Wednesday, November 28, 2007

in for the long run

kid (童)
maki squarepatch's child's room - images by J

Tuesday evening J and I trooped to a nighttime preview of the Singapore Design Festival"hub" at the City Hall and former Supreme Court building. I'm really not going to comment on the Festival, except to say that it's worth going to take a look at the exhibitions there because:

(1) they made these -
J and I found installations by...not 1...but (at least) 4 female Singapore designers at a show called "Utterrubbish" (hmm, yes, I'm also not a fan of this title). There's a child's room by maki squarepatch, a living room of recycled fashion by Hansel, a small showcase of poetic works by our favourite argentum in one of the judge's rest chambers, and in Court Room 21 is an installation by a new friend, the inimitable kwodrent. Hey, I know it's not about gender, BUT.

shing (形)
works by argentum

halfUPhalfDOWN (上下)
work those legs in the city hall

(2) you get to wander around these buildings
Not many folks used to get to wander freely the corridors and court rooms of the City Hall and former Supreme Court building (or maybe not many folks wanted to). If you had missed taking a look at the insides of the buildings during last year's Singapore Biennale, you should do so. The Singapore Institute of Architect's show "ArchiFest" is held in, for instance, the historic chambers where the Japanese signed the surrender papers in 1945.

three (三)
doors of the city hall

That evening the President's Design Awards were also given out at the Esplanade.

Among the 7 folks who won prizes this year, these 2 stood out for me. Mr Mok Wei Wei (of W Architects) and Mr Eng Siak Loy (currently a designer with the National Parks Board, but the unsung designer behind many of our stamps and our dollar notes!), not for being trendy or enterprising, but for being committed to good design as a career. They have a lifetime of work to speak silently for their art, intelligence and commitment.

Walking home that night, I was thinking if a stronger case needs to be made for commitment and dedication. Often, the arts and design are marketed as sudden flashes of inspiration. Of course there are these moments, and (ah, as Ms Zhang Ai Ling had once declared) what is fame if it is cannot be enjoyed when you are young. But I wonder if we often forget the sheer hard work, the patience and the stamina a designer and artist need.

So to all those folks who feel a little discouraged and getting tired after a trying sprint, the consistency of vision is not only a matter of space, but also time. And Ms Zhang, though not wrong, may not be the only one right.

================
P/S There are several other events/exhibitions taking place at other venues, such as an exhibition on Alvar Aalto at the NUS Cultural Centre, swiss architecture at Vivocity, Japanese graphic artists groovisions at the National Museum etc. Take a look at the more complete programme here.

Thursday, November 22, 2007

3 < 1

quickly

I drew and painted this today. The last drawing was 3 months ago. This year I made 16 illustrations. Last year, at least 60. This year I wrote 0 stories. Last year, there was, at least, 1. This year, I spent an average of 12 hours at the office, and maybe 1 hour outside the office thinking about work each day. For that, my bank account and paycheck boast of slightly bigger figures. Last year, I spent more time walking and talking with J and our family - and maybe even with friends. I'm not sure if these past 2 years were placed side by side, both sides of the equation would add up just right. But the truth - even if excuses are easy to find - is that whatever the numbers stand for and however they are valued, they reflect our choices.

Monday, November 12, 2007

Lust, Caution


Cover illustration by Eileen Chang/Zhang Ailing for her own book 流言 (trans. Rumour)

There are 3 reasons to watch Lust, Caution, and for this I shall quote the folks sitting around, beside and behind J and I in the cinema on Saturday. [warning: spoilers ahead]

(1) "[gasp]...so cute"
Even the dogs, cute white ones or saggy-faced Alsatians, play their role well. Every single member of the cast was superb.

(2)"Wah, Louis Vuitton ah"
This film being set in wartime Shanghai and Hong Kong, the costumes (and yes, the suitcases were beautiful too) and art direction are excellent. But because the film could be seen as a play within a film, starting first with the group of over zealous students taking their anti-Japanese play too seriously beyond the stage to the dangerous real world and eventually going undercover as spies for the resistance, the idea of stage and reality, deception and truth gets, a fabricated reality vs real life drama require elaborately set up apartments, fabricated lives, fancy cheongsums that were part-costumes part-real wardrobe. In order to "act out" her seduction of Mr Yee, "Mdm Mak" aka Wang Jiazhi must first has to lose her virginity to a student/fellow actor.

