It took us almost 3 months to get this out. And so it went from being a Christmas gift for the design studio's clients and friends...to possibly a New Year's gift...and now, a Chinese New Year's gift.
Friends, if you want to know the story behind it, read this.
In any case, I'll repeat the happy greeting here - us amps wish you all a "Good Sweat" in the new year!
The fall in May did give me a bump on the head for a few days, but the rest of the year was a strange combination of intense work days and nights of sheer ennui (which, according to J, simply calls for exercise). In any case, I’ve been thinking of reviving the blog, and what better reason than to have a chance to say - Dear friends, have a blessed Christmas!
J and I were somewhat uninspired at first when it came to the door design for Christmas and the new year. We did have all kinds of rabbit-inspired motifs at first. A giant 3D origami rabbit (nah, been there, done that). Vinyl sticker designs (too much of a hassle). A brand new coat of paint (but we’ll miss the 2 kids).
It was dinner with a friend D in early December and hearing his story that made it clear to J and I the message our door should bear in Christmas and into 2011.
The text and rabbit outfits are cut out from ampulets studio's year-end project last year. This year’s year-end project, incidentally, will be late going out to friends and the studio’s clients. Why? Now that’s a story I will tell once I get the all clear for its happy ending.
========= p/s Just for fun, I dug out the links to the past doors! 20092008, 2007,2006
In movies terrible things happen to hitchhikers. And sometimes, even more terrible things happen to folks who pick them up.
The only time I attempted to hitch a ride was in the summer of 1995. Both just a few months shy from turning 21, a Malaysian friend from university and I decided to spend four weeks in Europe bumming around with a rail pass and 400 pounds, but no planned itinerary. Yes, in the tradition of the grand tour.
One evening over Czech beer in a small town, we spotted Liechtenstein on the map and joked about how it would be cool to walk from the border of Austria, right across Liechtenstein, until we got to Switzerland. We could boast that we've walked, literally, cross-country. It couldn't have been the beer because two days later, after a healthy Austrian breakfast, we set off on our walk.
I think we had imagined it would be a leisurely kind of walk surrounded by alpine forests where we may stumble upon quaint small towns. But it wasn't. There were trees alright. But it was mostly asphalt and fancy continental cars zooming by. For the first hour or so, the diverse roadkill amused us (I still have the photos as proof). Then the summer sun and our backpacks made their presence felt. At some point, we attempted to hitch a ride. Of course, that was about as naive as deciding to walk across Liechtenstein. Which Audi salon and BMW convertible would pick up two scruffy looking (and possibly illegal) Asians? Well, we did eventually get to Switzerland in the afternoon, and best of all, on our own dependable feet.
Anyway, all this is just a preamble to... the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Exhibition. Curated by mojoko (aka Steve Lawler), the show features 42 Singapore-based artists and designers who show their intergalactic visions in a series of artworks inspired by Douglas Adam's famous novel.
We couldn't refuse the invitation to participate. So we made this.
It works as a lamp. And maybe more. Switch it on and you might just get the ultimate answer to the ultimate question...
The exhibition opens on 15 April 2010 and is on until 21 April at BLOODGROUP+ space at 32 Aliwal St.
Friends, go visit! You can take a bus.
===================== p/s. Buses 7, 32, 51, 63, 80, 145, 175 and 197 stop at North Bridge Road. Aliwal St runs parallel to Jalan Sultan. If you are interested in the work, we'll be there at the opening on 15 April.
See the actual Folded Verse T-shirts...and at least 400 more works at Pameran Poskad 2010!
The Chinese text "所羅門的衣，不如百合花" is our Chinese couplet for Jesus' teaching to not worry - "And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these" (Matthew, 6:28-29). We made 2 or 3 folds on the tee before each character was painted. Read more here.
