Foad & Workshops
03/08/23
SEA Masterclass
Today I had to attend the SEA Masterclass, as a way to be introduced into the degree course. A guest artist by the name UuDam had been invited to conduct this class and I was quite fascinating to learn about his life and his art.
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He briefly spoke about his birthplace in Vietnam which is a great influence in most of his artworks. I found his method to approach art-making to be very unique and contemporary. What really struck to me was when he told us that we shouldnt make art in hopes of pleasing people, but make it solely for our satisfaction and what we wish to convey. By being too conscious of other peoples opinions, we would get nowhere as artists.
One of the projects I was intrigued by was the ECODI campaign.He created a pair of slippers as a part of the campaign to promote the idea of doing things in an eco-friendly way! Ie; ECODIE.
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Engraving the letters “good travellers leave no trace” under his slippers, he was able to encourage people to not litter on beaches. The print left by those slippers were a constant reminder to e a good traveller! Such a simple way of implementing an important reminder.
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The ECODI slippers!
The weapon I made
even though its not very good :(
The inspiration
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For the latter half of the masterclass we were assigned an activity to do based on another one of his projects. He spoke on hatred , asked us to reflect on the question “does hatred have a size?” I personally believe that hatred does not have a literal size as to say, but its impact and effects are greatly influenced by the size of a country. Various factors such as socio-economic, cultural and political factors are all what impact the size of hatred within a country.
Based on this question , he showed us how he created sharp and harmful weapons in the shape of various countries, to perhaps show how hatred can be culminated in each country. He made the weapons all in similar sizes, regardless of the size of the country to show that at the end of the day hatred is all the same; harmful and destructive. He then encourages us to transform our own home countries into weapons using clay!
I had a lot of fun doing this activity as it allowed me to let loose with clay. I was inspired by the traditional daggers used during the rule of the royal empires in India. I tried to make the edges sharp just as they were in the weapons used in the past wars. It was really interesting to see other fellow students perspectives and how it inculcated into their final work. This class really helped me understand my own definition and meaning of hatred and its true impact on the world.
FOAD - Le petit society
16/08/23
For this FOAD lecture, we were introduced to the brand le petit society, a children’s clothing brand started by Robyn with her husband Dylan.She stated that the brand stood for proving affordable luxury to kids, without compromising on the quality of the products. Therefore, now there are able to provide eco-friendly and sustainable clothing to the market.
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Robyn shared with us her journey, as she started off as an economics student at NUS. Fashion was something she definitely had no experience in, but that did not stop her in creating a highly successful clothing brand.
She spoke of how this entire journey was full of taking risks and leaps of faith to support a cause she believed in. Robyn and her husband saw a gap in the market, for good quality, Singapore based and affordable clothing which sparked their motivation in beginning this brand. They worked day and night gathering experience, going to trade shows, conducting factory visits all is they could gain more knowledge to start their business.
Timeline of the business
Her insights as an entrepreneur is something is found very useful as a BADP student who also has to take into account these factors for my own projects as well. Some of the advice she gave that stuck with me was that we should not remain stagnant, we should take time and explore various fields of art and design to truly understand what our passion lies In at the end.
She also spoke of the difficult like many other brands had to overcome during covid. But even then, she used that gap in the market to create comfortable children’s masks, which ended up saving her business. She said we have no time to sit and react, but we must always be ready to act upon an opportunity.
We also had a chance to hear from her previous intern who now has a full time position in her company. It was great to hear her perspective and experiences from working at le petit society, especially since she was a nafa student also.
Her insights into business and entrepreneurship really inspired me to hold her advice close to my heart. There were so many takeaways from his FOAD lecture, and I will be sure to keep these in mind for my future projects that I undertake.
FOAD - Claudia Koh
23/08/23
This FOAD lecture was focused on artist/painter Claudia Koh. I felt this talk was very relatable and insightful as well, considering that Claudia is a NAFA alumni herself.
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She mentioned her journey at NAFA, and how she felt the struggle within herself to stand out as an artist from the rest of the talented cohort. This feeling is quite relatable for a lot of NAFA students as well.
She gave us insight into how she found her art style by just painting things she liked; flowers, animals, human anatomy,. And she continued to further expand and explore painting her areas of interest by combining it with the art style she was interested in at that time; renaissance and surrealism.
My second favourite piece by hers is titled “supreme flower” which is a satirical take regarding the political state of North Korea. She explains how she gained an extreme interest in finding more about the country's policies and dived into its documentaries online,, which is also something that I have done myself.
Her insights about studying abroad were very helpful and she shared with us her experience of studying at RISD and the rich arts and culture scene in NYC. Overall this is one of my favourite FOAD lectures here at NAFA.
I found her art to be incredibly unique and beautiful. She did a great job of bringing out a sense of eeriness amongst her paintings with her depictions of animals and symbolism for the issues happening in the real world.
One of my favourite pieces by her is the one titled “fertility garden”. She expressed her fear of motherhood, and was able to portray the gory side of giving birth, which is mostly depicted to be a wonderful thing in society. But me, as well as many girls do feel the same way, which allowed me to resonate with this piece.
