Seeing the Red Dot in Singapore

Singapore is an inspiring city for contemporary design and if you only have an afternoon to spend exploring the best of it, the Red Dot Design Museum should be your starting point. Located in a the former traffic police headquarters in the central business district, the concept behind the museum is to showcase new talent and projects as well as communicate forward thinking ideas in the field.

The Red Dot Design Award is a coveted international design prize awarded by the Design Centre Nordrhein Westfalen, based in Essen, Germany. The first award was given in 1955, with submissions growing to over 12,000 entries from more than 60 countries in the last 5 years. The awards fall into 3 categories: product design, communication design, and design concept. The museum in Singapore serves as both the location for the awards ceremony, to be held this year in early July, and as a place to display the best of previous winners.

One thing that you can expect from a museum highlighting design is excellent presentation. The Red Dot Museum doesn’t disappoint: with interactive installations, an intriguing colonial architecture, and ongoing events, it’s a hub for all things design in the city. From silly to serious, from font generators to Bionic cars, toilets to drills, what you see will change your perspective of the products you use and the advertising you read.

More information about Red Dot can be found here: http://en.red-dot.org/

White Line Hotels edit the New Majestic Hotel features impressive art and a special eye for design as well. Each of the 30 unique rooms was conceived of and executed by emerging artists. From beds that hang, to giant colourful goldfish hand painted on the wall, art reigns in this sumptuous traveller’s retreat.

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Categories: Singapore, Culture, Design

Contributing writer: Alicia Reuter

SINGAPORE BIENNALE 2011: OPEN HOUSE

Tatzu Nishi, The Merlion Hotel (artist’s rendering), 2011, construction-installation, © the artist

Some say that spontaneity is a virtue, others that it’s never too early to plan ahead. With 2 months to go until opening day, perhaps the 3^rd Singapore Biennale is near enough to satisfy those who don’t like to plan too much ahead, and still far enough off to calm the nerves of those who like things laid out in advance on their calendar?

This edition of Southeast Asia’s leading Biennale invites visitors to an “open house” of the artistic process. 63 artists from 30 countries will be creating new commissions or premiering new works under the curatorial direction of Russell Storer and Trevor Smith and Artistic Director Matthew Ngui, himself an artist whose practice focuses on installation, video, performance and public art. It’s hard to speculate on highlights from an impressive list of participating artists, but one surely not to miss is Singaporean Ming Wong, whose “remakes” of Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s films are hilarious and provocative critiques of identity and filmic construct.

One of the best things about Biennales is how, with locations of the event spread across the city, the atmosphere seems to permeate the spaces in between. With venues as perhaps expected as the National Museum, to those as perhaps unexpected as the historic Kallang Airport, the 3^rd Singapore Biennale is sure to be no exception.

March 13 – May 15, 2011, check out the official website for more information about times and locations: http://www.singaporebiennale.org/

The best place to base yourself during the Biennale has to be White Line Hotels edit the New Majestic Hotel.  Itself a living installation, whose to say it won’t be your highlight of the Biennale?

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Categories: Singapore, Art, Events

Contributing writer: Melissa Frost

East Answers West: Art Stage in Singapore

The West has Art Basel, the Venice Biennale, the Frieze Art Fair, but what big contemporary fairs are coming out of the East? Art Stage Singapore, for one.  Taking place between the 12^th and 16^th of January, 2011, Art Stage Singapore is Asia’s answer to all those fairs in Europe and the US. Boasting international galleries from both East and West, the event is anticipated to be an extravagant affair, especially considering the wealth of the financial markets in Asia.

Organized by the Former director of Art Basel, Lorenzo Rudolf, the goal is to support and stimulate the exploding Asian art market. Anyone who follows art has seen a turn to Asia Pacific for collectors, publications, and galleries. The inaugural fair will host a carefully curated selection of about 90 international galleries.  The fair recognizes that Asian art still remains a separate market from the rest of the world, and the goal of Art Stage is simple – to mix a selection of top Western galleries with top Eastern galleries, strengthening the position of the galleries worldwide.