The show's on at "My Art Space" (Level 4, 21 Tanjong Pagar Road, beside the Maxwell Rd Food Centre) from 18 April to 1 May. There's an opening party on 17 April, 6-9pm; and a preview for eager beavers (well, they can try to spot those works by the established artists) on the same day at 3pm.
p/s - Drop us a note at info@ampulets.com if you are interested in any of the 10 tees. They are soft 100% cotton. The 所,羅,門,的,衣 and 不 are on Muji Men L-sized T-shirts chest 38-40". The 如,百,合 and 花 are on TopShop XXSmall-sized T-shirts, chest 32-34" for women or very very skinny boys. Each tee comes packed with its own postcard-sized image.
Don't believe your eyes. The theme this year is not "turtles" or "origami". J has captioned the photos "God is eternal". Well friends, may God's peace be with you this Christmas.
But should you be interested to see more of "turtles+origami", check out ampulets design's latest project.
And if you are really a fan of turtles, there's supposed to be "The Live Turtle and Tortoise Museum" at the Singapore Chinese Garden! Disclaimer: I've not been there myself so I can't vouch for it. The website claims it has over 50 different species of turtles and tortoises...
Lost without you. This design takes as its starting point Post-Museum's location in busy Little India. One of the Post-Museum’s stated aims is to respond to its location. Wherever we may be, perhaps having a sense of place is part of our sense of community.
This design is inspired by the spirit of collaboration behind two simple shop-house spaces, where people get together to create community and culture. 2 is better than 1.
The folks at Post-Museum have been raising funds for the work they do. Some time ago they asked if we could design a t-shirt for their fundraising efforts. So we did!
Friends, if you must buy presents for Christmas, can't resist another t-shirt (or two), and/or just want to contribute to Post-Museum's work, here's what you can do: (1) Get 2 is better than 1 in XS, S, M, L or XL* for $30 each. (2) Get Lost Without You in XS, S, M, L or XL* for $35 each. This is a limited edition t-shirt...50 I think. (3) Get a set of both T-shirts for a discounted $60 only!
The t-shirts come with a tag that tells you a little about the design, Post-Museum and ampulets.
All proceeds from the sale of these t-shirts go towards Post-Museum's work.
To pre-order the t-shirts, email admin@post-museum.org.
Hurry hurry! They will also be available for sale at the Post-Museum's Food #03 cafe from mid-December onwards.
(For updates and getting your friends onboard, check out the facebook page.)
=========== *About the Sizes: XS is 36 inches circumference round the chest. S is 38 inches, M is 40 inches, L is 44 inches and XL is 46 inches for men who gym.
We put together the image above for Tiger Translate, a platform Tiger Beer has been promoting for some years now. The theme for us amps and 21 other illustrators and graphic designers is "Change". If you click here, you can also explore over a hundred illustrations on earlier themes such as "Merge", "Rise", "Gold"...yah, Tiger beery kind of words.
Incidentally, last month J and I bumped again into "Mr Elvis" from the image above! It had been some 2 years since we last sketched him on the train.
How did we know it was him? Well, how many train commuters do you know will bring their own foldable plastic stools/chairs for their commute?
So there he was again, seated on the same low stool set up near that same side of the train doors. Having sketched and worked on the image, it was also easier to recognise him.
But as if foretold by that theme "Change", Mr Elvis' proud coiffure from before was now a more tame bed of stingy curls. He seemed to have lost some weight. That faint smile and relaxed pose we had glimpsed 2 years ago was replaced by an expression and shoulders that spoke more of tiredness. We alighted at the same station as he did and actually made an effort to stay close. Yet as if shaken from a daydream, he and his folded stool disappeared from our sentimental story of hopeful retirement into the anxious march of the morning crowd.
====== The chinese text in the background reads:歲月不變 The Chinese text on the side reads: 本人陳來發，今年六十三歲，身体健康， 喜歡唱歌，聽音樂， 从小熱愛貓王。有空也去溜滑輪，在家写写blog，或和朋友喝喝啤酒。如今已退休，希望有位知心人共享春花秋月。虽然一切都隨緣，相信有心栽花花會開。賞花人請九三三四四一七九九，或電elvis-again@mailbox.com.
