The Star Online: Lifestyle: Bookshelf
The Star Online: Lifestyle: Bookshelf |
| Posted: 12 May 2013 12:50 AM PDT Art meets literature as artists from all over the world come together over a love of books. Books can inspire fervent emotions, and every reader will remember at least one specific tome that left a lasting impression on them. Building on this, Singaporean art magazine and gallery Kult has rolled out a project that gives a visual dimension to the act of reading. Bringing together books and art, their latest exhibition Read Carefully features a series of book covers that have been reimagined and redesigned by over 50 different Singaporean and international artists. Names as varied as Genevieve Gauckler of the Netherlands, Russell Taysom of Britain, Timothy Daws of Australia and Speak Cryptic of Singapore were asked to choose a book that had been influential in shaping who they are today, and conceptualise a cover design for that book in their own style. As a result, titles ranging from Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury to Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk to The Kamasutra are interpreted in singularly unique and often surprising ways in this quirky exhibition. Introduced as part of the Design Society Festival in March, the artworks were initially displayed at various venues in Tiong Bahru, Singapore. Now, the entire collection is on display at the Kult Gallery. Kult creative director Steve Lawler says the idea for the exhibition came about because they wanted to make books cooler. "We want to make the young people who are glued to their iPhones and television screens take a step back and read a book," he explains, adding that the exhibition fits in with the magazine's practice of getting artists from around the world to respond visually to a theme. "The book covers felt like a way to learn about the artist, and hopefully bring forgotten books back into the mainstream," he says. According to Lawler, Kult selected artists whom they thought were in a position to teach and impart valuable knowledge to be a part of the project. "We selected artists we respect, people who are perhaps more senior. A lot of young designers today are talented, but not willing to learn. We wanted to tap into the old-school thinking of mentors and apprentices," he says. Seeing the completed artworks for Read Carefully, Lawler shares, was very exciting. "Every time a new entry came in, we would be waiting anxiously. Of course, some works spoke to different people in different ways. But the sheer range of styles and designs was a giant reward." For the artists involved, the project was an opportunity to examine their relationship with particular books, and to think about how it had affected their lives. Soph-O of Singapore, who is currently based in Los Angeles, chose to work on William Golding's Lord Of The Flies because it took on new meaning for her each time she read it. "I read the book when I was a child, then as a teenager and again as an adult, and it's really fascinating how this classic story evolves and reinterprets itself each time I read it," she says. Her design for the cover, she explains, was inspired by her childhood conception of the island in the book. "The island was such a mystical place but I never lost track of where the characters or my imaginary self in the book would be. Hence, I decided to re-draw a map of the island as though I was a kid again, without much conceptualisation, just drawing instinctively." For Sakiroo, who hails from Seoul, Korea, the book Principle-Centred Leadership by Stephen R. Covey played an important part in determining his life's path. Despite having no formal training in art, he left a nine-year career in the corporate sector to realise his dream of becoming an artist. "I have recently been interested in various ancient religions. Covey's book showed me what I had to do for the future, almost like a religion. The book also made me realise the importance of humanity, which naturally led me to think about art and philosophy. "And as the book's title is Principle-Centred Leadership, I portrayed Covey as the centre of the universe between the sun and the moon," he explains. Meanwhile, Briton Jon Burgerman's choice of book title seems like it was meant to be. "I was reading Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov at the time this project came around. At the same time, I'd also started a new project called Drawings Of Girls I've Seen On Tumblr, where I draw images of girls I've seen on Tumblr. There seemed to be a connection between this and some of the themes of the book," says the artist, who is currently based in New York. The process of creating the artwork then came naturally. "I start by thinking and then move on to drawing, and then the work seems to take on a life of its own and somehow gets completed almost by itself. It was great fun, especially since the scenes and ideas from the text were still swirling around in my head," he says. Read Carefully will be showing at Kult Gallery (Emily Hill, Blk C2-5, 11 Upper Wilkie Road, Singapore) till May 25. The gallery opens from 11am to 6pm on weekdays and by appointment on weekends. For more information, go to kult.com.sg. |
