The play was executed with simple intelligence. Almost everything was in black and white; making everything full of symbolism. I do remember the red color of the fish and the funeral tablet - linking the death of both. Visually, it was stunning stark, the acting standing out almost as if the drawings on a blank canvas.

The almost mechanical sounds, with the almost mechanical acting, with the almost mechanical lighting, made the point of telling the audience that stripped off all the “romantics” of life, this was truly where we live in, and how we lived.The almost-ness suggests the organic forms and movements that were happening on stage, had a chance of life.

As if breaking out of the monotony of the play, it slowly evolved from that rhythm. Into song and dance - seems to be poking fun at the ‘form’ that is fast becoming the norm in the theater world; if there could indeed, be a norm in the creative art world. I totally enjoyed the dancing, especially by Tim. His long limps waving frantically in the air, almost swimming in air, like the bird that got away from the cage.

The symbolism of life giving water, was most obvious when the actor had to deliver a lifeless folder in the rain. He was soaked and obviously “came to life” after the shower.

The deaths were all full of drama, as if to mock at the materialization of the loss. The flush of the toilet, the fall into the grave, the breaking of the bar that held the hanging rope - all symbolic descent to hell. And the customization of modern funeral offerings hint of modern life, all becomes ash.

I wondered if I was becoming one of those birds that one finds in a pet shop; most won’t survive out of the cage in the wild. I wondered if death had indeed been over-played by most. I wondered if life itself was over-played by the “offerings” that life would suppose to provide.

I choose to be the bird that ran from the cage, and survived in the ‘wilderness’.

I choose to be leading an artist’s life, and I am so glad that I have my artists friends who would remind me again, and again, through their works, that life is so much more full of experiences and explorations, if only one chooses to break away from the cage that holds them back.

I am so happy that being an artist has led me to so much more of what life has to offer.

This night had proven to be one hell of a disco! : )

Near the end of last year, an opportunity came about and I found the space of my dreams, high ceilings, huge space (I believe the dreams of many artists who would crave for such a space). It took several months before the space was overhauled and ready for work.

Never one to take things for granted, I took weeks to put in furniture, equipment, everything. With the help of friends, and clients who care, it is now almost done. Fresh and newly minted Light Editions Gallery.

I’ve had so many friends who came visiting, and so many who have sent in their proposals to do a show at my gallery.

I am just so blessed in so many ways, especially when my dream come true. I am living the life of an artist.

In looking for my new location in the last 4 years, one of the thing that got to me was the fact that all factories are not great for print production. There are things like fumes from car-repairs shops, food, glue, even from the dyes found in such places.Yeah, claims to make fine art prints. Right.

Did they even think about the climate controls? Or the insect controls? Sunlight control? Any of those? I guess not, and I would shudder to think about their handling controls! *shivers*

Gosh. One of my really good friend laughed at the claims since it was so obvious that it was all to make the company sound larger than it really is. It is, after all, just a distributor of machines, papers and inks. Not to mention that she was witness to prints being mis-handled when they came out of the printer. Gosh.

I didn’t spend almost 20 years of my life to become who I am without conscious, thoughtful hard work and long, expensive experiments to ensure that the printing medias work the best that they can.These new comers are only in for the short-ride. I’m too tired to continue educating people on learning how to distinguish between quality and bad work. I only laugh these days, life’s too short.

Good luck to the artists that go to them, since problems with the prints don’t even come up till several years later. Much like a badly developed black and white photographs; chemical spots don’t always come up that quickly.

I caught it last night, wondering about what to expect since I’d heard about the “singles / homosexuals / maxist can change” parts, I’d told myeslf to go with an open mind and just see what comes along.

When it started with “singles”, I was rather bored with the pro-government approach to singlehood. I’d already  been living through it with our daily media bombardment, not to mention in our daily lives from those around us. So when the question and answer session came (as part of the “singles” performance), I was too bored to even think of a question to ask. That was not to say I was not surprised. I was surprised that something like that could come out from TNS.

When “homosexuals” came on, I was ready to just see it like “singles” - more government bells, whistles, logos and trumpets. But as it droned on, I started to see a pattern; that wait, I was changing. I wanted to challenge what was being played on stage. I now had questions for the question and answer session in “singles”, will they have another session for “homosexuals”? No, they didn’t. darn.

Then came “marxists”, which was not really a play, but just a slide show of what’s happened to TNS in its early years being labelled as Marxists just because they attended a theatre workshop that was marxsists. The media and government came around, actually, not the mis-labelled marxists. For me, this part didn’t quite gel with the first 2 parts, though.

QUESTIONS. Why was it that those who don’t change still got to enjoy the perks? The aunt in “singles’ got what she wanted - a family life created by her niece. The mom, in “homosexuals” got what she want when her son got married. TNS got what they want, by staying as who they are (not marxsists, of course, but rather passionate practioners)?

Was this a play about power? Was this a play about how people become what others see of them? Was this about how change has to be balanced by unchange? The ideals of society has remained unchanged, yet people have to make choices of the changes they need in order to conform into this unchanging ideals.

