More on Kurt Wenner

Before I forget, I just want to share more photos of Kurt Wenner which I found deep within my computer INBOX folder! Still amazing...

Check out Kurtwenner.com for more of his work.

Kurt Wenner - google eye extraordinaire

Merry Christmas, one and all!!

Today (24 Dec), I somehow got to a blog which brought me to another blog.. well, that's how it is with surfing - one thing led to another and I got wind that Kurt Wenner was here at our National Museum! Slaps my forehead for missing this - duh!

YOU KNOW HIM!!! He's the guy who sketches on the floor. Actually, there are many artistes who do this but this guy is exceptional.

Heck it that today was Christmas eve and all, I had to go and collect the log cake anyway, so perfect opportunity for me to pop by the museum for a peep! Found free parking (yay!) behind The Substation by the way!



The new museum looks sparse with its high ceiling and cold metal fittings.

I got in the way of some kids playing a life-size Snakes & Ladders game, and also saw this kid whose mother had "pinned" him onto a metal wall with magnetic strips! LOL.. Cute installations but I wanted Kurt Wenner!!



I was praying that these VIOLENTLY swaying chandeliers would not fall on my head as I crossed the bridge! haha...



Finally!!! I caught a first glimpse of his work! My jaws almost hit the floor and damaged his art-work! It looks like nothing at first, just a very well drawn street art. But when you look through a fish-eye lens, you will see the WHOLE portrait rise up three-dimensionally and realistically!





When you look through the fish-eye lens - the picture suddenly makes sense and each character pops to life miraculously. You can even see the little details like the town and people's reflection on the pond. The rocks around the edge look deceptively real, just like his other works.
For this installation, Kurt has drawn a depiction of the life of Iskandar, the last King of Singapore. You can see how huge it is by size of the people standing next to it.



This is how it looks like flat on the ground.



Kurt has this amazing ability to see things in another perspective and is somehow able to translate it into something flat. I decided to find out just how much distortion he has to deal with. Using Photoshop Elements, I skewed and transformed two small details of the painting. Click to see enlarged photos and be amazed.



This guy's been attacked by a head shrinker from Beetlejuice! LOL..


While viewing Kurt's website, I couldn't help but notice that the floor art featured in the website are not cordoned off or barricaded by these red straps. Why, you wonder.. read on...

There was a kid that almost ran onto the art-work but was pulled back just in time by his mother. Later on, I heard another mother (pushing a pram) telling a guard that they should put up higher barricades so as to prevents kids from running in! That's so typical! Blaming authorities for their kids' misbehaviour!! These people should look at themselves first before blaming others for their failures! Their kids become total BRATS because parents let them. If the cannot behave in a museum, they shouldn't be allowed in! I will not compromise my enjoyment of art for brats!



Still can't get enough of the art-work? here're more photos :





To see his work-in-progress when he was still here in Singapore, you can go to Sparklette's blog. She's got some pretty awesome pictures there too.

Biennale 2006 and Dali

Instead of geocaching, we decided to be arty farty last Sunday and bought tickets for the Biennale 2006. Still, we had a bunch of geocoins with us. Snapped a few pictures of scenes in Singapore specific to the mission of the coins.





The Old Supreme Court was an interesting venue for the event. Many of the exhibits had themes dealing with (in)justice, peace(?) and a whole of lot of angstsy stuff that makes you wonder if you're going through life day by day oblivious to other people's problems. Maybe because we are all too busy dealing with our own? Why must Art always celebrate (and glorify) pain? If you're too happy and well adjusted, you're probably not cut out to be a creative person. Ha!

We loved the interactive audio guide - no need to rent some big equipment. All you need is your handphone. After dialing 67584155 and entering the exhibit code, you will hear a short description of the artwork. You pay only the call charges. Very cool.

Unfortunately, we were not allowed to take pictures inside but we sneaked one. hehe... Nutty me


There was this ONE happy face....

We're both busy all week so we had to do as much as we can on the weekends. And we wanted to see the Salvador Dali pieces along Boat Quay. We passed the "Miracle Tree" in front of the Asian Civilisation Museum but it wasn't raining at the moment. The ground was wet. A short stroll and we were horsing around and frolicking with the bronze ladies...

Dali's signature melting clock on a horse was our favourite "Horse Saddled with Time", although we both agreed that he has a rather warped mind. (another great crazy artist for you..) Must try and see the Dance of Time II at Capitol Tower one of these days!

From the front, the horse looks like he's laughing at you.


In contrast, the nearby "Unicorn tamed by a virgin" was thought provoking and moving.


Mag taking a closer look at the "Surrealist Piano"


"Woman Aflame". Indeed.. Trying out the drawers of this towering sculpture.




The spindly "Space Elephant" looks like something out of Star Wars! On its back is an pyramidal obelisk, a symbol of the progress of technology. Hope it doesn't get hit by lightning! :O

Ah.. it started raining and we had to walk back to the car which was parked in Raffles City! We hurry off to take a MRT back to City Hall.


Art makes us ladies hungry! Haha.. no, we just love to eat :P We saunter down to Raffles City basement and had dinner at Aerin's. They were nice enough to split the pumpkin soup we ordered into 2 portions, so we were impressed, even if the soup was a little sweet. The red snapper was tad of a small serving, so we decided to go big and order their signature dessert - Baked Apple & Rhubarb Pie.

Took 15mins to bake this. If you're wondering what rhubarb looks like, here's a close-up. It's kind of sourish and has the texture of celery. >.< I think I prefer apples. Sorry for the messy look... we had to be brutal and crush the pie crust to get the ice cream right into the filling!

First Attempt at Lampworking

< Results of our labour

A few of us old stained glass buddies came together again for a short introductory course on Lampworking. Our teacher came back from Italy for a short holiday and managed to organise this for us.

We spent a wonderful morning learning about the torch, the glass and how to work the glass into a bead.

We soon found out that it was not as easy as it seems. We needed to understand how the glass would react to the heat and how to control the intensity of the heat from the torch. It's important not to overheat or underheat the glass so as not to burn or crack the glass. Pretty tricky stuff!! The fun is in experimenting with the decorations with the different colourful glass rods, mixing colours and making shapes.

Wish we had more time.