SPECIAL FOCUS: THE ART COMMISSION

Short Film- Painting With Light
at National Gallery

1) THE CROWN JEWELS OF IRAN / GANJINEHA-YE GOHAR
By Ebrahim Golestan
Talks about the kings' ostentatious display of jewels in Iran is at the expense of the people of Iran. How people live in poverty whereas the king lives in disgusting decadence.

2) RAID INTO TIBET
By Adrian Cowell
The raid between Tibet and China
How the Tibetans fought bravely to overcome Communist ruling in China. How nomadic lifestyle was intolerable to the Chinese and they sought to liquidate the old and send the young to China. The crew managed to shoot the guerillas fighting in Tsum Valley, Nepal, against China. Nepal is between China and India, and the King of Tibet was presented much gifts and tributaries from China and Tibet because they want access to other parts of the world. China helped to build trains inside such harsh conditions of Tibet. India too. They joined up and China raided Tibet. They destroyed so much heritage, the places of worship in Tibet which made the natives really angry and they fought back.

3) THE DIAMOND FINGER / NIEW PETCH
By R.D. Pestonji
Apsara and Ngung Tuk (NT) and Shiva
NT was bullied by Apsara and he went to Shiva for help. Shiva gave him a diamond finger with the power to destroy. NT goes around killing Apsara. Shiva changes into a beautiful woman to charm NT and eventually tricks him to killing himself with the diamond finger. Done in Thai dance style, this Thai derivative of the Indian epic poem Ramayana is very slow moving.

4) THE SONG OF PLASTIC / LE CHANT DU STYRÈNE
By Alain Resnais
Plastics and their origin - from the ground as fossils

Mama Looking for Her Cat《寻找小猫的妈妈》

Restage of a Kuo Pao Kun Play
By NAFA theatre diploma graduation students
Written by Jalyn Han

It was very well staged and moved me to tears. Even more than Grandmother Tongue by W!ld Rice Theatre.

Presented mostly in Mandarin, with smithereens of dialect and English, this play talks about this mother who has many children (cats). She reads to them e.g. with story of "The Hare and the Tortoise" and binds them together with her love, symbolised by the red string which she places on them that links them up to her.

The children jump rope which led to a squabble. The mother has to manage that. 

The children grow up and one protests about her love for feeding cats. One talks about a mother who eventually committed suicide. I feel the pain and how gek sim the mother is. Mother only speaks dialect and this is re-staged to incorporate the dialects of this class - which includes familiar tones but are different from Singapore Hokkien or Teochew. This class of about 15 have about 3 Singaporeans and the rest are from China. There are no surtitles which I felt was a pity for educating e.g. the young 7-8 year old girl in front of me, and the Dean who sat throughout the entire play. And for me who might appreciate the play better. Nonetheless the acting was very good, and the body language was easily understood even though the language differs in each state in China.


Mother tries to look for her cat. She bumps into an elderly stranger, of similar age, who does not understand her language. Yet they can communicate through signals, hand gestures and intonations. I love how they portray this increasing loss of communication, through dialects, through the narrow-minded minds and hearts to open up to strangers, which is very real today in Singapore where we see new citizens and increasing xenophobia.

This girl from China who needs the toilet urgently. She approaches the Indian hawker, the Malay uncle and the SG Chinese girl. They shun her. "I don't speak Chinese." With the magic wand, they can now and introduce the eclectic mix of Singapore's food and culture to her.

This play has piqued my interest in KPK's original screenplay. Ping me if you have it!

Short Film Programmes Women in Film and Photography

At Objectifs as part of Women In Film & Photography 2017
With post screening discussion with directors Megan and Gladys

1. Pussy by Renata Gąsiorowska / Poland / 9 min / 2016 / M18

This opening film shocked me. I didn't know it will be in animation! It is a hilarious take on the exploration of this girl's sexuality. Drawn in simple linework with minimal colours, this girl wants to know what happens when she fiddles around her clitoris & nipples. 



A bug appears and she tries to find it. Across the road a boy is peeping at her as she take a bath and explores her body. She explores her body until the phone rings or something and she looks around in guilt. After the bug emerges, she tries to catch it. The boy ran across and is suddenly at her doorstep. She follows the bug who found its way out. It has morphed into this crazy gigantic bug with spiky teeth and is about to eat the boy alive. She walks out naked to catch it. The bug shrinks back to roach size. Boy runs away.

Next is this abstraction as the bug gets into all this tactile sensations, presumably when the girl climaxes. I can't quite remember how it ends. I remember the palm of the hand with those veins and cars moving across.








