dahim
ties up with Mercy Relief for a solo show of
14 new works. A percentage of sales will go
towards humanitarian efforts.
Aug 5 to Nov 5, 11am to 7pm, Oasis Gallery,
101 Amoy Street. Admission is free. Mondays to
Fridays; Saturdays by appointment.
T4
singapore stories
>> Continued from t2
Meanwhile,Van Der Beek presents
a series of photos of the National Day
Parade using the tilt-shift technique, which
virtually transforms the entire event into a
miniature tableau.
Knee-jerk assumptions
If MM I Love You looks to the past and
present, Beyond LKY ponders the future.
For Valentine Willie Fine Art Singa-
pore’s annual survey of Singapore artists,
curator and gallery owner Valentine Willie
organised a show comprising 19 artists
across various generations and media.
Its main premise? A survey of what
artists think Singapore life would be like
after Mr Lee. A number of artists respond-
ed with portraits.
Jimmy Ong contributed two waterco-
lour works titled Papa Can You Hear Me.
Vincent Leow also offered two portraits,
one of which is an etching of a black sil-
houette. A take on Marcel Duchamp’s own
cheeky version of the Mona Lisa, the ambi-
guity opens up to various interpretations
of who the subject matter is.
“When I first showed it to people,
they kind of found a resemblance to him.
And, in a way, I found that even though
(the details are) invisible, (the silhouette
is) still powerful,” said Leow.
The use of MM Lee’s image (or the
suggestion of it) has the power to evoke.
But it seems to be tempered by a sense of
caution, suggesting that the idea of bring-
ing up MM Lee in an arena beyond the
confines of policy discussion unfortunately
seems to result in a knee-jerk assumption
of antagonism.
Wee pointed out how mentioning his
name occasionally elicited gasps, “like it’s a
kind of social taboo”.
“But do we really want to think of
Today Tuesday augusT 3, 2010 T5
arts
seems very much like what it is today. That MM I Love You and Beyond LKY are being MM I Love You: Aug 5 to 28,
is, Hong predicts a status quo. held at the same time. But it does form an 11am to 7pm, Objectifs Gallery, 56A
Environment and urban development interesting dialogue. One that the curators Arab Street. Saturday by appointment.
plays a part in the works. Tang Da Wu is hope won’t be hampered — but instead, www.objectifs.com.sg
presenting a sculpture of hammers literally be enhanced — by the very presence of Beyond LKY: Aug 5 to 29, 11am to
hammered together into one huge mass, those three (or two) powerful letters. 7pm (Tue to Sat), 11am to 3pm (Sun),
offering itself up to a number of interpre- Said Toh: “The exhibition is not meant Valentine Willie Fine Art (Singapore),
tations that extend beyond its initial envi- to say ‘bad’ or ‘good’, but to make us think Artspace@Helutrans, 39 Keppel Road,
ronmental roots. a bit closer about these things. Because Tanjong Pagar Distripark, #02-04. Closed
It is apparently a coincidence that they are about ourselves.” on Monday and PH. www.vwfa.net
hong sek-Chern’s
Vibrant City (Bishan),
part of the ‘Beyond lkY’
exhibition.
him as taboo?” said Wee, who is present-
ing his granite sculpture. “You have to find
a different way.”
Beyond iconography
Beyond LKY is exactly what the title indi-
cates. “We are looking beyond him and
not him (per se). Some artists (featured
in the exhibition) are not even discussing
him,” said Willie.
Indeed, iconography is just one of
the artistic responses. Issues on language,
population, environment, economic boom
and housing are also tackled.
Zai Kuning is presenting the remains
of a dismantled piano (previously seen in
other performance contexts this year) in
his reimagining of a new National Anthem
in a world where English or Chinese and
perhaps not Malay is the national language.
Alan Oei’s diptych Kelvin & Karen, 1985
tackles the “Stop At Two” family-planning
slogan, which was discontinued in 1985. It
brings up questions on an alternate future
with a different population makeup if there
had not been such a campaign.
Meanwhile, Hong Sek-Chern’s Vibrant
City Chinese ink paintings of Bishan and
Marine Parade paints a future that still
alan Oei’s Kelvin & Karen, 1985.