On a lazy Saturday afternoon, I attended a design forum organised for my companys' designers and for other Piconian branches too. Our team was highlighted to attend this particular talk by Brian. Sounds familiar? He's quite a prolific artist due to his outstanding works in Singapore and Venice Biennale.
My colleagues remarked why does he look so...normal? *Chuckles*
I guess people often stereotypes artists as avant-garde looking, dresses sloppily with loads of attitude to match their ego. But he's clean-shaven, wears specs, very man-in-the-streets.
(There, the one on the left corner sitting down)With no clear structure about his topics, he gave a very simple, stripped down introduction about himself and his works. It was more like a casual chit-chat session than a talk. Listening to him talk reminded me greatly of my poly/uni days with Kon and Terry. Their lectures were so thought-provoking and at times, abstract...I wished I was back in school..listening them rage about issues that most of us probably does not give a shit about. I always wished I could re-live their lectures so I could though their spiel again.
Anyways, he raised some interesting issues which he showed through his works.
Space - isnt that what all artists craved and need? Its interesting how when given a small area of nothingness, one can transform it into a brilliant piece of installation with few and economical materials.
Choice and Illusion - He waxes lyrical over illusions in our life, how its better to be given a choice to decide for ourselves than live in denial. How true.
Particularly like 1 of his earliest animations called “Sublime Monsters and Virtual Children” - which is about his dreams. Dreamy, lofty, non-sensical, morbid yet teasing - it defintely caught my attention. Am trying to find that video...Another cool installation was a 'live' performance involving just 3 DVD players, projectors, 3 doors, a couple of actors who ran very fast from door to door. I do not even know how to describe it..basically it was a play on illusion and clever directing.
His much-praised work is his showcase "We Live In a Dangerous World" at the Singapore Biennale where he tackled politics and religion…he questioned different belief systems, institutions and power structures… to tie in with the Biennale’s theme ‘Belief’.” Merlions dissected..SIA girls vommiting, a video clip flashing words like "HATE ME" and "KILL ME" over Lee Kuan Yew's face, power plugs stuck on a family of faceless clones faces...
Dangerous indeed.
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