Thursday, 19 July 2012

SPORE Art Salon : 20th Edition, 31 July!


Happy National Day! Red and white flags are going up all over the island, but we Salonistas are staying decidedly international. This month’s awesome visual and performing arts lineup includes a Swiss experimental trombonist, a Filipino playwright and an American actor, as well as a host, a poet, a model and a short film, all from dear old Singapore. Come join the mish and mash of things and create conversations within. See you soon!

WHERE: BluJaz Cafe, 3rd Storey (12 Bali Lane)
WHEN: Tuesday 31 July 2012, 7:30PM onwards
FB Event Page : https://www.facebook.com/events/248696541900162/

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FEATURED PERFORMING ARTISTS

HOST
DEBORAH EMMANUEL
Deborah Emmanuel has been telling stories since she could talk. Her first story was that there was a microscopic pterodactyl living inside her ear, which when she was reading would not allow her to hear the dinner bell. Since then, she has used drama and creative writing to tell other stories which have reached out to many people. Her first time on stage was at age 4 in the kindergarten circus musical, in which she desperately wanted to be a ballerina, but was made to wear a hairy bear suit instead. Since then she has played several human acting roles, and appeared as an educational speaker and performance poet on many occasions. She believes in art as a tool for change and reform. She also knows that anyone can heal when they express themselves through art. Deborah will continue to write, perform and teach as long as she exists.



MODEL
TEH SU CHING







POOJA (poet)
Pooja Nansi is a teacher and poet who believes in the power that speech and performance can lend to the written word. Her first collection of poetry "Stiletto Scars" was published in 2007 at the Singapore Writer's Festival. She has performed and conducted workshops in several educational institutes both locally and abroad such as Kuala Lumpur and London, with individuals of different ages to try and make poetry relevant to their lives. She has also participated in poetry projects such as "Speechless" with the British Council, where she worked in conjunction with poets from London, Ireland, Taiwan, The Phillipines, Malaysia and Vietnam and engaged in a month long tour of the UK to explore issues surrounding freedom of speech. She is most passionate about using poetry as a platform to raise awareness about issues close to her heart.


 INTOXICATED (stage play)
http://www.facebook.com/roofdeckprod
INTOXICATED is (mostly) a comedy about love and alcohol. Trish (EARL MALLARI) is a fun-loving girl who loves to party, but has a tendency to drink a little bit too much and get into all sorts of crazy shenanigans. On one such night, her good friend Jim (GARETH PROSSER) confronts her about her apparent alcoholism. Neither Trish nor Jim is prepared for the emotional rollercoaster that is to follow.
About INTOXICATED -
INTOXICATED is the second play to be staged by Roofdeck Productions at the SPORE Art Salon, following the successful staging of ALL I WANT during the 9th edition in August 2011. INTOXICATED is written and directed by Ren Robles, and stars Earl Mallari and Gareth Prosser. Jason Miller is Assistant Director for this production, with Ace Bigcas as Stage Manager.


FREDI SONDEREGGER (musician)
Bass trombonist Fredi Sonderegger was born and brought up in the small town of Herisau in the northeast of Switzerland. He has been a member of the Singapore Symphony Orchestra for over 10 years, while holding the post of coordinator of brass studies at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts and lecturer at the School of the Arts. As a soloist and clinician, he has traveled extensively throughout the South East Asia region, performing in China, Thailand, Jakarta, Taiwan, and Malaysia. He has also performed in Italy, France and Germany as well as USA. Groups he has played with include La Fenice, The Freiburg Baroque Orchestra, Concerto Vocale, Les Cornet Noir, GregLyon’s Omniform, the Jeremy Monteiro Big Band as well as the Brass Explosion Big Band. He has also had the opportunity to display sound installations and perform in ad hoc theater groups incorporating his music.
Fredi’s sound art has been exhibited in Singapore, Macau and Taiwan. He has also performed in ad hoc theater and in a staged solo venture. He will perform at the Jeju International Band festival in August 2012. Future projects include the making of a solo CD and tours to Australia and New Zealand.

