Life or something like it

in the Moorlands

2009-03-22T16:24:51Z

Egypt

2009-03-01T09:13:37Z

we are all children born from the nectar of Elysian Fields

2009-01-04T10:12:46Z

When Yashoda opened the mouth of the child she saw within it Infinity and all the nebulas of the cosmos. She saw the Vedic verses written across the celestial equator.
The avatars of the heathen mystics inscribed into the heavens in constellations. She bore witness to the Divine Dance between Brahma the Creator, Vishnu the Preserver and Shiva the Destroyer, woven seamlessly into the fabric of Space and Time. For a brief moment the romance between Creation and Death was unveiled before her- all inside the open mouth of her child.

Stunned, Yashoda gasped and let out a soft cry. Her child, baby Krishna, closed his mouth.
And at once her Truth was forgotten.

I know what I really want,
but is a brighter discontent the best that I could hope to find?

Venus wedded to your songs, in the firmaments' inverted bowl

2008-12-15T15:59:45Z

الا یا ایها الـساقی ادر کاسا و ناولـها
که عشق آسان نمود اول ولی افتاد مشکل‌ها
بـه بوی نافه‌ای کاخر صبا زان طره بگـشاید
ز تاب جعد مشکینش چه خون افـتاد در دل‌ها
مرا در منزل جانان چه امـن عیش چون هر دم
جرس فریاد می‌دارد که بربندید مـحـمـل‌ها
بـه می سجاده رنگین کن گرت پیر مغان گوید
کـه سالک بی‌خبر نبود ز راه و رسم منزل‌ها
شـب تاریک و بیم موج و گردابی چنین هایل
کـجا دانـند حال ما سبکـباران ساحـل‌ها
همـه کارم ز خود کامی به بدنامی کشید آخر
نـهان کی ماند آن رازی کز او سازند محفل‌ها
حضوری گر همی‌خواهی از او غایب مشو حافظ
مـتی ما تلق من تهوی دع الدنیا و اهملـها

even if the others can't see, and even if He doesn't know, i hope you'll always remember that...

2008-12-13T15:28:23Z

"you are the fearless rose that grows amidst freezing winds"

x

2008-11-23T02:38:48Z

"Konichiwa bitches!" from Beijing to Saigon.

2008-11-19T13:58:27Z

But before this trip it will be Dubai and Oman in Feb 2009 and then Iceland and Barcelona in April 2009!

from a grief observed.

2008-10-29T07:47:49Z

'No one ever told me that grief felt so like fear. I am not afraid, but the sensation is like being afraid. The same fluttering in the stomach, the same restlessness ... At other times it feels like being mildly drunk or concussed. There is a sort of invisible blanket between the world and me. I find it hard to take in what anyone says ... Yet I want the others to be about me. I dread the moments when the house is empty. If only they would talk to one another and not to me. There are moments, unexpectedly, when something inside me tries to assure me that I don't really mind so much, not so much after all. Love is not the whole of a man's life. I was happy before I ever met H. I've plenty of what are called 'resources.' People get over these things. Come, I shan't do so badly. One is a little ashamed of to listen to this voice but it seems for a little to be making out a good case. Then comes a sudden jab of red-hot memory and all of this 'common sense' vanishes like an ant in the mouth of a furnace.'

near the flames, shadow plays in the shape of man's desire

2008-09-23T03:15:13Z

The ticket price to Casablanca in Feb 09 is as follow:

Air France:
1 month ticket: S$1390
3 months ticket: S$1950
excluding taxes of about S$769

Emirates airline:
1 month ticket: S$2088
3 months ticket: S$2580
excluding taxes of about S$50

I dream of rain.
I dream of gardens in the desert sand.
I wake in vain, I dream of love as time runs through my hand.
I dream of fire.
You move in the logic of all my dreams.
This fire burns, I realize that nothing's as it seems

Night and Fog from Japan

2008-09-22T07:49:33Z

Fujiko Nakaya elevates the synthesis of artistic immersion to a literal level as audiences find themselves enshrouded within her art.

And nothing best encompasses and evokes “Wonder”, the theme of this year’s biennale, than her visible yet impalpable medium- fog.

Along with music and a light display, Nakaya has created a giant lingering cloud of fog that has engulfed the Esplanade Bridge as part of her work for the Singapore Biennale entitled, Noontide.

The walk-through installation presents rolling clouds that take on different shapes in the play of light. She transforms the underpass of the bridge in the heart of the city, a space that sees hundreds of people walk beneath it everyday without much musing, into a totally foreign and otherworldly entity.

