February 2012
13 posts
1 tag
an online article that kept my attention
It has been some time since I’ve had the patience to read through an entire online essay/blogpost. More often, it is not because the content is not interesting, but it is often the way the content is presented that disengages my attention.
Hmm…on that note, I wonder how many who actually read my posts actually finishes reading them. Nevermind.
But I found an essay today on an Indian...
2 tags
chinese artist turning household "junk" into art. ...
Article here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2012/feb/14/chinese-artist-clutter-london-exhibition?newsfeed=true
Vrindavan once more
For the fourth time, I find myself in the small town of Vrindavan. It isabout 140km outside Delhi.
2 tags
singaporeans & malay
Dear fellow Singaporeans,
According to wikipedia, Singapore’s national language is Malay. For many of us, we have sung our Malay National Anthem for at least 10 years in school. But how many of us speak our national language, Malay? Other than the 13% Malays in Singapore, do the rest of us know our national language? If not fluently at least conversationally?
I myself am embarrassed to...
arthack's inspiration
I recalled moving back to Singapore from the UK in 2009. That transition was challenging and frustrating. But I was glad to turn that frustration into creative energy to curate my first photography show in Singapore, my4walls.
Comments from top Singapore dance photographer, Tan Ngiap Heng.
That was really quite magical, the whole struggle as a first-time curator and first-time...
1 tag
songs playing in my head
It probably is the early morning air at 1am. Or probably the Valentine’s Day draft still lurking. But strangely, as I see wedding photographs of friends on Facebook, it seems as if music is playing in my head.
My mind wanders off to what it must have been like being there, although I have been to countless weddings myself. The music keeps playing. Then I realise, that not talking to some...
3 tags
they see it all.
Silently they keep watch.
Riots, murders, kisses, smiles…
They see it all.
Silently they keep watch
As their makers self-destruct,
As their makers drown in their own ego.
They see it all.
Silently they keep watch.
Seeing but never judging,
Witnessing but never intervening,
They see it all.
Do we see any of it, at all?
terrorists hit israel in delhi
Israeli diplomat on the way to pick her kids up gets her car exploded by planted car bomb. Can you believe this? As her car stopped at a red light, a terrorist plants a bomb on her car. Seconds later, boom!
This is right in the heart of the most secure zone in Delhi. Gosh.
...
back in delhi
Delhi > Singapore > Hong Kong > Singapore > Delhi > Dubai > Singapore > Delhi
From Delhi to Delhi, it has been 2 months.
Grandpa passed, Dubai got dropped.
I have moved between my Singapore bedroom and my Delhi apartment, I sometimes no longer know where I am (for a moment) when I close my eyes.
I switch from the order of Singapore to the chaos of Delhi so quickly, my...
1 tag
move on, but not forget
After 5 days of mourning Gong Gong’s passing, it is now time to move on. From the feeble figure (in recent years) telling me stories of the past from his bed, to a box of bones; it is time to move on.
But I will never forget the man he was, the man he has made my dad into who he is, and the wisdom he tried so hard to impart to me. It is time to move on, but I will never forget.
January 2012
21 posts
1 tag
something to be grateful - low unemployment
Sometimes I forget to be grateful for certain things, being Singaporean.
Unemployment in Singapore is currently at a 14-year low of 2.9%. This is vis a vis US’ 8.5%. India’s unemployment was hovering at 10.8% in 2010.
goodbye grandpa
公公，
你现在不在，
但我不会忘了
您常讲的话；
做人不要有匆突，要忍；
要努力，要有学问。
说到容易，做到难。
但我一辈子会不断地听您的话。
不会忘记。
93年的努力，你现在好好休息吧。
photography as fine art
As part of the India Art Fair in Delhi at the moment, I attended a number of events last evening. One was the KHOJLive event, and there, amidst the clamouring crowds for the performing art pieces, I met J.
J is a Berlin-based PhD student researching on the function of art in the Indian society, and how that has changed since the opening up of the Indian economy (that is, when the current Congress...
1 tag
Coffee & corporatism
The morning rain was insistently falling on us despite the Melaka sun being out alongside blue skies. Glistening with raindrops, we took shelter in the closest cafe, Mods Cafe.
Since as young as I can remember, I have been coming to Melaka. Over the last 20 years, what it stands for, for me, has evolved.
Follow parents, cheap shopping, allowed to shop (as what holidays meant for my...
“Death is not scary. Dying is.”
random #170112
I want to write about the science of flying shoes.
the big plunge
I walk along the water’s edge, the pool of dark blue with hues of golden yellow. I hear the distant footnotes of a city, of night traffic. I hear the nearby households surviving city-life. A dog barks in the distance. I look up and find the stars looking back.
It is nearly the same as it was 10 years back. Then I was a student in Singapore. Today, I am a resident of Delhi. I notice the...
Sporeboyindelhi in Art school
Red pants. Purple collared cardigan. Japanese 3/4- sleeve t-shirt. White loafers. Ray Ban turtle-shell specs.
I thought I was dressed with style. Then I looked around and looked less than ordinary. Right. I walked right into Singapore’s leading contemporary art school. I can’t beat the artists. Young artists. Young art students.
Now, its time for Morimura’s talk.
Exit...
1 tag
absolutely artified
Awake. Art. Eat. Art. Sleep.
That has been my life for the last couple of days, and the next 2 days to come. I am back in Singapore attending Singapore’s largest art fair, Art Stage Singapore. I have been and will be accompanying some stakeholders from India at the fair this week.
I have been absolutely artified. From conversations about the economics of art over beer to entertaining art...
1 tag
MOTU
Used to call a fat/plump person. It is not a negative term, infact it’s affectionately used amongst friends or family.
“When you go fishing you can catch a lot of fish, or you can catch a big fish.”