This materiality of their dramas finds its ultimate symbol in the gigantic diamond ring that Mr Yee (Tony Leung's character) purchases for "Mdm Mak" aka Wang Jiazhi. It is a mark of his love for her (since it is a gem he denies his wife), but perceived at first by Wang as a secret transaction with an imagined enemy. And when she accepts and understands the significance of this token, it becomes ironically the start of his betrayal of her - when confronted by the evidence of his complicity with this "spy" (or an insinuation that the money he used to purchase the rock is ill-gotten), Yee must deny that the ring is his.

(3)"哎,張愛玲的故事都是這樣的啦"
For me, the biggest reason to watch this film (other than Lee Ang's interpretation) is that it is based on Eileen Chang/Zhang Ailing's short story of the same name.

It is not the first movie that has been made from her stories. There had been 紅玫瑰白玫瑰 (Red Rose, White Rose) by Stanley Kwan, 傾城之戀 (Love in a Fallen City) by Ann Hui and 半生緣 (Eighteen Springs). Zhang herself wrote screenplays, including the famous 不了情 (Unending Love).

What makes her stories great material for screen is Zhang's ability to turn the internal drama of her characters' lives (their motivations, thoughts, conflicts and contradictions) into social situations - not sitcoms - rather, micro/social situations born out of the larger political or rather historical forces. There can be cruel caricatures (I'll scann later some illustrations/actual caricatures by Zhang - her satiric eye/hand) but however harsh her portrayal of these characters (even the do-gooders have some suspicion cast upon their naivete), they are ultimately excused because humanity - however strong individuals may be - is weak. It is weak in the face of the historical and societal powers/forces/movements it has created in the first place, victim to this tyranny of our collective stupidity/folly/pride. We fail each other. History fails us. We fail ourselves.

You must admit it's a rather tragic vision! And this bears out in Zhang's own life (or at least, I think, that's what us "Zhang-mi"/fans like to imagine!). It is tempting to see 色、戒 with an eye on Zhang's biography. After all, Zhang's first documented love was a married man and a supposed traitor/collaborator with the Japanese. Her mother, like Wang Jiazhi's father, eventually also left for the UK, leaving Zhang alone to live her aunt in China. Zhang, too, spent her university days in Hong Kong, before returning to Shanghai.

But unlike Wang Jiazhi in 色、戒, Zhang was no hapless student who gets lost in the fictional reality of others or of her own device. Zhang was a writer. So with words, she survived. Words provided income. Words afforded a distance, distance gave her writing its wit and irony. But distance also confirmed the tragic vision in words. And if words were not enough (or too much), she created for herself the physical distance of a life in America at age 35. There she survived another 50 years, writing mostly essays and academic work and translations (inc. translations of Emerson) and died alone in her apartment.

p/s For those interested in Zhang's own reading of her short story and rebuttal to a critic in 1978, read her essay 羊毛出在羊身上,談<色、戒>

Sunday, November 4, 2007

magic street

home I (家之一)
all images by J - click for flickr view

We called it a magic street. But there's nothing Harry Potter-ish about it all it. In fact, there's nothing very magical, not even in the metaphorical sense of the word. I've forgotten why we called it a magic street.

The street leads to the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo. In both our visits there, 4 years apart, the street barely changed - at least in our memory. Both visits were between 4-5 in the late afternoon. In Autumn, the light would have started to change.

home II (家之二)

At that hour, there would be kids who have stayed on a little later in school rushing home; maybe one or two housewives would go by on their bikes. But save for these bodies, and even quieter ones in the slow neighbourhood shops, the street was mostly deserted. We are greedy anomalies on this street, stopping every few steps for photographs, to decipher signs, stare at shop windows, and both times for yakitori, eaten at a bench outside the shop - nonetheless, quietly.

Sign I (牌之一)
slow (慢)
tradition II (傳之二)

Maybe it was our regressive impulse - wanting to marvel at this sense of time having stood still, or the quotidian amidst glitzy, metropolitan Tokyo.

Maybe it was the quiet - not the monumental quiet of ancient forests or endless canyons, or the hushed silence of religious halls and libraries - but the quiet of activity being somewhere else instead, the quiet of a clearing.