Nakaya’s love affair with her curious medium has spanned nearly four decades and has gained her international repute both within and outside of the art world.

Her ideas had their genesis back in 1970 when she created her debut fog sculpture at the Osaka International Fair, aimed at raising awareness about the environment.

36 years later, her fog sculpture in 2006 at the Nuit Blanche Contemporary Art Festival in Toronto was one of the most talked about installations at the event, proving that her art still holds its evocative and engaging qualities.

Having even designed and patented a device for making fog sculptures, Nakaya’s mysterious fog has been a recurring motif in explicating the themes of her work.

Although her work has been well documented, recognized and showcased around the world, little is known about the reclusive and press-shy Nakaya.

She remains an embodiment of the empirical mystery and wonder that is at the center of her art.

Within the realm of her spectral fog that has surrounded the Esplanade Bridge, Nakaya opens certain delicate windows of thought.

Her art challenges our perceptions of existence and calls into question nebulous concepts of reality versus illusion. At the same time, she returns her audience bound inextricably to the regimen of big city life, back to nature.

With the Singapore River and our burgeoning business district as a backdrop, the Esplanade Bridge sits at the very hub of the city. Amidst a corporate jungle where offices have become temples, money the new God and capitalism, a religion far more in vogue than Scientology, Nakaya’s mysteriously displaced fog silently but purposefully beseeches its audience to stop and reconnect with the self and nature.

She releases a dense fog that permeates the space but it then takes on a life of its own. The artist allows it to be shaped, stretched and swept by the weather conditions and the interposition of the bridges features. It allows audiences to, even for a short while, escape into a strange, celestial world.

The fog is like a misty requiem for nature that one flourished on the land now urbanized and paved to make way for a civilization of excess. And Nakaya presents the idea that this brief ‘escape’ back into nature is indeed imperative.

It reminds us that we are also creatures of nature possessing great fluidity even though we often forget this becoming entrapped in the mechanisms and rigid scaffoldings of society.

Another theme of her work is challenging the audience to see through different perspectives.

When usually reliant on vision to make sense of the world, one is now forced to use other means to maneuver through the haze. The fog that at first seems like a sequestering veil actually becomes a stimulus that triggers one’s intuition along with all other senses.

By partially obscuring our consciousness of physical reality, Nakaya provides an avenue for the audience to open other portals of consciousness in their minds.

There is certainly something very unsettling about the concepts that the artist toys with.

She wants to prove that these self-constructed realities can be just as clear and true as the physical realities that we see around us everyday.

Nakaya calls into question our ability as human beings to shift between the layers of our beliefs and feelings to create our own personal realities, which can be just as ‘real’ as the physical manifestations of spatial bounds.

Therefore by eclipsing our natural surroundings she challenges her audience to open alternate realities and perspectives in their minds.

The idea is presented that reality and illusion are not polar opposites but merely states of mind that one can shift between, create and destroy.

Intellectually confounding, as her work may seem, experientially, her installation takes one’s breath away.

Time plays an important role in her art and what puts Fujiko Nakaya in a class of her own, is that her art defies all the conventions of traditional sculpture.

Most people would imagine a sculpture to be a tangible, solid and static art form probably observed in a gallery.

Critics judge a sculpture by its form, value and interaction with space. Nayaka has literally dissolved these three distinctive features of traditional sculpture and created an immersive experience out of it.

Her sculpture is anything but static. The installation is four-dimensional in the sense that unlike a bronze sculpture in a park, her art lies in a realm that occupies both space and time. As the natural environment shapes and plays with her fog, it is constantly in motion.

What becomes most curious is that in creating this ethereal experience, her audience becomes her art.
We walk through an ordinary setting that has been turned into an unreal wonderland, marveling at the new physicality of the space in the fog, only to realize that in fact we are the objects of wonder.

Nakaya’s work takes a very heuristic approach and does not attempt to galvanize its audience towards some profound realization. Noontide simply exists as a cloud of fog in the night, drawing us in like children curious to explore and roam in the new and unknown.

Einstein once said, “The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all art and science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead.”

Christina

2008-09-20T16:25:47Z

baby

2008-08-16T14:14:05Z

In between studying for my papers, I made a list of a number of things i want to do with my life - long term. I'm happy that i'll at least have these two years in the army to accomplish some things before i head off to Uni. Very happy with my list. Bruce his girlfriend and her younger sister Chantelle will be in Singapore in 2 weeks. They are en route to Australia, New Zealand and Figi where they plan to travel for a year while working in farms.

