The Star Online: Lifestyle: Arts & Fashion
The Star Online: Lifestyle: Arts & Fashion |
| Posted: British sketch artist Jon Burgerman has made his mark with colour markers, paper, and a healthy dose of imagination. Letting your mind wander can take you to great places. Designer Jon Burgerman explains he didn't have an end goal or trajectory for his career. Graduating with a degree in Fine Arts from the Nottingham Trent University in Nottingham, England back in 2001, his plan consisted of putting his art on a website, meeting other artists and hopefully scoring freelance work. "Sometimes we do stuff we're not conscious of at the time but when we look back we realise we were actually heading in a certain direction. I think I work in this intuitive way," says Burgerman, who is most known for his unique style of sketching, where he creates zany and intricate images free style – like the doodling equivalent of jazz. A decade later, Burgerman's work has been translated into everything from wallpaper iPhone apps and Kidrobot vinyl toys, bagging him advertising awards for his collaborations with brands like Sony, Nike and Levi's. He even has permanent collections on display in London's Science Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum. "You have a vague sense of where you'd like to go, even if you don't how you're going to get there – a bit like my tour around South East Asia," adds Burgerman, who will be making a one day stop in Kuala Lumpur as part of his It's Great To Create workshop and tour across Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines. The British artist will be hitting Kuala Lumpur on Aug 3 at The Black Box, Publika, courtesy of Designers Weekend & Safe Tree, to share his insights about the importance cultivating "play at work". "A lot of innovation comes from when we are relaxed, not worried about the outcomes and are playing. I aim to show that through play and experimentation we can come up with new ideas and further our practice," notes Burgerman, in an email interview. "It seems as we move on in our careers there is a culture of fear of failure and fear of not being in total control of everything we do, this leads to stagnation and stunted imagination. Let's loosen up and play more and achieve things we didn't expect. No risk no fun!" Though the workshop is meant primarily for designers and illustrators, Burgerman insists his lessons applied to everyone, not just arts people. "Pen pushers especially – loosen your tie and get scribbling," he jokes. For aspiring artists, he also recommends working in different mediums to help see one's work with fresh eyes, saying they need distance or a new perspective on their work to see where it could go next.  Jon Burgerman's unique artistic quirks as a 'full-time doodler' has earned him recognition worldwide. Despite being self taught, describing his current style as basically the same doodles he did as a child (albeit refined and with more influences thrown in), the Fine Arts degree holder is an advocate of getting an education in the arts. "It (my degree) gave me three years to purely develop ideas and skills. Time is the valuable commodity, more so than the actual degree, though I was relieved to get a first! Although it's never been important what mark I got awarded. Time and development is the key," explains Burgerman. He also attributes his success at work with keeping to his guns and turning down jobs he did not agree with, whether he disliked the brand or felt the clients were over controlling. "I'm too grumpy and life is too short to work with people you don't like or on projects your heart is not fully into. I've learned that over time," says Burgerman. "However, sometimes you have to work for pay, a sad reality of life. But where it's possible, I only take corporate work where I have free reign to express my ideas and the client trusts my judgement. It's a collaboration and there has to be mutual trust." He warns that all of a person's decisions go some way to define them as an artist and as a person. "I've turned down major fast food burger places many times because I don't like the culture they purvey and what they stand for," says Burgerman, despite his ironically similar name. Not just a corporate artist, the enterprising designer also runs an online store (Burgerplex.com) that sells his artbooks, merchandise and apparel. His ultimate goal? To have his signature characters made into a cartoon series. "I have one project in development right now with two studios jointly and I am working on some new concepts for pitching. It takes a loooong time though, the world of animation is slow!" laments Burgerman. But the artist will doodle along until he gets there. It has proven to be a sound strategy so far. Jon Burgerman's It's Great To Create workshop will take place at The Black Box, Publika, in Kuala Lumpur on Aug 3 at 3pm. Registration is at RM20 per person, RM15 for groups of more than two. To reserve, email daniel@safetree.com.my or call Daniel (017-626 7220). Attendees who would like to take part in the hands-on workshop are advised to bring magic colours, black artliner pens and a sketch pad. |