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FEATURED VISUAL ART

BLOTCH STUDIOS
https://www.facebook.com/blotchstudios

"Mother", 7min
This film is a tribute to all mothers of the world. There are times when we may not appreciate your presence, but we will always feel your absence. Although we may not agree on everything, we thank you for your unconditional, everlasting love and dedication, for bringing us into this world and for showing us what it means to be a selfless pillar of our families.




About BLOTCH Studios -

 Blotch is new, nebulous, and constantly rediscovering itself; it is emerging, growing and always seeking new grounds to conquer. It cannot be defined, cannot be contained. It is a vision, a belief, an ideology. It is a reason to fight, for all of our dreams combined. It is a group of individuals but also one.
 

In 2012, founding members of randomINK decided to take a new direction and bring together a group of creatives passionate in their individual fields to form a creative collective. This cumulated into Blotch Studios. Many of us previously graduated from Hwa Chong Institution's Art Elective Programme (AEP). We envision Blotch Studios as a multi-disciplinary studio that has a focus on filmmaking. Our members also dabble in creative pursuits as diverse as graphic design, photography, animation and illustration, and we see this cross-pollination of ideas and influences across art mediums as a distinctive feature of our group.


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Wednesday, 18 July 2012

Lit Up Singapore 2012

Over the last year and a half, SPORE Art Salon has featured a whole lot of performance poets. Now, many of them are involved in a literary arts festival called Lit Up Singapore.


The event's running from Sun 22 to Sun 29 July at Telok Ayer Performing Arts Centre (TAPAC), the soon-to-be-demolished building at 182 Cecil Street, Singapore 069547. 

The website's at http://litup.sg, and the Facebook page is here. The event's also non-profit, so the organsers are raising funds via a Rockethub page.

There'll be shows, workshops, exhibitions, bazaars, plays and musical performances. We'd especially like to highlight the launch:

Lit Up Singapore 2012 Launch  
TAPAC Courtyard, 4:30-7pm, Sun 22 July

Besides being a wonderful place to mingle, this event will mark the debut the Party Action People, a spoken word troupe made up of *Marc Nair, *Lee Jing Yan, Nabilah Husna, *Deborah Emmanuel, *Zuni Chong, Abel Koh, *Charlene Shepherdson and SPORE Art Salon curator *Ng Yi-Sheng.

Asterisks (*) denote poets who have previously performed at SPORE Art Salon. Nabila Husna is also lined up for a performance in September. Come by and check out what happens when a group of poets slams together.


Wednesday, 11 July 2012

Hello folks, we're looking for MODELS!


Drawing sessions in between the stage performance of the SPORE Art Salon editions have been, and still are, an important feature during our monthly gatherings. It is made up of 3x20minute sets of models posing for our guests, of whom will participate in these sessions by picking up pencils, ink, or even the iPad. Some choose to use these sessions to mingle with the rest in the crowd. It is a feature that allows a new model to step into the concept of life drawing, or an opportunity for one to re-evaluate rules of a conventional life drawing session.

If you'd like to get involved - be in character, dress up, or not dress at all - do write us at SPOREARTSALON @ GMAIL.COM

We will be waiting to hear from you!

Wednesday, 27 June 2012

19th Edition - a De-Brief! + Photos!

Wow, it had been a pretty... interesting night, with a mixed bag of fine artists, filmmakers, dancers, theatre professionals, visual artists, architects and manyyy more gracing the 19th Edition! Thanks to everyone who came out to the event, and sat through an evening of performance art, awesome poetry reading, interpretative dance pieces and a short stage play!!!

Here are the images of the evening, made by guest photographer Christopher Oon... enjoy!
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=oa.464554823555374&type=1

Wednesday, 20 June 2012

SPORE Art Salon : 19th Edition 26 June !!