Loose translation: My name is Chen Lai Fa, 63 years old, healthy, likes singing, listening to music, an elvis fan since young. When free, I also go skating, stay home to write a blog, or meet my friends for a beer. Currently retired, would hope to find someone to enjoy those autumn years. Although fate rules, I believe hope springs eternal. Interested parties please call 933441799 or email elvis-again@mailbox.com.
This year, the kids at our door wanted to know the meaning of Christmas. Friends, amps wish you Christmas as it's meant to be with your friends and family!
This is what we've been doing instead of blogging about Taiwan.Click on images for larger flickr view.
The good folks at this research-driven architecture and ID studio moved not too long ago into one of the best offices in Singapore - the previous campus of the Trinity Theological College at the top of Mt Sophia (i.e. right next to Old School). More specifically, the company is housed in the College's beautiful 1969 chapel, its roof shaped to resemble the Chinese word for man "人" leading to a cross.
They asked if we could make some art for the large glass surfaces in their office, and we could not resist such flattery (heh)! Even harder to resist was their motivation and the brief they gave us - to create works that reflected their ethos and the site, engaged and were not too inaccessible to most folks, and resolved some "practical" issues of light/reflection/identity.
"and it was good" - cities, trees and daydreams on a meeting room
J and I really admired their open profession of their Christian faith in a professional context, and how it seemed to ground the folks who ran the studio. As such, we made 3 illustrations inspired by Genesis and around the idea of creation/creativity, trying to tease out the kinds of relationships - positive or antagonistic - between creation/creativity that is divine or human. 2 of the 3 illustrations also continue the whole train-series we've been making, except that the idea of sleep and repose takes on a new dimension in a space that used to be a chapel! As you can see, we are really excited about seeing our usual images XXXXlarge and watching the folks walking by interact with them.
"to each of them he gave a name" - balloon animals, labour and rest, flesh and air, reality and fiction on the external wall
"union" - 2 versions of a tree, natural and urban habitat
So friends, if you happen to be at Mount Sophia (like you wanted to get some exercise!) and if you see anyone coming out from the chapel-now-turned-design-studio, tell them how you much you like the illustrations on their walls! Of course, don't let loose that you've received specific instructions to do so by us...
And if you need an excuse to troop up to Mount Sophia, here's a good one: the screenings at Sinema at Old School. On the strong recommendation of friends, we will be watching Han Yew Kwang's 18 Grams of Love , last shown at this year's Singapore Int'l Film Festival. Watch and find out how much love really weighs.
So far, the reviews have been positive. We saw Han Yew Kwang's 2006 comedy Unarmed Combat on DVD and found it a very watchable debut feature film.
To get to Old School and the previous Trinity Theological College campus: Take the train to the Dhoby Ghaut MRT. Exit the station and cross the road to MacDonald House. Walk towards the new condominium 8 Mt Sophia, and you'll find a flight of steps leading to the top of Mt Sophia. Take a deep breath (or two) and trek up. If you survive, both Old School and the ex-theological college are right across the road.
us amps are happy with HK graphic design magazine idN's open policy of publishing all entries to their 15 anniversary logo design competition. J made 2, together with many many others whose names go from addison chen to zhu lei.
But on the topic of 15, friends, here's a trick I learnt about HDB lifts (or does it work for all lifts?) from a 12(?) year-old girl who got into the same lift as me, politely asked what floor I lived on, mis-heard my answer, pressed the wrong button, heard my correction, then - voila manages to clear the erroneous selection on the lift panel! I was amazed. But when I told J about it the little trick I had learnt, he just laughed with some disdain. Supposedly, everyone knows that all you have to do when you press a wrong button on the lift, say 14 instead of 15, you just have to simultaneously press all the buttons on the same row as 14 (say 13, 14, 15) and the lift resets to blank.
My superpower - playing dead. Image and apron by J.
This is how I feel. Which dear J captured so well in an apron he painted for me... a greenish soursop heart walked over by 2 birds, a gigantic spleen, a blockish blue liver ("because our body is 3/4 water!"), lungs looking like aged blood stains, and wriggly intestines with an escaped bloth of blue liver. There's no stomach. It's spread all over behind the heart and spleen - yellow, all bile.