2. Woman at Home by Megan Wonowidjoyo / Singapore / 12 min / 2017 / PG
Directed and starred by Megan herself, this personal story of how she as a woman and homemaker, finds out about her husband's betrayal after 16 years of marriage, leading to an eventual divorce last year (2016).

I like how she portrayed herself in pots, pans, sundries, similar to how a homemaker/housewife's life revolves around seemingly unimportant tasks such as cooking and cleaning. Revolves and is trapped in this lifestyle. The items are gigantic compared to herself, done in collage style. Her husband is always travelling for work. She spurs him on career-wise and support his career decisions. She is plagued by loneliness as he is never around. They communicate via WhatsApp/ Text Messages. She looks after the son, helps him with homework and plays with him.

She is not sexually satisfied as hinted in the translucent nightgown hanging at the window sill.

One day she wakes up to her husband who admits he has fallen for another woman. He wants a divorce. She has woken up and now confronts the viewer.






3. Joy Joy Nails by Joey Ally / USA / 19 min / 2017 / PG13
This film looks at how women immigrants to the States help each other. Sarah, a Korean, lives in the States now and is recently promoted to manager of "Joy Joy Nails". This film peaks into the lifestyle of Asian immigrants who speak their native language and English to the Americans/ people living in America. They take a chartered bus to their workplace. They work at this nails place, which is also owned by Koreans. Sarah has a crush on the boss's son. But he fancies a new girl from China. Sarah is furious and makes it difficult for her. One lashes out in Korean, the other in Mandarin. With no unifying language, the body language of the Chinese signals distress and how she was raped by the son. Sarah pities her now and got money from the store to get birth control pills for her. She gets the money from the son eventually by exerting her power as manager of the place. She speaks out for all women, as a symbol of new-found power and authority.   
 



4. The Pursuit of a Happy Human Life by Gladys Ng / Singapore / 11 min / 2016 / PG
This film looks at a relationship between 2 secondary school girls. Steph is this girl with long hair who is leaving Singapore. Her tomboy good friend, Yokes, is trying to come to terms with it. Powerfully portrayed, there is heightened tension all the time, without the physical touch between two lesbians. Yokes buys a yellow balloon for Steph. They play with it and it floated away high up in the school hall. Is that what friendship amounts to? Something that floats away and slowly dissipates? Yokes is angst and throws away Steph's books. They walk back together with minimal parting words. But the looks of longing in their eyes are so thick I cannot cut it. Yet there is no physical touch at all throughout the film. It is even more powerful.

Steph was around during the screening. I bumped into her and her partner later on that night.
 

5. Wu Song Slays the Seductress by Kirsten Tan / Singapore / 12 min / 2017 / NC16
This was screened during 667, which I wrote about previously. I love this contemporary take of Chinese folklore. This time I was better able to admire Pan Jin Lian's body, and how although she is older, she is still so sprightly. And her figure is great. Wu Song, portrayed by a female too, hints at the possible attraction between two females.  

Snow Woman

by Kiki Sugino who stars as the lead actress, Yuki
Women in Film and Photography at Objectifs

With post screening discussion with the director Kiki Sugino

The film opens in black and white. Lead actor Minokichi trudges up the hill with his friend and mentor. It is a snowy night. They stay in an old shed that night. His friend is paid a visit by Snow Woman (Yuki-ona) and was discovered by Mino. Snow Woman breathes out onto the mentor and he dies. She warns Mino not to tell anyone else she'd kill him.

The film moves into colour.

One day in the mountains, as Mino is on his way back to his home, he meets Yuki (which means snow). She looks just like Snow Woman. Yuki looks sick and about to die. He brings her home and nurses her back to health with his mom's help.

One day he asks her to stay. Eventually they marry and have a daughter Ume (which means plum). Suddenly he is no longer able to work as a mountain harvester, but has to work in the factory to make lanterns. From making lanterns after that the factory progresses to making lights. This factory is owned by his mentor's brother's son, Ogata, who is also the village leader. Ogata also married on the same day as Mino and they have a sickly son, Mikio.

Yuki brings ginkgo drink to Ogata, who told her to get out as she does not belong here. This ginkgo is supposed to help make Mikio better.

Mino & Yuki tried to have children. The night of their wedding they consummated the marriage and she was pregnant right after. But the child was still-born, delivered by the mid-wife of the mountains. There is talk in town that this was so because she was not from this village. No one knows where she came from. Gossip spreads in town. The mid-wife had a discussion with husband and wife, and soon after they went to the onsen where is is warmer to have intercourse. They successfully delivered Ume who grows up to be a beautiful girl who can dance the traditional dance very well.