Happy mid-year, one and all!! The 2nd half of 2012 brings us a good dose of performing arts and a dash of the visuals at the 19th edition of the SPORE Art Salon. Invite yourselves to an evening of poetry reading, a short stage play, performance art, dance and of course, life drawing! Same time, same place, and you know it...
see you then!


WHERE: BluJaz Cafe, 3rd Storey (12 Bali Lane)
WHEN: Tuesday 26 June 2012, 7:30PM onwards

FB Event Page : https://www.facebook.com/events/310237509066341/
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HOST

DON SHIAU
Don Shiau writes songs for leisure, and occasionally performs them for punishment. Having taken to the stage with a guitar only in the last few months, he is now plying the open mic circuit as way to 'rehearse in public', in the hope that he may one day become competent enough to 'record in private'. He has been a regular face at the SPORE Art Salon for close to a year, usually lurking with a sketchpad and a Tokyo Iced Tea. You cannot find his songs anywhere on the internet ... yet.









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FEATURED VISUAL ARTIST
MARIONA VILASECA
http://www.marionavilaseca.com/
Born in Spain 1978, holds degrees in Fine Arts from the University of Barcelona, ​​is currently writing her doctoral thesis on how the way of pictorial experience and contemplative experience, lead to the same extent, to the unit.
She has performed solo and group exhibitions throughout Europe, South America and also in Singapore last year, during their residence invited by Jason Wee Grey Projects.
Her work is in private and public collections in different countries as well. This year, repeated her trip to Singapore to perform along with Kelvin Atmadibrata, an installation in Substation, during days 21 to 28 June. Both artists were part of residency exchange program Initiated by SinCat, a Singapore-Catalan cultural research team, Grey Project, a project space and residency by Jason Wee and Nau Cochlea, a residency space in Catalan by Clara Gari.


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FEATURED PERFORMING ARTISTS

LEA McGOWAN (dance)
Lea McGowan-Host and Performing Artist, Model Lea is delighted to be a part of Art Salon again, presenting inspiration for visual artists as she blends modeling and dance segments. For almost two years Lea has lived in Singapore working as a dancer/acrobat/performing artist for the theatrical circus production of "Voyage de la Vie" which concludes as the longest running show in Singapore's history July 16, 2012.  Lea has also become active in the local stand up comedy scene, and you might recognize her from replays of America's Got Talent...Don't miss your chance to see Lea in action at her last SPORE Art Salon before she takes off!


CHARLENE SHEPHERDSON (poet)
www.zarweanede.com
A wordsmith, illustrator and creative educator, Charlene works with text and images to explore the evolution of traditional art as it adapts to the confines of space and time in city living; reflections of the city through the eyes of its inhabitants.
Raised on a diet of Scrabble, Boggle and Wheel of Fortune, Charlene loves playing with the intricacies of syllables; deconstructing words to build new towers of meaning. Recently, her art and visual poetry have been showcased in The Arts House, The Substation, Singapore Writers Festival 2011 and Lit Up Festival 2011.
When not refueling the caffeine running through her veins, Charlene can be found collaborating as 1/3 of spacer.gif, a visual-textual art collective and in Party Action People, a spoken word troupe. She makes yeti-like appearances at www.zarweanede.com




CALL ME BEA (stage play)
"Call Me Bea" is written by Teh Su Ching, and featuring Su Ching and Ruzaini.
CALL ME BEA also features choreography by Glory Ngim and video work by Wee Li Lin.
It is about Beatrice Lim, a socialite Tai Tai who has a tumultuous relationship with her aspiring singer-songwriter daughter Felicity. When Bea tries to seduce Ismail, a member of staff at the Singapore Elite Country Club, her world turns upside down.