Why I do my job, I have almost forgotten. And when I think about what I've gotten myself into, I think I somewhat fear being entrenched in some system. wheyface asked if my job is taking up "mindspace" (her lingo for an invasive job, taking away precious personal space and energy to think - and write), she was spot-on.
J wrote in his photoblog: "The PM said that for a small country of 3 million people, what the Singapore Government said actually registered on the Super Power's (US) radar, that is really something. That makes me laugh."
That's the kind of system and its thinking I fear. The ability to laugh, I miss.
Earlier this week over dinner with CT, Singapore's #1 comic expert, was telling us about Marvel Comics' latest civil war series, why Captain America must die and what I imagined is America's dialectical political imagination. The North-South myth, and the underlying belief in the self-regenerative power of conflict within. A belief sympathetic to conspiracies.
It was midnight on our walk home from dinner, J has been telling me about some TV series, Heroes. I asked if he could design or choose any superpower to have in the world, what it would be. After the initial "I can make anyone do anything I say" and deciding that was too boringly villain-ish, he decided on the cop-out "Everyday I can have 3 wishes come true" - ah, yes, the Aladdin-man. I couldn't think of any for the longest time. Fly? but where to? Teleportation? But it would be too dull to be able to go so many places but essentially alone. With much deliberation, I would rather not have a superpower, I told J. But I would love to be very good at making things. A talent and a skill, maybe. But not in excess of what is human.
Drawing 1 of Kidnap News 2! can't access my @&$*flickr acct, so not sure if this image can be viewed larger
L amazed us one night by saying that as he grew older, he looked forward to growing old. Ah, the horror, the horror. L smiled and added how he was happily looking forward to turning 40. J was incredulous.
Perhaps L was speaking of a mental and emotional reality. And perhaps J, observing Ma and Pa J, is terrified of growing old - of its material and corporeal reality. The former is of gain, the latter of loss.
Today, I realised I was wrong to imagine time can be stolen. We are never robbed of it. Busy-ness is a poor excuse I've been making. Time cannot be taken away from us, since it is never ours to begin with. It's just a slippery thing.
So it was that last night, J and I decided to bring back our friend, KidnapBob! Only this time, Kidnap Bob will not only meet with kids, but grandpas and grandmas too. Will Kidnap Bob only be accused of abducting the young? Will Kidnap Bob be as popular with our frail and aged as he was with kids? Where has Kidnap Bob brought grandma and grandpa to? And will Kidnap Bob ever prove his innocence? I am looking forward already to the weekend with my notebook!
For the past 2 weeks at printmaking class, I've been learning what is known as the "reduction method" for lino-print (similar to woodcuts, except the cheap & soft linoleum sheet is used instead of wood). The idea is this:
(1) If you want to make an image with several colours, you start with a print of the lightest, for eg. pale yellow. (2) Then you carve away the sections which you want to remain pale yellow. And you make a print using a darker colour (say red) on the exact same piece of paper. (3) Them you carve away the sections you want to remain red, and you make another print using an even darker colour (say brown) on the exact same piece of paper.
reducing
As you continue to layer colours (from light to darkest) on that printed paper, the more your linoleum sheet is stripped away. I thought, what poetry! That as the image emerges on the paper, it disappears from your linoleum; and as the paper changes its form as a print, so the vessel and medium of that art reduces in substance, literally. But perhaps not metaphorically. Because between the print and the linoleum, the latter to me bears all the marks of time and effort.
It is for simple reasons like this that no matter how tired and late I am for printmaking class, it remains my favourite evening of the week.
Friends, in the general mood of these long days of yearning for foreign places, daydreaming time and journeys, ampulets-supplies present our second series of greeting cards "To the End of the World and Back". Send them off to friends, family, heck - that girl/boy next door, and see what comes back.
