SIF invites Creative [SIN]ergy to curate Visual Arts Showcase for Singapore Encore

SIF invites Creative [SIN]ergy to curate a Visual Arts exhibition for Singapore Encore. The Visual Arts exhibition is curated by Brian Tan for Creative [SIN]ergy. This exhibhtion will feature works from Creative [SIN]ergy members, Angeline Yam, Calvin Chua, Mohyin Kwan, Sarah Huijie Cai, Voon Wong and the A6 /future/ participants.

In partnership with the Singapore Embassy in Belgium, the Singapore International Foundation (SIF) will be hosting the exclusive Singapore Encore event at the Musical Instruments Museum (MIM) on Wednesday, 25th November 2009. Guests will include some 200 dignitaries from the diplomatic, business and cultural sectors of Belgian society.

Organised by the SIF, Singapore Encore is staged around the world in celebration of the Singapore spirit through arts, culture and cusine. The evening's programmee includes an Asian buffet dinner, featuring traditional Singapore culinary delights like chicken rice, statay and sugee cake. Alongside dinner, guest will also enjoy a visual art exhibition by Creative [SIN]ergy, a Singapore arts group based in the UK. The group seeks to promote the creative works of Singapores abroad and to foster collaboration amoung its members.

Belgium Welcomes Singapore Encore

Belgium Welcomes Singapore Encore
Seat of the European Union is the 2nd European city and 9th in the world to experience an evening's showcase of Singapore's arts, culture and cuisine

In partnership with the Singapore Embassy in Belgium, the Singapore International Foundation (SIF) will be hosting the exclusive Singapore Encore event at the Musical Instruments Museum (MIM) on Wednesday, 25th November 2009. Guests will include some 200 dignitaries from the diplomatic, business and cultural sectors of Belgian society.

Organised by the SIF, Singapore Encore is staged around the world in celebration of the Singapore spirit through arts, culture and cusine. The evening's programmee includes an Asian buffet dinner, featuring traditional Singapore culinary delights like chicken rice, statay and sugee cake. Alongside dinner, guest will also enjoy a visual art exhibition by Creative [SIN]ergy, a Singapore arts group based in the UK. The group seeks to promote the creative works of Singapores abroad and to foster collaboration amoung its members.

The evening’s highlight is a concert performance by the critically acclaimed T'ang Quartet. The classical string ensemble was formed in 1999, bent on breaking new ground by setting new standards in artistic achivement. The quartet has peformed extensively around the world and won numerous international and local awards for its musical accomplishments, while extending the sheer enjoyment of calssical music to a larger audience.

Singapore Ambassador to Belgium,
His Excellency Mr Anil Kumar Nayar, says,

“While Singapore is well-known as a forward-looking economic hub, through the Singapore Encore, we hope to bring another aspect of Singapore - its thriving cultural scene - to our Belgian friends.”

“Singapore and Belgium are now actively bringing the best aspects of our respective cultural settings to one another. When Crown Prince Philippe and Princess Mathilde visited Singapore in November 2008, an important objective was to promote the realization of this shared interest. The art exhibition, "A Story of the Image: Old & New Masters from Antwerp", was opened in Singapore in August 2009 by Belgium’s Foreign Minister Yves Leterme and it enjoyed a very successful run. Next year, Singapore looks forward to participating in the cultural exhibition organised by BOZAR (Centre for Fine Arts), in conjunction with the 8th Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) Summit in Brussels. Against this backdrop, Singapore Encore is yet another milestone in the growing cultural and artistic exchanges between Singapore and Belgium.”

Ms Jean Tan, the SIF’s Executive Director, elaborates, “Singapore Encore is a wonderful collaborative platform for us to showcase Singapore’s exciting developments in the field of arts and culture to build ties. Although Singapore is a small and young nation, our cultural and ethnic diversity has helped to fuel a flourishing local arts landscape. The SIF is delighted to partner the Singapore Embassy in Brussels for this edition of Singapore Encore and to share Singapore’s rich cultural talents with our Belgian friends.”

Since its inception in 2004, Singapore Encore has travelled to major cities such as Dubai, Manila, Tokyo, Vienna, Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York and Washington D.C. Past
performers include singers Claressa Monteiro, Jacintha Abisheganaden, Alemay Fernandez, and musicians like the Nuradee Brothers, Jeremy Monteiro, and the Huqin Quartet.

