project four
by Michelle Susay

                                                                         This article was published by Happening!, and cached by Google.

 

    Thin red strips colour your peering view into 68 Pagoda Street. A light-box glowing "NOW SHOWING" sits to the right as you enter. You notice the glass cover housing the hose reel is also coloured with the same red stripes.

    Installation art is a quintessentially contemporary art form. A hybrid of disciplines, from painting and sculpture to performance and architecture, installation blurs the boundary between art and life. From room-filling constructions to the smallest objects, no art form can rival installation for its sheer and dizzying variety of media, style, setting, and intent. Even sound is a tool, helping voice a personal aesthetic language inspired by the artist's passionate interests.

    'project four' is the fourth exhibition featuring four artists held at 68 Pagoda Street at the newly set up Plastique Kinetic Worms. ("Plastique" represents materials and aesthetics, "Kinetic" represents the movement of the artists and their work, and "Worms" symbolizes the undiscovered talents of these experimental artists)

    Attempting a liberating blow at perception, Chua Chye Teck, Siva, Low Eng Teow and Ng Siew Kuan communicate with their audience through their art, presenting their special interest issues through their works with incisive new perspectives. The individual installations have changed since the beginning of th eexhibition, with the artistes helping each other heighten succinct expression and space, minimalising to essentials.

    'Sub-title not included' presents the artist portrait of Siva in a mediated form with the viewer locking gazes with the artist, from within an LCD monitor, mounted at eye level. The video presentation shows the artists changing into a chinese male over 30 minutes, a tongue-in-cheek look at changed perceptions, especially with the installation located in the heart of chinatown.

    'tikam tikam' is presented by Siew Kuan, commanding you to "pull a tab" in an exploration of childhood memory. Perched on an old stool, this game, long left on the shelf by newer pursuits, harks back to a by-gone era.

    And not much further down is Eng Teong's 'under the Tembusu tree' stumped in a plastic red basin with a spotlight blazing from the ceiling on its upper branches. A book on its front lies by its side. Eng Teong works with sybolism and analogy, inviting discussion on the recent debates on civil society, amidst the chirping of crickets.

    All the glass surfaces at 68 Pagoda Street are covered in red stripes, Chye Teck's "untitled" hence colouring the view from within and without the gallery, stamping views with his own culturally constructed perception, sharing his issues with the audience. The light box on the floor is part of this installation.

    A tapestry of intricately woven issues by Project 4. Take up the threads and start unravelling for the hidden tapestry.

On till 14th June at 68 Pagoda street, opening hours are: wed - sat from 12 noon to 7pm, sun & public holidays from 1pm to 5pm. Admission is free. Purchase enquiries, please call 3243221.

 

This article was published by Happening! Copyright belongs to Happening! This article is archived for research purposes only, and is subject to removal on demand by the owners of the copyright of this article.