As with the first "Those Happy Days" set of cards, the cards are blank inside and are packed with an envelope and work-tag. Email us (ampulets at yahoo.com.sg) and we'll send you the luurve -
I was chatting with monster ru on msn late last night and was thinking how strange it was our relationship with distance - geographical, metaphysical, imaginative. How we desire and loathe distance, our strategies to overcome and our strategies to impose it. We traverse and we also wander, charting and savouring.
Lest I ramble even more, ampulets-supplies will be putting up Set#2 greeting cards To the End of the World and Back next week for that end-of-the-year reflection. Watch out for them and send some love - or if love is too close for you, daydreams.
--------------- p/s Set#1 cards Those Happy Days (image above) are still available. They are blank inside, and are packed with an envelope and individual work note ($3 ea) Details here.
Want to tell someone he/she is the apple of your eye, but don't quite know how to do it with words? ampulets present here 9 easy steps how you can do so in a silent way.
All you need now are these materials: (1) Red cloth (2) Thick brown felt (3) Acrylic or oil paint, or any other kind of fabric paint (4) 2 wooden or black beads (if you don't have any, you can also embroider the eyes or use small buttons) (5) A handful of green/red beans...or styrofoam beads (6) Cotton wool (7) Thread, needle, scissors (8) bonus: Styrofoam "netting" for fruits
After some 30mins (or 1 hour if you are watching the TV at the same time), you should be able to have your own Fuji-san to declare your sweet love for you.
image by J- aren't I lucky his favourite fruit is not the durian!
If instead you wish to tell him/her that you like him/her regardless of how ugly, stinky and high in cholestrol he/she is, try this instead. Unlike other top chefs, ampulets tell all in our recipes.
Almost a year ago, the well-meaning HDB "upgraded" our apartment block and replaced our white (and yellowing nicely) door with a fancy fire-retardant door and a new iron gate. Tired of tolerating this aesthetic "downgrade" all this while, J and I decided to paint our door and gate over the weekend.
ampulets give you here a short 7-step guide to un-do some HDB ugliness.
Step 1: Set out to buy your painting supplies - On your way out, check out yours and your neighbours' doors, and know that you are about to "do the right thing". We found a paint shop just 15min walk away from our flat. We bought an "Undercoat" paint, sandpaper, roller and bristle brushes, and paint the colour(s) of your choice. The lady who ran the shop was amused. She did not understand why anyone would want to paint a new door, and of all colours, white. She obviously has not seen this:
our neighbour's door. ours looked like this too, but no longer. all images by J
Step 2: Have lunch - Painting's a tough job, you'll need your carbohydrates.
Step 3: A firm foundation - Line the floor around the door with newspaper. Lightly sandpaper the door, then sandpaper any rust from the iron gate. Make sure that the surfaces to be painted are dry and clean. With masking tape, cover any parts of the door (i.e. handle, hinges) that you want to remain paint-free. Apply a thin layer of "Undercoat" to the door and gate. Warning: Do not skip any part of these instructions in your eagerness to start painting...Patience, you'll definitely get your fair share of painting later. Believe me.
Step 4: Go out - Well, instead of staying home and breathing in the paint fumes from the undercoat, go out! We went to catch DramaBox's Trash.
[NB- Make sure that you've cleaned the brushes thoroughly with turpentine before you go out. Keep the used turpentine in an old jar/container because you will need it later again. Never dispose of the paint-turpentine solution down the sink unless you have a thing for your plumber.]
Step 5: The painting starts (and never seems to end) - Once home, get ready for the real painting to start. Our advice again is this: patience. Wait till the first real coat of paint is completely 100% dry before you layer on the second coat.
Step 6: Sleep - It's 4am already and the fumes will give you happy dreams.
Step 7: Confirm your neighbour's suspicions... that young couples nowadays are weird. Why would anyone want to paint a door all white during the 7th month/Hungry Ghost fest, then proceed to draw 2 kids standing behind a gate. We, too, don't quite know why. But it feels good to come home and be greeted by something you made with your own hands.
.jpg)
.jpg)
