| DIY-ing in Singapore and daily dialogues |
[Oct. 16th, 2011|03:04 am] |
I remember when I was younger I’d often text my friends things like “I’m dying of boredom”. I realized a couple of years ago that I stopped being bored when I was 17. And as I grow up and I see more of the world, I realize that..it’s just impossible to be bored. Now, I know many people say that Singapore is boring..there is nothing to do..it has no culture. It is hard for me to agree with that (ok, I admit I might have said things to that extent after coming back from overseas trips and being immersed in new cultures) but whenever I meet tourists here I try to see Singapore from their awe-struck eyes. Not only that, after I entered La Salle College of the Arts (a local arts college) I was just bombarded constantly with inspirational people and works. Someone is always doing something somewhere in a darkroom or in an open space. Whether it’s your barista trying to decorate your caramel macchiato with caramel drizzle on the foam (yep that was me, aged 17) or that OCD cleaner that would stack plates by colour…there is something to see. ANYWHERE.
Going off track aren’t we? What I was going to talk about today was the DIY culture in Singapore and the amazing things people are doing. When I was 15 I started going to gigs, a lot of them were organized by young people who made a network with overseas bands and would bring them is. Not to mention the numerous local bands that would perform and I have seen grow and disband/re-band. There was also this one girl that I knew who organized zine exchanges and gigs and until now, I still remember that one gig we held in a little shophouse in Little India, it was overcrowded and hot and we used these plastic wire-holders as entry “tags”..but it was amazing. I met a girl from the Philippines who flew down to attend the gig and sell her zines. It was through her that my love for Milan Kundera, Murakami and Francisca Lia Block started. I stopped being active in all these things but I believe collectives are still keeping the DIY music scene alive…and you don’t have to search that far.
Today me and Nat went for the opening of a studio at Goodman Arts Centre (that was my old La Salle campus, such good times! It was small and cozy and during lunch time we had the theatre students rehearsing their scripts in the canteen..I also remember sticking stickers around school with my name on it and late nights at the sewing studio..which I am pretty sure were illegal..I’m sorry).
It was called “The Zine Mosh” and it is set up by 2 girls (Grapheme Zine Lab) check the info for the event here . They had a zine exhibition and there were 2 huge nets hanging from the ceiling (totally DIY, they drilled the holes the night before). There was some food and music playing from their vinyl collection (you could pay $1 to play a song that you liked) and they had records like Blondie, The Beatles and MGMT. I don’t know why but after listening to The Beatles on vinyl I believe that’s the ONLY way to enjoy their music. Unless you are able to go back in time and go to Woodstock then well, THAT would have been awesome.
We got to see different zines from all these artists and just the fact that people are keeping the spirit of doing things by yourself, even publishing a book/zine yourself…it’s amazing. In an age of Ipads and online magazines and big corporations, it is always refreshing to feel and smell the Xerox and appreciate the hard work someone went through to plan out the pages and even the different types of folding an A4 paper to get a little “book”. Some zines were completely tactile and played with the use of different papers.
So if you feel like you’re getting bored here, why don’t you do zine about how bored you are? If you want to see the world, why don’t you read a book about it? Look at pictures online? If you think you’re shit at drawing, sit down and doodle whatever you see in front of you on a napkin and I promise after 10 napkins or so..you will see an improvement. As an art and craft teacher now, I really wish to stop the misconception that there are art-y people and non-artistic people. Everything can be art (cue big debate about WHAT IS ART)..the arrangement of your cutlery, how you eat your food, the way you put on your socks and match them with your pants.
Don’t wait for the TV to entertain you, don’t wait for the world to entertain you. DO IT YOURSELF.
Nagging aside, I would just like to say, I’m glad I made that little trip out to the zine exhibition to remind myself that everyone is in their journeys and they’re trying to connect with each other, be it through art or music or even through the way they dress. We are all trying to talk to each other, just..look and listen. Everyday is a dialogue with the people around you, the environment and somehow, people around the world.
It was nice talking to you. Now here are some pictures from the exhibition :)
Some of the other things in the studio
Nat taking out every single one of the zines out from the ziplocks and looking happy doing it
The two owners under the bunk bed making the transections and Nat ignoring me
I really liked and could relate to this zine about being an art teacher. it was done by Sha Chong
Social commentaries by Sha Chong. Reminds me of the cartoons I used to see drawn on the SPG series (the books that made the term popular, or so I'd like to believe)
A fancier Zine (they really come in all shapes and colours) really liked the shiny cover..as Nat says, I am a fish. I am atrracted to sparkly things.
Work by Jing Quek. I find his work really hilarious.
More work by him, very risque, totally local and awesome.
This was not part of the exhibition but I wanted to share my 9 year old sister's 4 page long birthday card that she made for me. Yes, 4 PAGES. This was the cover.
These are the last 2 pages where she tried to replicate the same drawing so that I could colour one according to her colouring. She is so DIY she doesn't even need a photocopying machine.
DIY OR DIE.
XX DANIELA
Taken from http://usedunused.blogspot.com/2011/10/diy-ing-in-singapore-and-daily.html
USEDUNUSED is a design collective that me and 2 friends have formed. We experiment with fashion and DIY as well as textiles. |
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[May. 31st, 2010|12:50 am] |
we sat on a carpet and the thousand and one nights fell open at our feet, the story started and was left off halfway with a call from 2010.
and it's only in those last seconds when the winds come together and completely turn the place upside down.
it's raining outside and the room is filled to the brim with the conversations of our eyes.
this is always the best part, the intense beginning where everything is gold.
still, it's mo(a)nday. |
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| sure-fire, superstar, sure-shot, firecracker extravaganza, fantastic, super-size with extra cheese!! |
[Dec. 23rd, 2009|08:23 am] |
| [ | l´air du... |
| |  wild thang | ] |
| [ | musique.. |
| | go baby_lu pe! | ] |
"I WANT Gary to fall into some kind of bottomless hole.