The scenes jump back and forth much like how dreams work. They seem disjointed and it is up to the viewer to piece them together.

The mother and daughter tied red threads around the forest during winter. I wonder how much the daughter knows her mom is not of this world. I think she senses quite a lot. Maybe they want to show their blood ties and presence to the earth.

Yuki and Ume talks to mid-wife, who pleads death due to old age. Yuki is portrayed as one one who kindly gives death to those who cannot bear the pains of earth anymore.

Ume and Mikio become good friends. One day Ume brings Mikio to the hut where his granduncle died. He was tired and fell asleep. I think Ume breathed his last on him. She might have the power to bring death to people as well. He goes out to the snow with her and dancing on the snow is her (or her mother). Mikio brings his red thread of life and give Ume. He is discovered the next day with marks of frostbite on him, just like his granduncle.

His dad is furious and gets one of his co-workers to confront Mino. This co-worker dies of frostbite soon after. I think Yuki killed him because she came back late that night. The husband waits for her the next night to confront her. He asks where did she go, and recounts with tears of the night of his mentor's death - how he met the Snow Woman who spared his life only if he does not tell any soul about this. Yuki hears this and breaks into tears. She does not bear to kill him now and fleas the village.

Her daughter knows that her mom has gone off. It starts snowing again.

The traditional folk song plays again, where initially the women carried I think gifts or offerings to the gods of the mountains across the river.

It is a beautiful, enigmatic story even though I have not read the original Snow Woman. There are hints of industrialisation, ideas of village-city that is through gossip, wanting to keep out "others" much like how borders keep out asylum seekers, superstition, dreams, folklore and traditions.

Grandmother Tonguea

A W!ldrice production

I love the intro with the echo of different words in English, Mandarin and Teochew. It begins with pronouns and moves to verbs which I remember vaguely that my maternal grandmother used to say, my dua yi still says and the cleaning aunty at my office still asks "jiak Pak bueh?" or "Have You Eaten?"

It's a common in Teochew culture to ask that. Or the love which the Grandma lavishes on the grandson by cooking way more than enough rice and dishes.

This play is narrated through the eyes of the grandson who is taken care of by his grandma till he was seven. He reminisces the habits of his grandma, who puts porridge into her mouth to cool it. He questions about the meaning of Mother Tongue in school. If we were to speak Mother Tongue to better communicate with our mothers, grandmothers and great-grandmothers, would they not be unable to understand since they only understand dialects? Mine are gone and my mom is the new breed who speaks English, Mandarin and bits of other dialects.

It skims across the Speak Good Mandarin campaign and the government's attempts to wipe out dialects and unify the Chinese with Mandarin.

The Space in Between - Marina Abramovic in Brazil

Painting with Light series at National Gallery Singapore

This documentary about Marina seeking to find herself and get rid of some baggage in life sheds light on how artists work as a conduit in their creative process.

Marina observes the surgical process of John the God, a self proclaimed healer in Brazil. His home is littered with statues of many religions and there's Jesus iconography everywhere and Catholic saints. Sacrilegious to me. Everyone wears white here and people come from afar to receive healing. He stuck a scissors into a guy's nose, use a blade to scrape the eyeball of another dude (think LASIK without forceps) and incised a woman's tummy and stuck his fingers in.

Next she goes to another place with Star of David forming a cross, with Celtic symbols, Marian statues, Muslim iconography and they are being led around this maze. Children and adults sit down and get "prayed over".

She goes to a rural area when this old lady speaks about her intuition for the healing properties of plants. She first found out about this when she was nine when asked to create medicine for her aunt who just suffered an epileptic attack. This amazing woman is so old and fathered many children, gave her milk to many more and delivered many babies.

Next we head to the forests and waterfall where she poses in white with the beautiful and powerful waterfall at the back. She speaks about her remedy for sickness - eat a slice of garlic and bite into fresh onion to boost one's immunity.

She goes to this home where this amazing woman whips up the most amazing dish of fish with gravy made of tomatoes, onions, garlic, coriander, coconut, coconut milk and fresh white fish.

She was heartbroken twice and wants to start 2014 on a fresh start in a confession on 31 Dec 2013.

Marina drinks the Ayuthasca, a hallucinogen, and stripes naked, pukes, shit and pee all at once when it kicked in. This helps her get rid of her negative energy and true enough the next time she took it, there was no effect.

China's Van Goghs

One of the films in the inaugural Painting With Light series at National Gallery Singapore
13 Oct 2017 Friday the Thirteen

Through the lens of Zhao Xiaoyong, a peasant who moved to Dafen, Shenzhen, China, to reproduce Van Goghs as his means of livelihood, this film explores the nature of consumerist art market, celebrates the tenacity of the human spirit and documents the loss of innocence with the revelation of the market system.