| Posted: The Beatles bring all their loving back to Broadway. The Beatles – that is, a version of the Liverpool band that broke up more than 40 years ago – are back on Broadway, sending theatre audiences dancing into the aisles and proving it's not just Paul McCartney who still believes in Yesterday. Let It Be, a concert-style celebration of the music of the Fab Four that opened in New York last week, is the latest stage show to take fans old and new back to the Beatlemania of the 1960s even as surviving members McCartney and drummer Ringo Starr perform and tour the world in their own right. Unlike the Abba stage show Mamma Mia! or Green Day's American Idiot that string a plot around well-known hits, Let It Be simply features young look-alikes for McCartney, Starr and the late John Lennon and George Harrison who play and sing Beatles songs live as if the audience were attending a 1960s era concert. "It's not a musical and it's not just a concert. It's somewhere between those things," director and musical supervisor John Maher told Reuters. The band performs some 40 hits each night in roughly chronological order from The Beatles' last show at Liverpool's Cavern Club to their final live concert on a London rooftop in January 1969. Attention is given to detail, including how the band members stood while performing, as well as their Liverpool accents, changing looks, mannerisms and hairstyles.Screens in the theatre show original newsreels and some psychedelic video projections. "If we don't get the authenticity right, the evening doesn't succeed as a concert or a theatrical event. When people walk out, if all we have done is play the songs really well, it doesn't take people to the same place than if we make them believe, just for a second or two, that they are watching the real deal," Maher added. Please please meThe show is not endorsed by either The Beatles or their Apple Corps Ltd company. (Copyright to most of the songs is held by Sony/ATV.) Only the Cirque du Soleil acrobatic spectacle Love, which has been playing in Las Vegas since 2006, has that distinction. Audiences don't seem to mind. On a recent night, babyboomers and 20-somethings alike sang along loudly, got to their feet and danced, and screamed with appreciation. Let It Be arrives on Broadway after mixed reviews in London. It follows a similar tribute show, Rain, in 2010-2011, and the 1970s Broadway show Beatlemania, which is still touring. Maher says the music remains so strong and well-known internationally that there is room for another production.Record label EMI estimates that The Beatles have sold more than one billion units worldwide since they formed in 1960 and disbanded in 1970. Musician and author Jonathan Gould hasn't seen the Broadway show but said the music of the Fab Four appears to be more popular now than 20 years ago and has been embraced by new generations. "It is like listening to Mozart or Beethoven or Louis Armstrong or Duke Ellington. All those cliches about it being somewhat timeless have some relevance now, and I think people can just give themselves over to it," said Gould, author of the 2007 book Can't Buy Me Love about the Beatles and their impact on pop culture.Why not just go hear McCartney, 71, himself perform many of the old Beatles hits on his current, critically acclaimed Out There world tour, now wrapping up its US leg? Starr, 73, is heading out to South America and Mexico on tour in October. Gould said fans should go see McCartney, but they won't get "the incredible dimension of the four of them singing and playing together. "When you saw The Beatles on stage, they were really performing for one another. They are looking and laughing at one another. That's a quality that I think was enormously affecting," said Gould. Maher agrees that the Beatles together had a spark that made them more than the sum of their parts."There is a nostalgia element that takes many of us back to what feels like a simpler time or a happier time. But for me, it begins and ends with the music. "The quality and scope of their songwriting is astonishing. The change in their writing from 1962 to 1966 is enormous. I can still come home from a day of 18 hours in the theatre and put the Beatles on very happily and still be blown away by it." — Reuters |
| Posted: The Malaysia Chapter of the Royal Photographic Society announces its arrival with its first major exhibition. THAT'S my picture!" exclaimed Nick Ng as we strode into the room that housed the People, Places & Life Through The Lenses showcase at YTL Land and Development Bhd's Sentul East Design Centre (SEED) in the city centre that is now the refurbished Sentul in the capital. The said image – seen at Royal Photographic Society (RPS) Malaysia Chapter's first major exhibition – was photographed in the north of India in that part of a restaurant that most patrons will never set foot – the definite business end of the kitchen. The cooks and their assistants, it seems, welcomed Ng's intrusion and he, in turn, had maximised their hospitality. The shot was pulled back on a wide angle to take in their whole habitat and effectively placed the gritty in an imposing facade. As Ng explained, the exhibition shied away from any thematic pretensions though anyone visiting it from now till July 28 will be persuaded to accept a common thread that intertwines the works of 15 of RPS's members: realism. On July 18, two days before the opening night of the RPS Malaysia Chapter's first major exhibition, the passion of Ng and his collaborators at the RPS sliced through the sizzling evening. The impression, it would not be incorrect to say, was akin to the imminent staging of a long awaited coming-out celebration. "We are very lucky to be able to use the place for no fees while J&A Imaging (www.jaissb.com) is sponsoring the prints. To have an event of this scale once a year is manageable, but we can't have it too often because of sponsorship … we may overstretch ourselves," said Ng as he mentioned the struggles to raise funds for RPS's plans.  