For more information and interview opportunities, please contact:
Ms Priscilla Teo
Senior Executive, Corporate Communications
Singapore International Foundation
DID: + 65 6837 8727
Mobile: +65 9858 3110
Email: priscilla.teo@sif.org.sg

Mr Jelle Zuidema
Head of Belux
Lewis PR
Telephone: +32 (0) 3 242 88 19
Email: jellez@lewispr.com

About the Singapore International Foundation
The Singapore International Foundation is a non-profit organisation founded in 1991. Its mission is to build a better world through shared ideas, skills and experiences, so as to uplift lives and create greater understanding between Singaporeans and world communities.

Our activities are organised around three strategic thrusts: working with communities for sustainable development, exchanging ideas for greater understanding, and showcasing Singapore to build ties. We focus on five core areas: healthcare, education, the environment, arts and culture, and livelihood and business.

For its work, the SIF was presented the Excellence for Singapore Award. Our Patron is His Excellency S R Nathan, President of the Republic of Singapore.

For more information please visit www.sif.org.sg

SHOWCASE: Voon Wong

Voon Wong studied at the National University of Singapore and the Architectural Association in London. After graduating, he worked in various practices in the UK and Singapore including the Office of Rick Mather and Zaha Hadid where he worked on the University of East Anglia project and the Vitra Fire Station project respectively before setting up VoonWong&BensonSaw in 1996 in London. Since then he has been heavily involved in both architectural and product design projects in the practice. Last year, alongside Michael Young, he is one of the judges at the Singapore Furniture Design Forum.

VoonWong&BensonSaw are a London based multi disciplinary design practice who began collaboration in September 2001. They draw upon their different backgrounds in architecture, engineering and product design to lend a unique perspective to furniture, lighting, product design, architecture and interior design. In their first year of collaboration, they won the OXO Peugeot Award for lighting. In 2003 their design, the Loop light, in production by Fontana Arte, was nominated for the prestigious Compasso D’Oro. Their exhibition at the Singapore Design Festival in November 2005 was an ambitious installation of their work under the title Confetti at the leading international furniture retailer Space Furniture. In April 2006 they presented their debut collection of bone china Lightcast during the Milan Furniture Fair. They are currently working on new building projects in Singapore, Beijing and London, as well as designing a collection of furniture for the company Air Division. To date over 80 completed architectural and interior design projects have been completed internationally by this practice.

Name: Voon Wong
Location: London, UK
Website: www.voon-benson.com
Email: click here

Supermodel Lara Stone wears Su Pei Ho's dress

Su Pei Ho's dress was recently chosen by Supermodel Lara Stone (W Magazine’s current “most wanted face of the moment”, winning the attention and acclaim of global fashion media.) for a private sale of one-off and rare garments for The Not Just A Label pop up store at Beach Blanket Babylon. Lara Stone models in dress by Su Pei Ho

Not Just A Label (NJAL) is the leading global online business directory for showcasing avant-garde fashion designers. During an exclusive, two-day only event on 23rd and 24th October at Beach Blanket Babylon, NJAL unleashed its online array of unique designs in the form of a Pop-Up Store, bringing the collection and consumer even closer together. Both professionals and creators had the chance to meet and mingle in a fresh and inspiring surrounding. The pop-up store will benefit NJAL’s most promising designers with crucial exposure in new markets.

SHOWCASE: Angeline Yam

Angeline Yam was born and raised in multicultural Singapore where everyone has to learn at least 2 languages, where eastern and western influences fuse together to become a melting pot of cultures and traditions – Angeline always had the tendency to question the concept of identity.

Being a Singaporean in multi-cutural London is like a melting pot within an even bigger melting pot. Through her work, Angeline hopes to unravel the different layers of identities - one of which is being a Singaporean and the other of being a Londoner.

Angeline graduated from Middlesex University with a MA in Design Management. Prior to her MA, she studied Graphic Design at the London College of Printing where she majored in Information Design. During her years in Singapore, she attended Temasek Polytechnic and gained her Visual Communication silks. Angeline is currently working with a London design consultancy - Leahy Brand Design for the last 5 years.

Name: Angeline Yam
Location: London, UK
Website: NA
Email: click here

Josephine Chia wins prize for writting

Josephine Chia won a commended prize for a travel writing article competition. This competition was organised by the SWWJ (Society of Women Writers& Journalists). Josephine was awarded a certificate from Solange Hando, Travel Writer & Judge of Travel Competition.

BOOM by Jean Tay

BOOM by Jean Tay (Singaporean Playwright)

Directed by Philippe Cherbonnier

Wed 21 - Sat 24 October 2009 7.30pm

Greenwich Theatre Crooms Hill London SE10 8ES

Click here to book your tickets.

Charmingly offbeat and very funny, Boom is a warm exploration of what makes a home, and what makes us so attached to it once we've made the perfect one.