Had a nice chat with rooney today. He is 9 years old and is a drummer in a jazz band. My aunt sent my grandfather and I a dvd recording of his gig. Pretty impressive considering all his other bandmates are in their twenties or thirties.

Skype is fun with your cousins.
And this is how we roll.

fly

2008-07-15T09:28:43Z

I say the tragedy is how I've spent the nights with the light on.
So shine the light on all of your friends,
When it all amounts to nothing in the end.

waterfalls

2008-07-13T11:16:44Z

It was pretty fun.. 14 people, a mini bus, big family dinners and the waterfalls.
You know how sometimes you cant express something by saying it just the right way?
Well, i told B and Durrrr that i was really happy that we got to spend the weekend together, finally.
But the truth is that there just is no other way of showing or saying now i truly felt just being with them the whole holiday.
I've missed you both very much. This weekend has been the happiest one i've had since i came back from Europe.

p.s. Got a fantastic pair of Marciano jeans that was 420 but i paid one quarter of that cause there was a clearance sale. Now all i need to do is alter it a little :)

14 people in a mini bus!

Listening to my IPod.

hah!

the other grandmum

The waterfalls!
(p.s. the effects are not photoshopped at all. I just am getting better with my camera :)

orang minyak

bindhu's mum

my mum

i'll walk the way the wind blows

2008-07-06T13:48:26Z

Joyce and I

please, Wise up.

2008-05-26T12:48:28Z

I hope you feel better about your dad, B.
"Someday we're gonna get so hiiiiiiiigh..." :)
the only good thing that came out of my day of starving was that
I got to develop my contact sheet and negatives by myself.
My mother is leaving for Portugal in 24 hours.
But I just cant wait for MY plane out of here.
Just 3 more weeks.

Here is my art.

Prepare a list of what you need.
Before you sign away the deed.
Cause it's not going to stop.
It's not going to stop,
It's not going to stop,
Until you wise up...

equivocal

2008-05-24T00:51:09Z

"In our endeavor
We are never seeing eye to eye
No guts to sever
So forever may we wave goodbye
And you're always telling
That it's my turn to move
When I wonder what could make the needle jump the groove"

"I wont fall for the oldest trick in the book
So don't sit there and think
You're off of the hook
By saying there is no use changing
Cause that's just what you are "

"Acting steady
Always ready to defend your fears
What's the matter with the truth
Did I offend your ears?"

"Now I could talk to you till I'm blue in the face
But we'd still run around the very same place
With you running around
Put me out of the race"

"So maybe you're right
Nobody can take
Something older then time
And hope you could make it better"

"That would be a mistake
So take it just so far
Cause that's just what you are "

"Acting steady
Always ready to defend your fears
What's the matter with the truth
Did I offend your ears?"

"When you're sleepwalking it is a danger to wake you
Even when it is apparent where your actions will take you
Cause that's just what you are."

I say, "War".

2008-05-22T12:10:31Z

Until the philosophy, which holds one race superior and another inferior,
is finally and permanently discredited and abandoned,
Everywhere is war.

Until there is no longer first class or second class citizens of any nation.
Until the color of a man's skin, is of no more significance than the color of his eyes,
I've got to say "war".

That until the basic human rights, are equally guaranteed to all, without regard to race,
I'll say "war".

Until that day the dream of lasting peace...
World-citizenship and the rule of international morality will remain just a fleeting illusion to be pursued,
But never obtained.
And everywhere is war.

Until the ignoble and unhappy regime which holds all of us through, Child-abuse, Sub-human bondage has been toppled, utterly destroyed,
Everywhere is war.

War in the east.
War in the west.
War up north.
War down south.
There is war,
And the rumors of war.

Sarah's 19th!

2008-05-11T09:30:56Z

Fantastic night! Super fun and she was ALL TEHH SEXXX
in her red leopard print dress and new heels.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Dinner at Iguana and then clubbed away.
Petey's friends joined us and completed our entourage.
So great for me cause I've not been out with our whole little gang in the longest while.

I'm really in love with some of these pictures.
Quite happy with myself :)

my all time favourite ravers

In the early morning

HAHA! outside cheers waiting for the cashier to finish shitting stones.

Oh Lover, you should have come over

2008-04-20T08:29:16Z

"Lonely is the room/ the bed is made/ the open window lets the rain in.
Burning in the corner is the only one,
who dreams, he had you with him.