Nick Ng's gritty shot A Little Sanctuary In The Alley of Delhi takes a detour from the stereotypical tourist sights in India. The RPS was officially listed with the Registrar of Societies (ROS) in February this year. It has quietly worked the ground in the Peninsular and Sarawak by introducing the organisation to various photographic societies and conducting workshops. Ng recalled the materialisation of a Chapter of the RPS here, and he did not attempt to rein in his sense of disbelief and elation. "All this happened at the end of October in 2011, before I went to India, when the President of the RPS of Britain e-mailed to ask if I would like to start a chapter in Malaysia. I was doing a salon for a photography society and I e-mailed her for a message for the salon. "When I got back from India, I received an email and it said 'You've been officially appointed by the Council as the Malaysia Chapter Organiser.' We never actually discussed the proposal … I think they needed somebody to start it here. I then appointed Steven Leong as the West Malaysia Chair while Chan Hua Chiang (Fellow of RPS) is the East Malaysia Chair," he said. Chan ran RPS's activities in Sibu last year, and Miri in May, and is in touch with the local photographic societies in Sabah and Sarawak to co-organise events. RPS draws its membership from the photographic societies in Malaysia and their efforts are part of People, Places & Life Through The Lenses exhibition in Kuala Lumpur. Ng was keen to stress that RPS is not a society, and has no ambition to ursurp these clubs into a single body. "We can't group them into one … some of the societies have been established for more than 50 or 60 years. We are trying to build relationships and a community feel amongst them because it is easier to do things in future. If we manage to build that in every state (in Malaysia), we can bring this exhibition to Penang and Malacca, and promote the name of RPS. "We are a platform for sharing. If you want to know about photography, you can come over and we will share what we know with you. If we don't have that particular information, there are other people (within RPS) who do know since we have a variety of photographers in every category. That's how we grow together."  The Match by Kid Chan provides a laugh during a joyous wedding shoot. The exhibition is a step in this direction. Ben Toh, Ng's co-curator, proposed to the RPS that they hold a showcase at SEED when the former organised the Women Behind The Lens exhibition in conjunction with International Woman's Day in March. The SEED management wanted to breathe life into the property – home to mainly landscape designers, interior designers and architects – and convert it into a throbbing hub for the arts, design and photography fields. According to Toh, the first photography exhibition was in February and helmed by MK Salma or Sally, as she is also known, and the soft launch of the RPS at the same d7 venue was the follow-up in April. In line with the aims of SEED, the People, Places & Life Through The Lenses exhibition traverses the subject matter. "This event is in itself is not only about photography, but also about bringing the values of the arts to the people … the exhibition is not confined to our members. We are opening it to the public. Besides the exhibition, we have talks and workshops," said Ng. "This Sunday (July 21), we have a Photo Hunt Competition around Sentul. The theme is Sentul Yesterday & Sentul Today. On July 27, we managed to get three commercial photographers, Kid Chan, Adam Seow, Jen Siow and (Long) Thien-Shih, who is the resident artist at University Malaya (plus) activist and musician AiLin (Yong) for a talk." Another well-known photographer Patrick Low will moderate this informal "meet & chat" session on July 27, which will discuss Contemporary Views On Art & Photography. Members of the public are invited to participate, especially the click-and-upload generation. Ng is expecting interest to come from these youngsters. He noted that photography in the digital era – made more convenient with each application and model upgrade – has allowed many to explore this discipline, with the new generation picking it up as a hobby while the rest venture into it professionally as freelancers. While Ng welcomed the development, he broached the issue of art in photography.  Steven Leong's The Egrets, which was captured at an abandoned pond off Rawang, Selangor. Opining that this is a subjective topic, he held the view that the proliferation of software and applications has afforded freedom for photographers or virtual artists to create compositions out of computer-generated images. This, he said, is acceptable in the same way an artist respects another's ability to create. Ng elaborated that the question always is if one image is better than the other in the manner in which it invokes a feel for it. But there are exceptions. "In travel documentary and photojournalism … what you capture is what you should show. Apart from this category, I believe that every image taken digitally should be enhanced – using software – because it brings out the beauty of the image. "If I was to shoot raw and I don't do anything – level or contrast it – the image that is produced is unattractive. "This brings us to the chat sessions on July 27 when we deal with the subject of whether technology has diminished the inner creativity of the authors or has it helped the authors to be more creative," he concluded. Join the activities and discussions during the People, Places & Life Through The Lenses exhibition that daily runs till July 28 at G-19, d7 @ Sentul East in Kuala Lumpur. Opening times: Monday to Saturday (11am to 5pm, by appointment) and Sunday (11am to 4pm). Call: 012-205 0716. For details, go to www.facebook.com/rps.msia. For info on The Royal Photographic Society (Malaysia Chapter), e-mail: nickng6208@gmail.com. Call: 012-377 2331. |
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