I WANT Claire to get her foot caught in a beartrap.
I WANT Claire's friends to die by flesh-eating tapeworms.
Then he stopped. His father had reminded him that the journal was for positive wants, not negative wants. When you wanted something negative, it didn't count, he said. A want should be positive, his father had said. A want should improve your life while improving the world, even if just a little bit.
So Max began again:
I WANT to get out of here.
I WANT to go to the moon or some other planet.
I WANT to find some unicorn DNA and then grow a bunch of them and teach them to stick their horns through Claire's friends."
THE WILD THINGS, by DAVE EGGERS
I want to read this book as slowly as I can because it is so wildly funny and i want to adopt Max. It is based on WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE and i can't hardly wait to watch it.
Done almost all of my christmas shopping so that's one thing off my mind.
The other keeps me deliriously happy even if it's just a fantasy but that's how we deal.
And the other is a constant reality that I have to go to everyday unless I up and leave.
Where to and HOW?then WHAT and WHO?
( for you i'll be a maniac! )
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| best day of my life |
[Sep. 26th, 2009|02:36 am] |
| [ | l´air du... |
| | $$$$ | ] |
| [ | musique.. |
| | no doubt-it's my life | ] |
it's my life, it never ends!
i think bathwater was my favourite song live because gwen says "naughty" in a really cute way and her intonation is all different.
she is so hyper and awesomely real, the whole band is so tight and i really liked "hey baby" because i got to see the rapping/raggae live and her skanking and they showed old footage from their old jamming sessions it felt so real and they've come such a long way and they're so tight.
their music is so rich and multi-layered they really are a genre of their own.
my heart was at my throat, they're by far, the best live act i've seen.
i mean, come on she is down-to-earth and incredibly sexy in a non-vulgar way, she hits all the right notes and...urgh.
and i forgot the black guys name but he non-stopped danced and even tony was so entertaining they really love where they are.
seeing them live now...i guess they have slowed down a little from concerts from way back in 2000 on youtube but the energy is still there.
it was really amazing.
now it's time to come down back to old routine....
she loved hansel's clothes and wanted to give jo 2 tickets to her concert but jo didn't want them :( i was too scared to ask whether i could have them.
gwen's really the kind of person i'd love to grow up into..especially her abs.
sigh.
i wish they had played world go round though...but i can't complain i think they played more than an hour.
:D
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| $$$$Wagga!!! |
[Sep. 17th, 2009|03:33 am] |
| [ | musique.. |
| | hella good-no doubt | ] |
something i did using the clothes i made for my degree collection, it was shot by chuck reyes and celinethecat and annieisadoll were my models, really liked some of the photos and they can be seen here!
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=323670&l=093042757c&id=904130526
LICK IT!
used their amazing wardrobe+some of my old stuff+degree collection and loads of ideas from chuck and celine herself.
it was really fun AND i wish i could print them all and put them on my wall.
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[Sep. 1st, 2009|10:51 am] |
SEPTEMBER NEVER STAYS THIS COLD WHERE I COME FROM AND YOU KNOW, I'M NOT ONE FOR COPLAINING
BUT I LOVE THE WAY YOU'D ROLL EXCUSES OFF THE TIP OF YOUR TONGUE
AS I SLOWWWWWWWLY SLOWLY FALL APART
(i been waiting for september just to post this, WICKED!!!!!!) |
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| counting down to september |
[Aug. 31st, 2009|01:52 am] |
| [ | musique.. |
| | no doubt-hey baby! | ] |
today has to be one of the best days in a while(in a quiet way, the kind where small nice things happen), i always preferred the ending of the year.things calm down and get cosier.
it's funny i really need to share this with whoever will listen because it's just one of those days that make me smile in prawn sleeping position and have good dreams.
i was so drunk last night.
and for no reason at all when shaf said he was going home i headed out with him even though i didn't particularly want to and i wasn't in the right state to.
really gross part: i puked a bit in the bus and desperately dropped off, puked more in the bus-stop and grabbed a cab thinking i could pay him by nets.
but i had dropped my hello kitty beaded wallet in the bus and i couldn't pay him.
and the best thing was that he wasn't even worried about that he was worried about my ic.
i wish i had been thinking straight and gotten his name or something, it was really nice of him because you read so many stories of taxi drivers who get so angry and he could have assumed i was lying or...i don't know.
i woke up with travis barker drumming on my brain, i told my sister about losing my wallet and asked her whether she could buy me another cos even the cashier girl at yishun said it's very cute, and she was like...aren't you more worried about your ic.
the weird thing is i wasn't that worried about it and i was really hoping that someone would return it, and guess what?
someone did while i was sleeping, i don't know who he is.
so 3 men made my day today and on my way to estee's x called and i start "trial work" in 8 hours, doing one of my favourite things in the world : sewing sequins ^_^
and i skated while haf/estee/gita cycled all the way to khatib from her house and i am very happy today and no doubt is REALLY playing and so is n.e.r.d. and that makes today (Y) |
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