Singapore Exhibition + Buildings - Part 2

I spent some time in Singapore a couple of weeks ago for an exhibition a the Institute of Contemporary Art. The exhibition was curated by Anne Farren from Curtin University and Emily Wills from LASALLE College of the Arts. The project was an extension of an exhibition I participated in a couple of years ago at the WA Museum called Beyond Garment, which was a survey of West Australian artists and designers working between fashion, object, art and the body. The exhibition in Singapore took three artists and designers from Beyond Garment and invited students from LASALLE College and Curtin University to respond to one artist of their choices work, and subsequently a selection of the student work was exhibited along with ours.

Installing at the gallery

LASALLE College of Arts, Singapore

Such bright young things! Students from Curtin University

Parkview 

I stayed in an apartment which over looked this building and one evening I went over to check it out. The building is called Parkview but is known colloquially as Gotham City. Parkview building is one of the most expensive buildings in the downtown area of Singapore and despite it's gothic art deco aesthetic, construction was only completed 2002. The level of ornamentation and attention to detail is phenomenal. So much pressed tin, stone, marble and velvet pile!

The garden in the courtyard

The building houses three embassies and on the bottom floor resides the Divine Wine bar, which is incredible. You can see in the photo below the wine chiller which stretches from the first floor to the third floor. If you look closely you can see the Wine Fairy being winched up on a remote controlled harness. She runs up there and fetches the wine as you order it. Seriously. I can't believe I ever accepted having my wine served to me in any other fashion. 

The band!

ArtScience Museum, Singapore

Down at the Marina Bay I also visited the ArtScience Museum which as you can see is inspired by the lotus flower. The museum has three levels of exhibition spaces, the outside s more impressed than being inside it, but it makes a unique exhibition space. The interior has some interesting potential for architectural interventions or site specific work but it is very much used as a "gallery". I did see however a good show by some Magnum photographers.

Institute of Contemporary Art Singapore - Part I

I am in Singapore for a week working on an exhibition in collaboration with LASALLE College of the Arts and Curtin University at the Institute of Contemporary Arts Singapore. Just wanted to post some photos quickly of the LASALLE building which is pretty impressive, and a few impressions of important things like food, so far! More to come. 

LASALLE College

Fashion design studios

My room with a view! 18th floor!

Must find out what this building is...

Food anomalies #1 Ice cream sandwiches. Seriously. Bread, and ice cream. Not just bread, pink bread. WIN!  

At the markets playing "Name that food group", followed by "Is it salty or sweet".

Award Nomination - Justus Brinckmann Förderpreis 2012

I am very excited to be nominated for the Justus Brinckmann Förderpreis 2012 at the Messe Kunst und Handwerk im Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe (MKG) in Hamburg, Germany. The exhibition runs from November 23 to December 9, 2012. 

I am also very excited to be going to Singapore tomorrow night for an exhibition with LaSalle College at the LaSalle Institute of Contemporary Art. I'll post some photos soon!

Fashion Philosophy Fashion Week Poland

Last week I took the Polski bus for a brief 6 hour ride to Fashion Philosophy Fashion Week  in Lodz, Poland's third largest city. Profiling the collections of emerging and established designers as well as student collections from the Lodz Academy of Arts, it was a pretty exciting four days with some great shows - and my first European fashion week. Designer highlights include: MMC Studio, Dawid Tomaszewski (check out the catwalk show HERE), Łukasz Jemioł, Mads Dinesen amongst many others. 

What I enjoyed the most and what quite surprised me was the amount of designers choosing non-models for their catwalk shows. Whilst using "real people" or the like is not a new idea, I was surprised by the amount of designers working in the manner as standard rather than  a cheap ploy for media attention or tokenistic hype. I would estimate at least a third of designers used "real people" in their shows, of a variety of ages and some variation in body types, though not so much ethnicity (read mostly white people). But the shows with the "real people" were usually the most enjoyable shows to watch, the models the most vivacious and desirable, even if the collections were not the most exciting. Seeing anorexic pre-teens with vacant looks on their faces stagger stupefied down a catwalk is so. fucking. boring. And not even very chic. And doesn't inspire me to spend my money with these designers. I mostly just wanted to throw hamburgers at them. Or do a fashion week food drop in the style of The Chaser. 

Below are some impressions from the fashion week and of Lodz (pronounced Woodz)!

Student shows from the Lodz Academy of Arts

Front Row Society

Some fashion blogger who is famous because he brings his dog  to  all the shows. Seriously. 

Andy

VIP Pooch

Jesus got a new stylist. Not bad.

Front Row Society fashion bloggers

THIS, IS LODZ.....

Historically Lodz's industry has been dominated by textile manufacturing and subsequently there are many disused  textile mills that are being renovated to support local business to revitalise the cultural centre. The Manufaktura complex is the biggest of the old textile mills recently renovated - and it is so stunning. I stayed at the hotel in Manufaktura - Andels. Looking at photos of the site pre-renovation and experiencing the architecture first hand is quite spectacular. The facade retains the buildings historic charm and the interior combines contemporary design with some of the original manufacturing equipment.

Add caption

A series of large cavities has been cut through each the four stories which gives a relief to the density of the space and multi-perspective view of the different levels, with the white surfaces being highlighted with light and projects images.

And ofcourse Fashion Week means lots of after parties. I went to a VICE party which was in this amazing venue, but it was full of fashion fuckwits. There were free drinks. Many. This made up for it.

Thanks very much to the FashionPhilisophy Fashion Week organisers for hosting me, and thanks Lodz, you're pretty special! X