CALL ME BEA is -

TEH SU CHING

Teh Su Ching's short film Ash is an official selection at the the 2012 Moscow International Film Festival. In 2011, Shanghai theatre group 3rd Culture Theatre staged her bilingual one-act play Seven Days in Jing An at the Jing An district theatre festival. In 2008, another one-act play, Russia! was featured in the Yale Playwrights Festival. Russia! was also read at The Substation, where Lim Yu Beng played the lead.
Her full-length play Ubin will be given a reading in New York's Workshop Theatre in October. Ubin's Tisch Asia reading in April featured Karen Tan and Oon Shu An in lead roles.
 In 2009, Su Ching's short story DnD, penned under the pseudonym Stella Chung, was featured in the anthology “Romance Volume 2” by Renaissance Publishing. Su Ching also acts - you may remember her as the teenage Penelope Chan in Raintree Pictures' Chicken Rice War (2000). She holds a BA in Literature and Theatre Studies from Yale University, and an MFA in Dramatic Writing from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts, Asia. She's now writing a feature-length coming of age teen dance film that centers around Mambo Nights at local nightclub Zouk.


DRAYTON ALEXANDER HIERS
Recent directing credits include developmental readings of Ubin by Teh Su Ching, The Book of Living and Dying by Chong Tze Chien, and Lightning from Heaven by Scott Sickles. As a playwright, his work has been performed in Singapore at the Arts House and 72-13, and in New York at The Tank NYC, the Bushwick Starr, Lumenhouse, and the Brooklyn Reliquary.

He is the Artistic Director of LoNyLa Singapore, which is dedicated to developing new works by Singaporean playwrights, regularly producing readings of new scripts in exchange with theatre artists around the world.
With Jean Tay, he is an instructor for SRT’s Young Co Playwrights, which is in its inaugural year of training new dramatic writers.  He has an MFA from NYU Tisch School of the Arts Asia, where he is Program Coordinator and Adjunct Instructor for the Department of Dramatic Writing.

RUZAINI
Ruzaini has been doing mainly production work for the past 3 years with various companies such as Wild Rice, Toy Factory, Singapore Repertory Theatre and STAGES. An actor at heart, he also acts for YellowChair Productions and NYUTischAsia Drama Lab work.

Thursday, 31 May 2012

18th Edition... DE BRIEF!

You guys... the 18th edition was a huge success, so much fun, energy and just full of awesomeness, thanks to one and all who came out to support your friends on stage, and all who came out to just enjoy the evening, have conversations.

Here are the photographs - https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=oa.456576947686495&type=1

Enjooooooooy and see you bunch next month!

Wednesday, 30 May 2012

Lan Fang Chronicles, Thu 31 May - Sat 2 Jun

Co-organiser and frequent host of the SPORE Art Salon Ng Yi-Sheng is having his work featured in a Singapore Arts Festival show called Lan Fang Chronicles. This coming weekend is your last chance to catch it:


Director: Choy Ka Fai
Date: Fri 18 May-Sun 2 Jun, 7pm (3:30pm matinees on selected dates)
Venue: Ying Foh Kuan (Shuang Long Shan) 9 Commonwealth Lane, Singapore 149551
Tickets: $25 from Sistic


The Lan Fang Republic was the first democratic state in Southeast Asia. It began as an independent settlement of Hakka Chinese gold miners in Western Borneo, and it lasted from 1777 until 1884. Its multiracial capitalist history bears more than a few similarities to Singapore's.


This performance, taking place on the grounds of a Hakka Clan Association, uses both historical fact and fiction to bring this forgotten civilisation to life. Directed by multimedia artist Choy Ka Fai, it also features Singapore playwrights Zizi Azah, Robin Loon, Ng Yi-Sheng and Yak Aik-Wee, as well as actors Pat Toh, Najib Soiman, Rizman Putra, Yak Aik-Wee, Bright Ong, Serene Chen and Nora Samosir.



“If history could be taught this way, a lot more people would be interested in their local history. …By approaching Lan Fang as an artist and reconstructing knowledge out of memoirs, records, interviews and suppositions, he [Choy Ka Fai] encourages us to imagine, thus bringing to life what he calls the Chronicles of Disappearance, of the Lan Fang’s Republic’s history.” Cheah Ui-Hoon, Business Times, 22 May 2012.

Here's a Vimeo preview, a YouTube documentary, and more info from Ka Fai's website.