Well maybe I'm just too young,
to keep good love from going wrong.
Yes, I feel too young to hold on.
And Im much too old to break free and run.

Oh lover, you shouldve come over,
cause its not too late..."

p.s. Kimberly, you were so right :) thank you

old pictures

2008-04-17T14:12:20Z

Photobucket is annoying me. Anyway, here are some pictures i took for my final O Level art instillation (photography being my main medium). Went backpacking through the really rural parts of north India with my dad and brother. And at the time i was really into portrait photography. I'm currently going to start work on a diptych series (focusing mainly on people and body parts). So if anyone is interested do let me know. Also i am also thinking of a black and white series of nudes so if your interested you can email me privately, (if you dont want to comment here). And of course no faces, and identities secret and all that so no worries. I'm also not looking for good bodies. I'm looking for interesting bodies of different shapes/sizes/colours.

The pictures in this entry are all from India and from along the border with China. (Except for a few photo's of Singapore.) All are taken with a Nikon F56 film camera, as i was 15 years old at the time and didnt have a digital, so these are not edited pictures. Also the grains in certain pictures are authentic film grain and not digitally manipulated.

Had a great time with Peter today watching movies at my grandpee's house! :)
Oh my i have a small assignments due for my bookwriting and publish class as well as television journ which i have yet to start on :(

This is Calcutta.

These are the children of "cremators" along the banks of Ganges River in Varanasi. Sorry i cant seem to find my pictures of the Ganges at this point but i did have some beautiful shots of oil lamps floating down the river at night. Anyway while i was there, these kids would play along the banks of the river and they thought i was interesting and talked to me so i took pictures of them. The funny thing was that i was 15 and probably not much older than they were.

Rishikesh (dont know if i spelt it right) is a region very north of India and is at nearly the source of the Ganges river. Its very serene and beautiful and alot of hippies settled here in the 60's and made it their sanctuary.

Near the border of Nepal and you can see the Himalayas in the distance.

These were taken at a Buddhist monastery where we stayed. I'm not even a real follower of Buddhism, although it fascinates me, but you can feel spirit from the very ground you stand on here- indescribable.

This is one of the women who stay at the monastery and most of the monks you see are refugee's from Tibet.

(okay this is Singapore)

(my film got spoilt but i like the effect)

Amsterdam

2008-04-06T17:07:25Z

I'm falling into a mini depression being back here. Everything seems so alienated from me. But i got the nicest email from Vanessa and i love her so fucking much. Cant wait till everyone comes to Singapore instead of me visiting people all the time (GET YOUR PLANE TICKETS NOW). Amsterdam and Berlin has great things to buy man. Saw my sarah today and again sometime for her mum's cooking (HAH!) and tomorrow its a movie with peter and my grandpa. Bindhuuuu tell me when you can! Yay Kim is BACCCK everyone!

Anyway i'm just not in the mood to really write. So i'll just give you pictures.
I have long hair and an industrial piercing so dont be shocked.

I want a boathouse too.

:)

HOMO-monument? HAHA! Doesn't that already sound a little derogatory.

smiling :)

Berlin

2008-04-04T18:07:01Z

Berlin was FANTASTIC!

Got there and went to Kasha's place at 12. Donaustr. only to find out that she wasnt home cause she was hitchhiking back from Amsterdam, but the other girls let me in. Had some great talk in the kitchen. Didnt do ANY tourist stuff except visit the National Gallery where the bust of Nefertiti is.

Met up with Ross in Berlin and we went over to J's apartment and cooked dinner and then hung out. But he left for Poland two days after so Kasha, Johannes and I took bikes and cycles around Berlin. The street art is great.

Berlin in adrenaline, parties, clubs, fucking nice people, art, music, films, restaurants, alternative lifestyles.

On my last night we went to this trailer park run by hippies and people who have made "sanctuaries" within Berlin. They live in small plots of land in Caravans and they use the land to grow their own vegetables (i noticed many mushrooms) and they live off what they have. So you can imagine that my totally pierced, tattooed and dreadlocked Kasha, would bound to know SOMEONE there. Anyway they have their own makeshift cinema where they screened Maria Full Of Grace (and other arthouse films every week).

Kasha and Johannes knew nearly every Rastafarian in the neighbourhood who supplied them with many authentic cakes and goodies. Our particular favourite was this really nice sugar coated chocolate cake with rainbow icing. It was called spacecake, but we never knew why. we just liked iiiiiiitttttttttttttttttt.

