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.

>> t6got milk. childbirth

not necessary. >> t14

august 3, 2010

a publication of

2TToday Tuesday augusT 3, 2010

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 gaze. It’s the Minister Mentor himself.

The artwork, by visual artist Jason Wee, is the fourth in his series of portraits of MM Lee Kuan Yew titled No More Tears. It’s made from shampoo bottle caps — both flipped open and closed — that have been arranged to create a “pixellated” effect.

The first portrait was exhibited in New York in 2006. Last year, another ver-sion was exhibited at the Singapore Art Museum’s Singapore Art Exhibition, which bagged the voter’s prize.

The No More Tears series is part of a bigger body of works by Wee that looks at “monuments to and about” MM Lee, which includes a piece utilising neon lights and a granite sculpture in the shape of the number 1 with the words “In Memory Of My Father, Mr Lee” inscribed on it.

“Lee Kuan Yew is always this big authority figure and in a sense he really is my father. Singapore is a country that has never needed a mother — it wasn’t given birth to as much as it was made and sculpted,” said Wee.

MM Lee is a big presence this week with the opening of two group exhibitions that Wee is taking part in. Both tackle, 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 aroundIn 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: Every History Is Named I, a revisionist video piece about Sir Stamford Raffles and the founding of Singapore.

Image-making and language, respective-ly, are tackled in Heng’s online project on the Singapore Airlines Girl and an excerpt from Tan’s Singapore Gaga documentary.

Two group exhibitions explore the legacy of Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew

arts

>> Continued on T4

MAYO MARTINmayo@mediacorp.com.sg

In a sense, MM Lee Kuan Yew really is

my father. Singapore is a coun-try that

has never needed a mother — it wasn’t

given birth to as much as it was

made and sculpted.

Jason Wee

He SAId

a close-up (left) of Jason Wee’s No More

Tears (above), a portrait of Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew made from shampoo bottle caps. the artwork is part

of the ‘MM I Love You’ exhibition.

5T

artsToday Tuesday augusT 3, 2010

seems very much like what it is today. That is, Hong predicts a status quo.

Environment and urban development plays a part in the works. Tang Da Wu is presenting a sculpture of hammers literally hammered together into one huge mass, offering itself up to a number of interpre-tations that extend beyond its initial envi-ronmental roots.

It is apparently a coincidence that

MM I Love You and Beyond LKY are being held at the same time. But it does form an interesting dialogue. One that the curators hope won’t be hampered — but instead, be enhanced — by the very presence of those three (or two) powerful letters.

Said Toh: “The exhibition is not meant to say ‘bad’ or ‘good’, but to make us think a bit closer about these things. Because they are about ourselves.”

MM I Love You: Aug 5 to 28, 11am to 7pm, Objectifs Gallery, 56A Arab Street. Saturday by appointment.

www.objectifs.com.sgBeyond LKY: Aug 5 to 29, 11am to 7pm (Tue to Sat), 11am to 3pm (Sun), Valentine Willie Fine Art (Singapore),

Artspace@Helutrans, 39 Keppel Road, Tanjong Pagar Distripark, #02-04. Closed

on Monday and PH. www.vwfa.net

hong sek-Chern’s Vibrant City (Bishan), part of the ‘Beyond lkY’ exhibition.

4T

artsToday Tuesday augusT 3, 2010

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 assumptionsIf 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

him as taboo?” said Wee, who is present-ing his granite sculpture. “You have to find a different way.”

Beyond iconographyBeyond 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

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last weekthis week

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

tHEAtrEBoeing BoeingW!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.

december rainsThe 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 skySingapore 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 Artsselected singapore master ArtsThis 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 principleSingapore 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.

singapore stories>> Continued from t2

alan Oei’s Kelvin & Karen, 1985.