Was this play created to explore how people would like to think or behave when put in a situation where everything is just status quo?

THOUGHTS. As a pro-government play, it had gone on to show what it would be like if arts were all just straight and morally correct and expected. Maybe it should have been a ’snow white with 7 CMIO skates on ice for Channel 5″; more shine, more glitz, more publically entertaining, since it was not meant to “upset the non-thinking majority”. Oh wait, that wouldn’t be TNS, then.

Personally, I’ve always thought change was inevitable. The idea of women only staying indoors have long been overturned due to economics. Even the idea that only women cam give birth is now being developed on, due to the idea of equality (and maybe economics. Hmmm.). But the thing that urks me most is when people assume that ‘moral standing’ is, as it always should be, that ’social responsibility’ is, as it always has been, that being different is not as it always has been. To have change is something that I quite look forward to in my daily life. It is often in the change that new interesting things can evolve, and it is through the un-changing that one can find solice and comfort. To have this play remind me that change in the sea of ‘un-changed’ is as important as un-changed in the sea of ‘changed’.

Bravo, guys!

The Art Incubator residency program is targeted at young Singaporean artists. A project-based, professional development opportunity, the residency will provide artists with a living stipend of $1,000 per month and material and production fees of up to $3,000. The resident will also be assigned a mentor, a studio space and given a platform to exhibit their completed work in a group show at the end of the residency period.

Last year, The Art Incubator hosted three artists, Claire Lim, Hafiz Osman and Tay Wei Leng, at Grey Projects, Osage Gallery and Objectifs: Centre for Photography and Filmmaking respectively.  This year, the program has expanded to include an overseas residency at Gertrude Contemporary Art Spaces in Melbourne.

For more information, see www.theartincubator.org.

Applications close on 28 February 2010. Please direct all queries to The Art Incubator.

Application deadline: January 15, 2010

http://www.deappel.nl/cp

Initiated in 1994 the Curatorial Programme of Arts Centre de Appel wishes to offer young curators a condensed package of experiences and skills that can be used as tools and instruments during the further development of their professional career. De Appel is an internationally oriented arts centre located in Amsterdam that functions as a site for research and presentation of contemporary visual arts through a series of exhibitions, performances publications and discursive events.

In September 2006, a remodelled version of the eight-month long Curatorial Programme was launched with a renewed curriculum and an extended tutorial team. It encompasses a dense array of theoretical seminars, thematic workshops, field trips in Europe and Asia, practice-related assignments and encounters with artists and art professionals. Throughout the programme attention is paid to the history of exhibition-making, diverse curatorial practices, institution building and project management. The unique and special thematic focus is on the polarity between ‘free-lance ‘ and ‘institutional’ curating and on the examination of ‘context-responsive’ curating. The programme explores through which formats and methodologies curators deal with the presentation of art in the ‘expanded field’ outside of the white cube and how they respond to the cultural moments.

From 2006 until 2009 the focus of the Curatorial Programme culminated in a ’site-specific’ curatorial assignment: the participants of the programme were invited to investigate a specific ‘area’ (in 2006/2007 this was the Amsterdam suburb de Bijlmer, in 2007/2008 the satellite city Leidsche Rijn near Utrecht and in 2008/2009 the urban area Amsterdam Noord) and realise a project that relates to this site in a direct or indirect way. Through inviting the participants to work ‘off-site’ de Appel challenged the curators to reflect upon the current status and problematics of art in (sub)urban public space and to reflect upon the different ways in which art functions in processes of urban renewal/generator and gentrification. In the programme 2009/2010 (current year) the focus of the final project is on the so-called ‘cultural moments’, i.e. situations and contexts in Amsterdam ranging from the restructuring of specific areas in Amsterdam and the urban processes that accompany it to the contemporary political situation in the Netherlands. The participants will familiarize themselves with these contexts, and can choose to incorporate it in their final project. Throughout the process the relationship with the ‘mother institution’ is maintained while at the same time being interrogated.

The following parts of the programme are considered to be of vital importance:
- The opportunity to research theoretical issues and developments in regular sessions with a tutorial team consisting e.g. of visual artist Liesbeth Bik (NL), de Appel director Ann Demeester (BE/NL), curator and writer Charles Esche (UK/NL), curator Annie Fletcher (IR/NL), writer and curator Elena Filipovic (US/BE), curator Dieter Roelstraete (BE), independent researcher/curator Lisette Smits (NL), philosopher/curator Henk Slager (NL) and art critic Jan Verwoert (BE).
- The opportunity to meet a large number of artists, curators, critics and other professionals from the Netherlands and abroad in a very condensed period of time, and having the chance to exchange ideas with them, either during thematic seminars or during informal encounters. Guest teachers over the past years have been e.g. Carlos Basualdo (US) , Gerardo Mosquera (CU/US), Paul O’Neill (GB), Jacques Rancière (FR), Simon Sheik (SE), Pier Luigi Tazzi (IT), Teresa Gleadowe (UK) and Nina Möntmann.
- the opportunity to get acquainted with de Appel from ‘the inside’, and get a better
- The possibility to make a long trip outside of Western Europe and a minimum of 7 excursions within Europe.