We see the claustrophobic room where Zhao and his fellow workers replicates Van Gogh's self portrait, Sunflowers, the cafe, the fields, and how they work tirelessly to meet the demands for 500, 800 pieces of paintings in a few months. They sleep, make love, eat in the same space and rush to finish the job. The scene pans out and we see just how many display of artworks there are in Dafen. How many people have abandoned agricultural skills to pick up art skills. The place is packed with craftsmen.

They are paid so little that only his wife, brother in law and family are the only ones left working for him. They truly admire Van Gogh's art for art sake spirit and tear up when they watch this rare film on the life of Van Gogh. Zhao dreams of going Amsterdam to see Van Gogh's original and manages to after 20 years of barely getting by with this means of work.

He meets his "collector" in Amsterdam and is disappointed to find out they're selling his works in a souvenir store for 500 euros which is 9x the amount he was paid. He is only paid 450 rmb. He treats his collector like god but he's merely a businessman.

Zhao recounts his excitement in seeing Van Gogh's paintings. How different they were from his. He described how well protected the museum is - three layers of doors with a final bullet proof door. He finally realises how he is merely a craftsman and his entire 20 years worth of paintings is never going to be worth Van Gogh's one painting. He starts painting the scene from Van Gogh's Cafe and when passers-by asked if he has any of his own, he couldn't answer. Stun like vegetable.

I like how he expresses his emotions without inhibitions. He cried after seeing Van Gogh's paintings, how little his works are sold for, how his friends encourage him to stay in Amsterdam. They drink a lot and smoke damn a lot. They bring their cultures of Joss sticks over by offering oranges and cigarettes for Vincent Van Gogh and Theodore his brother.

He is truly a teacher if not an artist. He is optimistic that with the opening of China market, he is capable of painting his own originals. Even if they do not get recognition now they may get it after death just like Van Gogh. He begins the first painting of his studio. He paints his grandma when he visited his hometown Hubei (I think). That's a moving picture. He painted the street scenes of his hometown and someone told him to take a picture instead. Art vs those who can't appreciate art.

Although his wife discouraged him from traveling to Amsterdam due to finances he still went for passion sake. They're definitely better off now. He didn't even finish first grade due to poverty. But now his daughter goes to boarding school in Shenzhen and complains that she doesn't understand and may not go into Uni. His son in elementary school is constantly oblivious to their family's plight.

They work hard, drink a lot, have celebrations like group dinners and ktv, find love and he remains true to Art even if he does not sell. Not so with the younger generation.

[mother!]

Directed by Aaron Aronofsky

Starring Jennifer Lawrence, Javier Bardem, Michelle Pfieffer & Ed Harris 

Mother! Opens with a woman burning with flames all around her. She's being burnt alive and yet she is not dead. 

And the husband putting a crystal on a mantel which transforms everything anew - the entire house and trees around the area.

The lead actress wakes up to find her husband not in bed. Her husband has a mental block and she encourages him on by staring him down while he writes. She plays the role of a dutiful, stifling wife who uses a lot of reverse psychology at home. For eg she re-builds this home herself, cooks everything by herself even when she was heavily pregnant later and is intent on rebuilding her home. This could be read as the boundaries she has against anyone which gets slowly pushed down and finally trampled upon. 

A stranger appears at the door looking for a room for rent. The husband is unable to reject him especially after knowing his ardent love for him as a fan, even more so as a fan dying from some illness. We see, through the wife's eyes, the escalating horror of intrusion, starting from this stranger, to his wife, two sons, Family and friends and finally with Publisher, fans and SWAT team.

However all starts out tranquil although extremely tense in the way everything was framed - tightly cropped leaving me at the edge of my seat all the time. From no smoking in the house, to the strangers wife barging in and treating it like her house, asking intrusive questions such as "Why do you not want kids?" Which parallels what I get sometimes at CNY during family gatherings, to the lead actress stumbling onto her strangers having sex in their room. When she wanted to throw them out she faltered at the last min. 

The last straw came when the couple breaks the crystal and the husband boards up the writing room in his fit of anger. The lead actress throws them out.

But the next day, the stranger's sons barged in, and began quarrelling as the elder son was furious that his younger brother gets possession of wealth. He stabs him and his brother dies. The blood stains flow down to this huge basement which the lead finds the beating heart in the wall turning slightly black. Previously when she was painting the house, the heart was a healthy reddish form. 