– The Social Network
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i am going to invent my own (future) job.
“Everyone at Harvard’s inventing something. Harvard undergraduates believe that inventing a job is better than finding a job.” (The Social Network). I want to invent my future job too. Just you watch.
“I need to run a tighter ship.
I need to learn to steady my sail
In the choppy...”
WatchIf you have 5 minutes to spare, watch this hilariously stupid-but-has-a-point video for wanna-be entrepreneurs out there.
“Remember that systems exists everywhere.
Even nature are run by social systems....”
– One of my big bosses
“New ideas are my caffeine fix in the morning.”
1 tag
big india & small innovations
This expansive nation of 1.3 billion people may be big, but it is impressively good with small innovations.
Just two to feature here, meet Aakash, the world’s cheapest tablet to be maid, just for US$60. See here for more.
Source link
Not just that, but but beyond Tata’s Nano, which has earned itself somewhat of a cult following, Bajaj has now come up with yet another small car,...
1 tag
britisher days
In India, at least in Delhi where I am, still has some “Britisher days” influence on modern English today. The British left behind, other than further institutionalisation of castes, archaic English words.
One example is the word “felicitate” I found in an invitation card to an event:
“…requests the pleasure of your company to felicitate the winners...
1 tag
taking justice into their own hands
Two goras (white Americans) got beaten up in a South Indian town after allegedly kissing local women in the streets during New Year’s celebrations.
After locals felt the men were pushing their luck with the women, the local men took matters into their owned hands and beat up the Americans.
See here for more.
1 tag
"chom"
A crass north indian delhi type bugger in Bangalore wanting the apartments and the malls and such type areas along with the whole Dilli experience. Loud, expects Hindi to be the mother tongue in the city he/she lives in. Comes from “Chapati Oriented Man.”
Chom: Oye saale dekkhe nahi chal nakta? Bangalore maamu: Go home, Chom!
Source: http://samosapedia.com/entries/10429/Chom
December 2011
36 posts
The Angsty artist
Written on 16 Dec 2011
Why does art attract the pretentious and the proud-hearted?
Art, in my world view, is meant to bring people closer, soaring above hackneyed barriers of seperation; race, caste, colour, age. Art is meant to unite the sisterhood of Mankind.
But sitting here at yet another gallery show opening, I only feel sadness. I speak to the non-artist types and they are more...
BBC: Geese fly with man who reared them →
The inspiring things people do. Man hand-raises geese, and flies with them in the sky to shoot beautiful video.
1 tag
alone again, naturally.
Delhi’s winter finally caught up with me. And I remember what it is like to be living alone.
My eyelids heavy. My eyes watery. I sneeze continuously. I cough profusely. Delhi’s winter finally caught up with me. I head home early.
I get into bed. 8pm. Considering I am one who gets under the covers at 2am rather regularly, it is strange to see 20:00 stare back at you from my watch...
“We live in such a superficial world, we are all hungry for depth.”
what good is my photography?
What good is my photography
To my fellow human beings?
Is it all vanity?
Pretentions?
What good is my photography
To the starving child?
To the freezing beggar?
What good is my photography?
I must find its purpose, its use.
1 tag
dear cogitator
Dear Cogitator,
I am currently using a FED-5B Ukranian Rangefinder now; test-shooting.
Guess what? It has no light-meter, and limited exposure settings.
This is really pushing me as a photographer, one who might have taken light metering on a camera for granted.
But it really makes me feel alive, having to think about settings for every shot.
Raghu Rai has a point in wanting absolute...
1 tag
being burglars & enjoying it
things people shouldn't see
Ajoi, Sargheve, Dawa & I being silly idiots one evening.
It is these moments that I cherish.
1 tag
Shape on Sheets
I awake and stare at the crumpled white sheets
Sunlight fighting its way into the room
To embrace the baren sheets.
The crumples form a shape,
A shape my memory knows so well,
A shape my fingers can only beg for,
A shape that lies far beyond my Delhi reality,
In my London dream.
One day I shall reclaim that shape,
And the soul it belongs to.
“The treasures we get from being a humbled traveler to this world is beyond what...”
1 tag
a candle lit for you
A candle in India was lit
As she passed
From our world to another.
Your simple love
I will remember.
Your generosity to me
Like a mother to a son.
Your memory will continue to burn
In the candle in India
And beyond.
So here’s to you in the
Better place,
Where your loving kindness
Finds a true home
To watch over us as we lead
Foolish lives.
May you guide us with your tender...
1 tag
what do you do?
What do you do
At the brink of death?
What do you do
When it is not your death
But that of the woman who raised you?
What do you do
At the brink of death?
What do you do
When it might end her year of suffering
But will rip your heart out of your body?
Cry? Scream? Sigh? Live?
What do you do?
Amen, amen.
horesmaning in delhi?
Horsemaning was a way of taking photos in the 1920s, and has now taking a revival. See here for other horsemaning stuff: http://horsemaner.tumblr.com/
hmm…wonder if we should do this in delhi?
who’s in?
1 tag
stories in my pocket - joi barua
@ INK Conference 2011 | inktalks.com
I met him a year back.
I first heard him sing then.
A distinctive voice I could recognise,
A sincere soul I can relate.
He sings in many languages,
But only in one tongue.
His tunes get me through
The Delhi crunch, the grind.
His story rings out through the words,
His love through the melodies.
I hear his music,
I listen to his human...
1 tag
stories in my pocket - robert vijay gupta
@ INK Conference 2011 | inktalks.com
I close my eyes
And open my heart.
The music floats through the space
Between his inside
And mine.
His music brings me
Back to memories,
To childhood,
To the flowers I touched,
To the sunsets I kissed,
To the faces I’ve held.
The music brought me home.
In that space,
I connect with a man
I did not know but
Have come to know.
I...