APPLICATIONS REQUIREMENTS
1. A letter of motivation in which your personal drive is stated and what you expect from the programme.
2. A proposal for a project (5-15 pages), including: concept and location of the project (main focus), the participating artists (including some image material), a budget, a publicity plan (not obliged)
3. A CV, including an extensive description of one’s relevant working experience
4. Two written references of (former) tutors, professors or employers, in English.

On the basis of the submitted documents a pre-selection is made. Approximately ten candidates will be short-listed; they are invited to come to Amsterdam in the second week of March for an interview by an international selection committee.

Application deadline: January 15th 2010

Send completed applications (in two-fold) to:

de Appel
Attn. Danila Cahen/Hendrik Folkerts
P.O. Box 10764
1001 ET Amsterdam
the Netherlands

For further information please visit our website
http://www.deappel.nl/cp

contact:
Danila Cahen (coordinator): dcahen@deappel.nl
Hendrik Folkerts (assistant-coordinator):hfolkerts@deappel.nl
t +31 (0)20 6255651
f +31 (0)20 6225215

This year’s was different, I wanted to celebrate, as I’d survived a year that was truly challenging and tiring for me; I had a health scare (which came up to nothing), several major wrong decisions being imposed on me (being side-laid by idiots), big disappointments from the people of my industry that forced me to give up one of my biggest and favorate-est social project (circa), dealing with little people who does not understand quality fine art printing and yet still tries to steal my business by imitating me (some cheap printing outfit), a power failure (which cost me quite a huge amount of money, not to mention my back from carrying cooling devices from home to lab over 2 days), having big dreams dashed (due to the fact that I could not afford the renovations that the future landlord would demand for). E.T.C. E.T.C. E.T.C.

It was also the year that some dreams are realized (my first solo museum show at Baba House), big dreams could finally be realized (I am still crossing my fingers here), I figured that farming would be so good for me (in Yamanashi, Japan), that maybe my audience was situated in the wrong country (Japanese really dig my works), that there was only so much that I could care about (world, you have to start looking out for yourself), that friends could come from the most unexpected places (coffee shop helpers, library peeps, you guys are the best-est!), that some friends would always misunderstand you and that you have to understand that they will one day understand and let that go for now. That my make-believe families can be warmer than my real family (my Japanese family, my kids - girls and boys, you know who you are). That my real family, would sometimes give me gems in life that makes me a better person. This is the year that I’ve also decided to take a partial hiatus from teaching because I am tired, but more poignantly, because I should start forcusing on myself, that I am really important.

It was also a year of serendipity; Interesting projects that works out because objects, notes, friends comes together in a way that I could not have planned. That friends would know friends of friends who knew other friends that connected with me. That a plant that I’d been looking for, for months, suddenly appear at my front gate as a gift from a dear friend who didn’t even know I was looking for that plant! That a bowl shaped well, bowl, was bought in Taiwan for me, at about the same time as I was looking at another similar shaped bowl at a museum in Singapore. That characters would come to life in my exhibition at Baba House. That even Serendipity can be serendipity.

It took my whole birthDAY to bring it all together and made sense of all that I’ve gone through. In that single day, I spent it with people that I cared about. We drank and ate food that would not have been possible if not for the love of friends. I almost cried for a friend, I laughed at another, I contemplated with yet another. We shared insights to a friend new to the arts. We wished for the almost arrival of a precious new life, feeling a whole lot of energy, and ended the night with a friend talking about art, creation, human flaws and weaknesscess, strengths and hope for the future. That sometimes, planning has to give way to serendipity. Not everything was to the heart, of course. I learnt about managing projects, planning ahead, character types, importance of a good team. My birthday extended till past 2am this morning. I was buzzing by the time I had to end my last conversation for my birthday, and yet, my phone kept buzzing with birthday wishes. I am so blessed.

For the new year, I want to be even more human; feeling the pains and the joys. I want to be more forgiving of those that had transpass against me and be grateful for the friends that I already have. Most of all, I want to be more grounded, more present in the way that I’ll live my life.

Thank you life, thank you friends, thank you families.

Merry Christmas, all.

Kinda like Christmas glass balls on wings!

Titled “Housework” (the odd-shaped clothes peg), and “Housework II and my mothers” (reconstructed kimono and bag). Both are process-based artworks which speaks of the simplicity/complexity of housework.

Houseworks are only apparently straight forward, but it brings with it social, historical, psychological, traditions, economic context which are often disregarded as such.

Across generations, housework can also become craft and some even art. At what point does a piece of material with threats becomes art? The kimono piece explores how my Japanese ‘mom’ differ from my biological mom in their own interpretation of art.

Very super special thanks to both my moms. And Yen wei’s mom, too!