| Posted: 12 May 2013 12:52 AM PDT The late Tew Nai Tong's works resonate with a perpetual yearning for freedom and the free spirit. THE visage and spirit of Tew Nai Tong are discernible in the oval faces of phoenix-eyed damsels that dominated his oil canvas even as the artist is now gone. Nai Tong died in Kuala Lumpur last Saturday on the eve of GE13 from an aggravated lung infection. He was 77. Nai Tong, who studied at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts in Singapore (Nafa, 1957-58), is one of the last "Matinee Heroes" of the Nanyang Style – a romanticised amalgam of regional art of the "Southern Seas" (South of China) by then émigré China artists to Malaya and Singapore who were mostly artist-lecturers. It was taken up by succeeding generations of teachers and students at Nafa, which was set up by Lim Hak Tai (1893-1963) in 1938. The style was inspired by the beauty and innocence of a then pastoral frontier-land Malaya/Singapore, with the spicy local tropical colours and feeling, and nubile damsels after the Gauguin Tahitian ideal. Added to the matrix is a School of Paris sophistication, as Nafa graduates would ritually follow up their studies at the Ecole Nationale Superieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris. It's also influenced by the cult of mannered figurations inspired by shadow-puppets and Euro-Balinese art, especially that by the Belgian Adrien-Jean Le Mayeur de Merpres (1880-1958). Nai Tong adopted the style as seen in his first solo in Kuala Lumpur in 1964 signing his works with the name "Chang Nai Tong". After his Paris studies, he had modified and refined the style for its spirit and nostalgia in a changing and vastly changed place. His repertoire also included the humpbacked cows and buffaloes of an amazing technicolour dreamcoat; the rustic camaraderie among village people, shown amidst their environment and domesticated animals – a time of traditional pastimes like kite-flying (Kite Series 1992-2001) and bird-rearing symbolising freedom; nudes; Balinese life and dancers (1993-2006; he visited Bali again just two weeks before his death); and the panaromic multi-cultural Festival Series microcosm. When he did his first nude paintings in 1968 when he studied at the Paris institute from August 1967 to 1968, it was a culture shock. But he re-explored the subject with refreshing vigour and greater experience of delicate contours and sensuality when he revisited Paris in 1999 (February to April) under the Cite Internationale des Arts programme, and again in 2000, 2001 and 2002 (he had confided in me that he planned to go back to Paris next year). At the Paris institute, he came under the tutelage of William Sham and Tondu. Several other Malaysians were also studying there – Long Thien Shih, Chew Kiat Lim (now based in Toronto, Canada), Wong Moo Choo, Loo Foh Sang, Tan Pek Cheng (later Loo's wife) and Tan Tong, who curated his (Nai Tong's) major Odyssey retrospective at the National Art Gallery in 2007. They were preceded in Paris by Liu Kang (later a Singaporean, and a pioneer artist), Chia Yu-chian, Lai Foong Mooi and Yeo Hoe Koon (now in Singapore). At Nafa, then at its No. 49, St Thomas Walk premises, his contemporaries included Ho Khay Beng (1933-86, later trained in Italy), Singaporeans Thomas Yeo (born 1936) and Wee Beng Chong (born 1938). There were still teachers there with good pedigrees, like Chen Wen-hsi, Khor Chien Tee, Tan See Teik and Chen Chong Swee (only part-time then), although the Golden Age of the Nanyang style, between 1938 to 1965, had lapsed by then. Nai Tong never studied under Cheong Soo-pieng (1917-83), the style's spiritual proponent, as many have mistakenly thought. In an interview in Bangkok in 2011, Nai Tong also dispelled the narrow interpretation of the Nanyang style as prescribed by Nafa founder Lim Hak Tai: "Nanyang style is not exclusive to those studying at Nafa, and Hak Tai's guiding principles are not the gospel truth to be followed strictly, but are visionary and are more open-ended," he said. Nai Tong's "squint eye" feature was not a Nanyang concoction but was actually based on the figure stereotypes of the Tang and Sung dynasty arts in China, and the hollowed-out stub of an eye is more reminiscent of the style of Indonesian modern master Jeihan Sukmantoro (born 1938). Although Nai Tong's art is about the simple pleasures of life, human dignity and the joy of living, there have been nuanced changes over the years in techniques, style and treatment of colours, spacing, perspective, depth, forms and surface painting (brush and palette knife) with radial multiple focal points for a more airy approach. He used a horizontal format, centre-sideways and sometimes a top-down bird's eye view for more dimensionality and light. His story was about the intimate bond between Man and Nature, with all that it represents, pushing up and compressing the sky region to a narrower space, thus pushing the Figure centre-front. His lines and aura were more towards the Modigliani figure-types than anything by Cheong Soo-pieng. As a sign of the times in the 1970s, and for decorum's sake, his damsels were no longer half-naked but were modestly clad in saree blouses or bras. From the drab dark brown and cold blue and purple of his early days, Nai Tong moved onto to free his colours for a mood affinity. His figures were later less angular and Cubist. In 2002, he attempted an ambitious series of huge canvases, in the 150cm x 360cm format, for works on rural economic activities including those on Sarawakian natives apart from the Balinese pageantry. At the end of 2012, he started experimenting with "negative" space around the corners, for strategic contrast. He was also daring for his use of the vertical pole, either a tree or a stave, which often cleaves his composition into parts. Nai Tong began painting mostly in watercolours until he switched to oil in 1990. His career included a stint in copper tooling (1960-70) and metal sculptures (1975-85). He became a full-time artist in 1992 after teaching for 23 years at three different art institutions – the Malaysian Institute of Art (1969-80), the Central Academy of Art (1982-85) and the Saito Academy of Art (1986-88). He was also active in promoting watercolours as co-founder of the Malaysian Watercolour Society in 1982-83 and the Malaysian Contemporary Watercolours Association in 1994. The other ways in which he promoted Malaysian art included organising exhibitions at home and abroad, the last being the Malaysia-China Friendship Arts Exchange, which had its first leg in Kuala Lumpur in March. He was to have joined the second leg in Qingdao in China. More than a sentimental lark, his paintings are about joie de vivre, of village people celebrating and playing together, with notions of plenty, like a bountiful fruit harvest or flower still-lifes. Most of all, his works resonate with a perpetual yearning for freedom and the free spirit – Chagall-like figures in dreamscapes, the nudes bereft of inhibitions, the open outdoors for kite-flying, and the larger format paintings. Quiet, unassuming and taciturn, Nai Tong often wore a perpetually distracted look while indulging in his regular past time of having a drink with buddy Low Kong Wen and watching the world pass by. But the world around him lit up when he broke into a gentle smile. In his casket during the wake, he looked so at peace: he must have learnt the art of ultimate freedom. |