The husband, supposedly a protector of the wife and head of the household, leaves the wife to clear up the bloody mess. He goes to the hospital with the strangers and their dying son. I keep thinking that crazy son will enter and stab her. 

The husband returns and she blows up. She blames him for inviting people in without her consent and we can tell the writer loves the adulation of the strangers. They quarrel over him not wanting to touch her and make love to her, to which the husband promptly did to prove her wrong. The next day she announces that she's pregnant. After she had given him life, the husband could write again and he produced another story which moved her to tears. She dumps the medicine which is energy itself that sustains her heart and forms the crystal, into the sink. Maybe she knows her mission is almost complete.

The phone calls start coming in and during her preparations for a candlelight celebration at home, fans began crowding the doors, then streaming in, finally breaking down all doors. What begins as cordial fun with fan signing time, moves to club-like party and escalates to beheading by the publicist and SWAT team. There is a cult-like fanaticism, with alters filled with the husband's image, candles everywhere and signing of the forehead which bears much resemblance to Christian imagery and practices. 

The lead actress is saved by her husband and they find sanctuary in the writing room. She gives birth to a son and the cult outside bears gifts of nourishment and water. She mothers her son and refuses to allow the writer to hold him, for fearing that he would be taken away. When she closed her eyes for a second, her son is gone and the husband has sacrificed him to the crowd. They beat her up and the husband tries to save her. They have eaten his flesh and the lead stabs them all. The heart in the wall has turned Black. She runs to the basement and the crowds want her blood. She spills open the oil tank and sets herself on fire. All is dead including the house. It was charred to the grounds and the trees surrounding it. She's badly burnt and the husband us unscathed. He asks for a final wish from her - her heart - and she obliges. The precious stone lays inside. 

The writer puts this precious crystal on the mantel once again and the place is transformed. A new wife, his muse, is born. 

A writer is never for himself or for a wife alone. He does not love her but just the love she shows him. It is sad. She can never build any house with him because he is a creator and does not belong to any one.

Upon reflection, my house (boundaries, things I hold dear, things I spend years building and pruning, things I love and give my heart to) is also constantly being invaded & trampled upon. Shit dished on me and sometimes I've no guts to stand out to them.

Mother! might be a muse which a creator has to constantly create and is the source of his or her inspiration. This artistic creator is totally self-centred and narcissistic and mother! is always giving and giving until nothing is left to give. Mother! tries to protect her son but even that is taken from her. It is sad but true and reminds me of what we're doing to Mother Earth as well.

Singapore Heritage Short Film Competition 2017

By Singapore Film Society 

1) Nautical Miles (PG) by Lighthouse Pictures
About lighthouse and its origins in Singapore with interviews from academics in NUS

2) Set A: The Singaporean Breakfast (G) by S.M.J Productions
How the breakfast has evolved in Singapore

3) Old of Things (PG) by Honest Visuals
Yee Geok Eng is a resident of the now-demolished Dakota Crescent. It is a very moving story of loss, memories, identity and home. She has to move out of her beloved cluttered home. Her sister gets her to throw almost anything that is "useless". There is this sense of loss in the elderly, unmarried Yee. Her new home is devoid of character and she has to make do.

4) Getting Tough 纸扎止扎 (PG) by 小火 PorDuckSions 
 Mr Ng and Mr Soh are paper effigies makers. But this is now a vanishing trade, especially in Singapore, with people embracing other religions.

5) Apache Over Singapore (PG) by The60sApaches 
Joseph Pereira, author and SG-Malaysia 1960s music researcher, takes us to the golden decade of 1960-1970s local music in Singapore music industry. I never knew there was so much talent then! What happened?? Where have the people gone to? Where are the creatives? What has happened to the soul of the city?

6) The Last Line (PG) by SNP Collective 
This group of boys follow fishermen out to Pulau Ubin and document their livelihood and disappearing trade in Singapore. They set out from Jenal Jettey and are met with thunderstorm. Unable to do anything they wait it out and catch close to nothing. 

Never knew that people still make a living out of fishing in Singapore. This group won the competition of the Junior category. Maybe it is beginners luck.




7) The Nine Emperor Gods (PG) by Broadcast Media Team 2 
I observe how there are still the young who show interest in this tradition. This is burnt during the celebration of e.g. 九王爷. All is not lost.


8) One Track Mind (G) by On The Rocks Productions
Five men of different races and background show their love for the model railway, with a Caucasian who aims to build Singapore's first model railway museum. And a Malay who has this huge working model railway in one room. An Eurasian. A Chinese. Reminds me of my bf with his collection of toys. There is this congenial spirit between them as they become friends, collectors, buyers and sellers.