Singapore 2008. With the economy booming and the demand for land intense, the young, the old - and the dead - are forced to jostle for a space to call their own: a property developer's mother refuses to move from their family home to make way for his new and very profitable apartment block; whilst a psychic civil servant - charged with relocating a cemetery - has come up against the most stubborn corpse yet.

Jean Tay graduated in 1997 with a double-degree in creative writing and economics from Brown University, USA. In 2000, she won 1st prize for Action Theatre's 10-minute Play Competition for the play “The Knot”, which was subsequently selected as a finalist for the Actors Theatre of Louisville's 10-minute Play Contest. She has been nominated three times for Best Original Script for the Life! Theatre Awards, and won for the play “Everything But the Brain” in 2006. In July 2007, she was selected to attend the prestigious month-long International Playwriting Residency organised by the Royal Court Theatre in London, where the concept for the play “Boom” was first developed. Jean has been attached to the Singapore Repertory Theatre as resident playwright since 2006.

Boom was first developed as part of the Royal Court Theatre's International Residency in 2007.

Yellow Earth is an award-winning East Asian theatre company. Since 1995 it has been championing and touring the best of East Asian theatre from Britain and the Far East. Under the leadership of Co-Artistic Directors Philippe Cherbonnier and Jonathan Man, Yellow Earth creates world class touring theatre inspired by the dynamic between East Asian and Western cultures.

Photos: Actress Tina Chiang and Actor Jay Oliver Yip in Boom
Photos courtesy of Manuel Harlan

Boom and wave are playing in repertory. Currently on tour nationally then at the Riverside Studios in Hammersmith 10 - 15 November. Booking information at www.yellowearth.org

D.A.ACTIVIST

The new collection that Lilia Yip has been working on with Print Artist, Mona Choo is finally ready and will debut with an exhibition in Hong Kong on 6 Nov - 18 Dec 2009. (Gallery de Vie , 45 Gough Street, Central, Hong Kong)

D.A.ACTIVIST is a womenswear collection of digitally printed artwork on garments, soft structured draped clothing and limited edition prints.

In this exhibition, art and fashion combine to ask questions about human life: how we live, what impact do we have on the environment and other living beings.

A subtle and intimate form of design and art activism, this touring exhibition will then make its way to London's Austin Gallery from 14th Jan 2010 - Feb 2010.

So if you have a bit of time and are close by...... there are a few tiny surprises that we will leave for you to discover at the gallery.

You can now preview the collection online at www.liliayip.com.

SHOWCASE: Yong Ping Loo

This is the story of ping pong, an alias of Yong Ping Loo.

His creative journey started with the doodling in his school books, to his enrollment in Mass Communications at Ngee Polytechnic, to the running of a Campus Television network, to the creation of his T-shirt company, then onto becoming an Officer in the Army, to being put in charge of the National Day Parade website and is now pursuing his Bachelors of Arts in Graphic Media Design at the London College of Communication.

He believes that a graphic designer's job is not just about making things look good, but to be the creative mind in the market place. Amongst his freelance work, personal projects and internships, he has strong beliefs in using his skills and knowledge to help the under represented and less fortunate.

Recently appointed as an Asian Team Leader for Project Survival Media, he co-ordinates independent media teams in China, the Fiji Islands, Malaysia, Vietnam, Indonesia and Singapore who report from the front lines of the climate crisis. In his second year as an International Youth Delegate for the United Nations Climate Change Conference, he puts his abilities to use for the greater good of our planet.

Name: Yong Ping Loo
Location: London, UK
Website: www.iampingpong.com
Email: click here

You and I

You and I, a project by Creative [SIN]ergy member Song-Ming Ang. This is a project where Son-Ming ask members of the public to write him a letter telling him something personal about themselves. In response to the contents of the letter, he will compile a CD-R mixtape and mail it to them. The more detailed and specific your letter is, the more he can personalise your mixtape.

Full details of the work here: www.circadiansongs.com

Sarah Cai's Tall Tales

Creative [SIN]ergy member, Sarah Cai showcased her recent work at her first solo exhibition in Warsaw, entitled Tall Tales. Staff from Cykloza were wonderful and kind in assisting to the success of the show. At the Vernissage, amidst beautiful accordion music played by a wedding musician, Sarah officially opened the exhibition with a speech and a short screening of her animations after. Visitors were treated to a spectrum of colours and mediums, as the works from one room to the other varied from gouache, silk-screen, to photography.

Text and photos courtesy of Sarah Cai.

