Falling Back to Earth

 Exhibition by Cai Gui-Qiang 

//Heritage

"This pristine environment embodies Cai's perception of a 'last paradise', far from the cares and conflicts of the rest of the world...The number of animals (99)  is also symbolic: nine represents 'long lasting' in Chinese numerology, while 99 suggests that something is not quite complete, providing a sense of insufficiency and expectation...

If Heritage portrays the 'perfect paradise', does it also symbolise Earth's sorrow?"

//Head On

"...this work's graceful vertical loop of wolves hurling themselves into the air, only to hit a glass wall before returning to the beginning. There is the implication that if we blindly follow ideology, or misdirect our strength toward a collective goal, there can be damaging consequences. The resilience of the wolves hints at our difficulty in learning from our mistakes. The transparent glass wall suggests that we may not even be aware that an obstacle is there, or know who put it in place, yet it remains impenetrable - invisible barriers can be, the artist says, 'the hardest walls to destroy'. 

It's amazing how some of the most bizarre artwork, ones that you wouldn't expect, can directly and precisely reflect human nature and how we tend to behave. It's like the facing the truth in the most unexpected way and each time, you realise 'oh yeah, we are like that..' or 'that is so true'. Art realises and speaks the truth in so many creative ways. Who would have thought...

"The beautiful journey of today can only begin when you let go."

310113 - Trip to GoMA. It was a gloomy day outside which I guess was a good day to take a trip to GoMA. The Asia Pacific Triennial (APT7) exhibition was on. I wasn't sure if the exhibition had anything good to see but GoMA is always worth checking out. This exhibition didn't have much super interesting things to see except for only a few things that stood out (the ones I took photos of).  

Ok, so I haven't drawn in ages so please excuse anything that looks "off". I am also not very good at drawing people so the proportions are all wrong...but never the less, I have decided to get  back into drawing :) Since I decided I needed a day off from work, I whipped out my sketchbook and started drawing. I have found a liking for drawing hair for some reason...Since I've been feeling a little bummed, drawing definitely made me relax a bit. 

I want to draw like this!

I have so much respect for artists. I just wonder what goes on inside their heads that allows them to produce such amazing works of art that are so intriguing and simply AMAZING :D

I was getting some information on a particular architect for my project but I ended up clicking on all these links that I got totally side-tracked. But it was worth the distraction because I discovered some awesome artists/artworks! These were probably the highlight of my findings:

Artworks by Chiharu Shiota- a Japanese artists who likes to explore the relationships between past and present, living and dying, and memories of people implanted into objects. It's so creepy yet amazing at the same time!

Creeeeeeeeeeeepy!

And here was another artist- Tomas Saraceno who created some inflatable architecture.

Pretty amazing stuff! I wish I knew where all these cool artworks were so I could go visit the art galleries. I guess it will always be a dream of mine to visit all the art galleries on the world...

Also THIS: http://vimeo.com/33091687 is one of the most amazing things I have seen! 3.2 million ink dots!! :O So much patience and talent and skill to be able to create such an intricate piece of art. Love it! Beats my stippling any day by very far. 

So much respect for artists. Like far out, they are my  heroes.

And this ends my random burst of inspiration for today :) 

“The most important thing is to enjoy your life—to be happy—it's all that matters.” - Audrey Hepburn.

Had a day out with my girls today :) It was a good considering we got such a great bargain for lunch and also went to GoMA (one of my favourite places to visit!). 

We had lunch at Vapianos in the city. It's a great place to dine where the Italian food is cooked on the spot right in front of your eyes *thumbs up*. It also has very fresh and modern decor with little pots of herbs on the table and also a little herb garden on the second floor. The food isn't too expensive but for young and unemployed people, it was a little bit. It was really good that some of us had 'Buy one get one free' and 'Get 25% off' vouchers so in the end we only paid $7.50 each in comparison to paying $20 each if we didn't have the vouchers. Win!

We then walked off the carbs and fullness from lunch by venturing to GoMA. There wasn't any new and special exhibitions but there were still some pretty cool and really weird stuff.

We probably spent an hour in this place. It was technically aimed for children but hey, who says we couldn't get our creativity on and join in the fun too :). The aim was to make bird out of some cardboard, newspaper shreds and paper cups (also using sticky tape, stapler, glue and hole puncher). It has been a while since all of us has had to be creative at an arts and crafts activity and we realised how hard it must be to be a kid and do this everyday. As childish as this may sound, I'm pretty happy with my bird which I named Florence (my dad even offered to put it somewhere special at home lol). 

 Art is very weird. It's hard to think what goes on in artists' minds to get them to create such bizarre things; but much respect goes to them. 

A Night of Fine Design

So last night was the end of semester first year design soiree. It was a night where all the first year students showed off the work that we have produced over the first semester; the work included our artist books, our presentation boards and our prototype models. To be honest, it wasn't an event that I was particularly excited about because the work that I have produced wasn't particularly amazing, and I was certain that there would be work that would be absolutely amazing and would then make me feel bad. But I guess, I can always be inspired by them and work extra hard next time to produce something I will be more proud of.

Here are some of the amazing stuff that some students have produced. They are pretty impressive.

A prototype model. The design was based off a womb. Kind of weird but I guess design has some pretty weird concepts.

This student's interpretation of an artist book. 

Some more artist books.

One of my favourites. So amazing!

Some industrial design presentation boards. 

Another prototype model. It was awarded as the best one on the night. 

Can't really see with this one..but the drawings are really really ridiculously detailed and amazingly done. Hats off to whoever did this. 

And some more artist books. Some people were really creative with their's and did an amazing job.

So after all this inspiring art and design, my parents and I went to dinner at 7-8. That place used to be one of my favourites, but after it moved, it's quality and restaurant space and amount customers has decreased a little bit. 

I usually go for the fried fish fillet with udon or the teriyaki chicken with udon, but I felt like having something different this time, so I ordered this: 

It was quite delicious indeed. 

So that was all last night. Today I spent the day at home finishing off my last assessment piece for the semester. It wasn't much work but I had to do it. And now that I've officially finished, I am feeling quite relaxed and without any studies to worry about :) I have waited so long for the holidays to come and now it's here! Bring on the fun and food and relaxation :) But for now, I'm just going to sit back with my cup of tea and enjoy a couple of episodes of Chuck :) Goodbye world..