| Posted: 12 May 2013 12:52 AM PDT Meet the Middlesteins, a funny, dysfunctional family that will make you laugh and cry. The Middlesteins HOW could she not feed her daughter? Little Edie Herzen, age five: not so little. Her mother had noticed this, how could she miss it? Her arms and legs, once peachy and soft, had blossomed into something that surpassed luscious. They were disarmingly solid. A child should be squeezable. She was a cement block of flesh." Meet Edie, the matriarch of the Middlestein family, an ordinary Jewish family living in Chicago. Edie is a wife, mother, grandmother, lawyer, retiree, the glue that keeps the family together, and most definitely the novel's central figure. Into this mix of ordinariness, author Jami Attenberg throws in Edie's problem: she is also an addict. To food. Unsurprisingly, Edie is morbidly obese, has an advanced case of diabetes with all its attendant complications, and doctors have told her recently that she will die if she doesn't lose weight. Through a flashback chapter, we see what could be the root cause of Edie's problem. As a young girl, Edie eats compulsively, and her mother is an enabler who encourages her daughter's mindless consumption of calorie-laden foods. We learn that Edie's father escaped World War II's Holocaust in the Ukraine and lived on potatoes until he reached America, and that Edie's mother is a second generation German-American and thus more frivolous with her money than her husband. These are clues that Attenberg lays out for us, though he doesn't connect the dots: the only point that Attenberg drives in early on in the novel is that although Edie has a sharp mind, she is the prisoner of a gigantic appetite that can never be satisfied. In her 20s, Edie becomes a practising lawyer, meets and marries her husband, Richard Middlestein, and has two children, Benny and Robin, with him. Benny grows up to become a down-to-earth family man who is married to Rachelle and has twins with her while Robin turns into an angry young woman, unmarried and bitter at her lot in life. When the novel opens, Richard and Edie have been married for more than 40 years. While they keep up the pretence of being happily married for their friends and neighbours, in reality, Richard and Edie have been emotionally and physically apart for a long time. It seems Richard cannot compete with Edie's other love – she loves food more than she loves him. Faced with this conundrum, Richard leaves Edie, much to the bitter dismay of Robin, who wants her father to pay for every single wrong thing in her mother's life. Benny, however, prefers to keep the peace between both parents. To try to save their mother, Robin and Benny device plans to ensure Edie gets some kind of exercise and that she stays away from food of any kind. The results of the plans are both laugh-out-loud hilarious and poignant. It also raises the question: to what lengths can you go in saving someone who does not want – in any way, shape or form – to be saved? If you're expecting a light-hearted Jewish comedy of manners, you will be disappointed. The Middlesteins is remorseless in its exploration of all that can go wrong between husbands and wives, parents and children. While comedy seems ever present in The Middlesteins, it is of the black variety, and underneath the dark humour lies this sad fact: perhaps Edie eats because that is the only way she can feel fulfilled. To illustrate her point, rather than recording Edie's history through her age, Attenberg injects a sense of humour in a serious matter by chronicling her protagonist's weight in the chapters that focuses solely on Edie (Edie, 65 pounds; Edie, 315 pounds, etc). Praise is due Attenberg for being brave enough to give her readers a protagonist who is not instantly likeable. While Edie has never shied away from speaking her mind, what she has to say is not necessarily the most comforting or appealing thing. And yet, despite her faults, I felt drawn towards Attenberg's mammoth-in-size protagonist. Attenberg also seamlessly jumps into each family member's head to give their point of view on the problems that are Edie, having them deal with her obesity, their individual worries and, in the case of Richard, his loneliness at being separated from Edie. Attenberg goes so far as to send Richard on dates with women he finds on the Internet. Again, there is laughter in Richard's quest to quell his loneliness with one-night stands, but underneath it all, there remains a sadness in his desire to not be alone. The Middlesteins is an easy read, with the novel being made more readable by being broken into easy-to-manage chapters that alternate between Edie, her past history, Richard, Robin, Benny, and Rachelle. The humour may be dark, and readers may find themselves squirming a little at laughing about the characters' problems, but Attenberg has proven her genius in delivering a set of people so flawed they seem genuinely lost in this world. Pick up The Middlesteins – you will not regret meeting the tour de force that is Edie and her dysfunctional family. |
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