SHOWCASE: Randy Yeo

Randy Yeo grew up in Little India, and was schooled as an ACS boy for 11 years. He then obtained a diploma in Visual Communication from Temasek Polytechnic in 2006. Spreads from his final year project “:O” were sent to Jilin College of the Arts, Changchun (China) for an exhibition.

In 2008, he moved to London to pursue a degree in Typography at London College of Communication (former London College of Printing). His book and sound installation “Visual Debates” was exhibited as part of the Modern Thoughts Exhibition at Battersea Gallery in July 2009.

Randy has an ardent interest in typography and the role it plays in the organization of information, and communication of ideas. One of his favourite quotes by Hamish Muir possibly manages to sum up a lot about him.

“I'm actually an untidy person. I'm not ordered at all. In some senses I have to use grids to bring some order to the chaos that's whirring around in my head.” - Hamish Muir

A self-confessed idealist, he believes (after much struggle) that graphic design can play a part in making this world a better place.

Randy is currently taking a year out of college—as part of the school’s curriculum—to undertake industry placements, freelance commissions, and also hopefully bring to life some of the ideas hiding at the back of his head.

Name: Randy Yeo
Location: London, UK
Website: www.smeek.net
Email: click here

Inspired by Water

Glass Sculptor - Mohyin Kwan and Pianist - Jonathan Ang recently performed at 1 of nine a charity fundraiser event organised by Creative [SIN]ergy. This event was in aid of Breast Cancer Care. They performed an experimental piece of music inspired by water. Jonathan Ang used the piano to play a tune relating to water, and mixing it together with tunes from the Mbira which has a tinkling sound that gave the feeling of water. Combining these 2 instruments was a Glass Sculpture by Mohyin Kwan as an accompanying instrument that added to the harmony of the performance piece.

This experimental piece gave them an opportunity to combine music and art together. These tunes were played to a photo montage of the glass sculpture.

PROJECT: slingSHORT09 Film Synopsis

National Day / 19min / HD / 2009
by He Shuming
Wei has finally collected enough National Day Parade tickets for his whole family. But National Day happens to coincide with the 7th day after his father's sudden death. The family foregoes the Parade to observe a traditional family custom - waiting for the father's soul to return home before its final journey into the afterlife.









à la folie (like crazy) / 11mins 30sec / Digibeta /2008
by Sanif Olek
Sinta and Arjuna, a pair of lovers, reunite after a period of break-up. Back together, Sinta confides in Arjuna her time with Rawana and a big showdown ensues in this post-modern re-interpretation of the classic Ramayana.









Er Ren (For Two) / 17min / Digi Video / 2009
by Tan Shijie
A lonely widower lives a quiet existence, still longing for his deceased wife. Within his sparse apartment inhabits a furtive woman, who does not meet him face-to-face yet participates in a life “together” with him – eating his food and taking care of the house when he is gone. When the fragile reality of this life “together” threatens to become too real for either to take, both Man and Woman must react. Inspired by true events, For Two is a story about relationships and the illusions of them.









Reflection /14min / HD / 2007
by Ho Tzu Nyen
Based on a story by the 19th Century Greek writer Lafcadio Hearn, who settled in Japan as Koizumi Yakumo, this film is a parable about how man is a creature that perpetually cannot see beyond his own reflection.









Hush Baby / 4min / Digital Betacam /2009
by Tan Wei Keong
A curious baby is protected from an environment of temptation.









Sink / 10min 42 sec / 16mm / 2009
by Kirsten Tan
A sink sitting in the low tides. A boy playing by the beach. A chance meeting. “Sink” is a distilled exploration of innocence and experience, love and loss; an intimation of what might lie beyond.









Tanjong Rhu / 18 min / HD /2009
by Boo Junfeng
A former military officer seeks closure by making a documentary film about a man whom he had furtively encountered in Tanjong Rhu many years ago.

Tanjong Rhu is a secluded beach on the east coast of Singapore, and a popular cruising ground for gay men. In an entrapment exercise in 1993, 12 men were arrested there and sentenced to imprisonment and caning. This is a fictionalised account of what has happened since then to one of these men.

In Blackwater Woods

In Blackwater Woods was presented as the closing piece for 1 of nine at the Toynbee Hall on 10th October 2009. In Blackwater Woods is a lovely 3min poetic short film, which was shot on Super8 and directed by Fashion Designer Lilia Yip and Jessica Kneipp and edited by Tarjona Karhu. The film is a visual fragment of the emotional journeys traversed by people who have been affected by breast cancer - the collected thoughts and feelings from patients, friends and family. It takes its title from a Mary Oliver poem ‘In Blackwater Woods’. The film was narrated by Lilia Yip and features an original score composed by classical pianist Ziliang Song, which was performed live that afternoon.