I love them so much. really. best fucking week EVER!
OH and i have EXTREMELY different hair and a really HUGE new piercing.

The four girls of sweet old No.12 Donaustr.

scoured Nations for dan and STILL didnt find it.

Park for junkies, ONLY. so you can imagine the fun.

Hippie faculty members

!!!

who doesnt want a Castro t-shirt?

No more wars. No more walls. A United World.

all-day long! even their cow's a psychedelic.

So after some home made cake we were really happy and Johannes brought some extensions so we tied them to trees and tight-rope walked. Fucking hilarious.

Saw Joseph Finnes at the movie preview but i guess he's not as great as his brother. hah!

SARAH!

Berliner Dom

All Art Has Been Contemporary

Praha

2008-03-26T18:41:30Z

Prague has been great. Just decided to do this post before I go out to meet Tomas at his Uni dormitory for a little house party! (YAY!) And then we are going to a few clubs. The nightlife in Prague is so amazing. Sorry there arnt much pictures, but its a good thing because it means i was having too much fun.

Went to a Gregory Crewdson exhibition at the Rudolphinum and it was so DAMN good. PLEASE check his work out if you have not already because it really redefines art photography. He has done a few collections, all of which are really great with most of his theme's revolving around American suburbia and the isolation and alienation of a decadent society as a whole. But that's hardly doing justice to fully explain his genius but yo must understand i am anxious to go meet people who are all geared up to tear up the nightlife scene tonight!

(Also went for a Salvador Dali and Alphonso Mucha exhibition and that really just speaks for itself)

Anyway it's really interesting how you can still see traces of the communist regime here in what used to be the old Czechoslovakia. Prague is so beautiful at night and it's really very medieval looking. Things are cheap.

Like i was telling timothy, beer is 70 cents (our currency). So you can really only begin to fathom the rampage i've left this place in... HAHA!

Prague Castle is so beautiful. COME TO PRAGUE EVERYONE! Before they change currency to Euros!
I've got a train to Berlin in the early morning!

After partying last night we all took a stroll along Charles Bridge and this was the view we breathed in while munching on Eurodogs. Perfect. Oh the club overlooks Prague castle. So it was nearby. I was too pissed to walk far anyway. HAHA!

CREWDSON IS SUCH THE RAVE!

Prague castle

THE BIGGEST CLUB IN CENTRAL EUROPE!

Vienna

2008-03-25T10:21:26Z

It snowed EVERYDAY in Vienna. Even when i got to Prague yesterday we had a little snow. Most beautiful.
Vienna was great. Very historic and you really get a feel for the whole Austrian Empire and its greatness. Oh i saw my favourite Gustav Klimt paintings at the Belvedere! But no photography so unfortunately i cant show. But he was such a great painter and pictures of this works will never do justice to the magnificence that it truly is.

Also saw the balcony where Hitler stood and rallied Austrians in WW2.

But anyway, I had a great time staying with Helga and we had some really intense discussions and I feel i've grown so much in the past few days. Also met Immanuel and we walked around talking for hours and went to a vegetarian restaurant, cause he is veg, and then at night we went back to his flat near the city center and he cooked Kaiserschmarren and smoked banned substances and watched the Simpsons and laughed like idiots and then we went to town near midnight and met Tomas and the rest. GREAT night.

Okay I just got my final modules for the final sem and i'm taking Photojourn, Book-writing/Publishing and Television Journalism. DAMN happy but gotta be prepared to work hard. ANYONE KNOW WHO IS IN MY CLASS?

Sarah, we will sit and have a chat when i'm back home okay? The only reason why i let you be is cause you are the most capable of us when it comes to dealing with issues and i know you'll be fine with or without me. But i miss you so!

Peter, read my email again. Hope you liked the second one with pictures :) Feel better buddy!

Kimberly have a GREAT TIME IN PERTH! I'm sure it will be a blast. Please photodocument it all and i'll come over when i'm back and we'll have tea and go through our trips and have that discussion.

BINDHU, I cannnnnnnt liiiiiiiiiiiivee, if livin' is withouuuuuut yooooou. (Okay i know i should never burst into song cause its hideous)

Hitler's Balcony

Hofburg

St Stephens

Immanuel petitioning for the Free Tibet campaign.

Thanks for the recommendation Sarah!

(it was shaky cause i was HIGH and couldnt hold anything properly)

KIM i took this for you!

It snowed during lunch!

Easter in Vienna!

snowface. like scarface but little more hideous because of the climate.

All this is the view in the morning from Helga's house.

Atop Vienna!