Events like Formula One and the Asia Fashion Exchange have established Singapore as a destination, Art Stage intends to continue this development. Although the event is private, it has strong public support as a catalyst for the Singapore’s ongoing transformation. The event has several parts: the Project Stage will feature over 20 special projects from emerging Asian artists, which have been specially curated for the fair.  Educational Programmes is a series of special lectures for art insiders, Western collectors and potential buyers. There is also a range of fringe events planned, the highlight being the exhibition of pieces from private collections at the Singapore Art Museum.  Just a few of the names in this huge event include: Ai Wei Wei (China), Shilpa Gupta (India), Liu Wei (China), I Nyoman Masriadi (Indonesia), Nam June Paik (Korea), Yoshitomo Nara (Japan), Shen Shaomin (China), Agus Suwage (Indonesia), L.N. Tallur (India) and Zeng Fanzhi (China).

More information can be found at the official Art Stage website: www.artstagesingapore.com

Images Courtesy of:

Richard Koh Dine Art (Kuala Lumpur / Singapore)

Megumi Ogita Gallery (Tokyo)

Everything about Art Stage Singapore has been developed with a careful attention to detail and a consideration for the perfection that can be found in a fusion of East meets West. The same could be said for White Line member hotel The New Majestic. Which is, by the way, the perfect place to stay during your trip to Art Stage.

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Categories: Singapore, Art, Events

Contributing writer: Alicia Reuter

Jumaldi Alfi: Life/Art #101: Never Ending Lesson

Valentine Willie Fine Art, Singapore

Whether you had to read it in school, just headbanged to Iron Maiden’s version, or both, seeing a skeleton in a ship can bring The Rime of the Ancient Mariner quickly to mind. Although making no direct reference to Coleridge’s epic poem, nor Iron Maiden’s epic ballad for that matter, Jumaldi Alfi assumes a role reminiscent of that of the ancient mariner as he recalls the proverb “experience is the best teacher” in his series of new works.

A series of “blackboard” paintings, installation, and a video projection come together to form Alfi’s Life/Art #101: Never Ending Lesson. His installation of a skeleton in a ship weighted down with innumerable sticks of chalk serves as an inescapably dark, but also undeniably humorous, centerpiece to an exhibition devoted to the idea that a lifetime of experience gathering is also a lifetime learning process. The “blackboard” paintings, and their occasional childishness, provide a solid counterpoint and make references to the artist’s own learning process through quotations of Joseph Beuys, Martin Kippenberger, Ed Ruscha, and the lyrics of Pink Floyd songs.

Sometimes in life you have to go back to the drawing board. Life/Art #101: Never Ending Lesson creates a theatrical and engaging reminder that this isn’t just something you have to do sometimes, but rather an essential part of living.

November 20, 2010 – December 5, 2010 at Valentine Willie Fine Art, ARTSPACE @ Helutrans, 39 Keppel Road, Tanjong Pagar Distripark, #02-04*, Singapore 089065.

A work of art in itself, the New Majestic Hotel in Singapore is a theatrical and engaging reminder that individuality isn’t just something one-off, but rather an essential part of living.

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Categories: Singapore, Art

Contributing writer: Melissa Frost

Original Beans: Chocolate to Feel Good About at Qi Global

White Line Hotels’ collaborator Original Beans was born out of two loves – chocolate and conservation.  The concept is simple yet brilliant: the world’s best cocoa beans come from their natural environment, equatorial rainforests, yet these rich and diverse environments are disappearing at an astonishing rate.  Therefore, for every bar of Original Beans chocolate that is purchased, local farmers plant a tree that will support the rich biodiversity of the local forest.  The consumer plays an interactive role and is able to track their contribution to the process because every bar comes with a unique tracking number.  With a strict set of principles, and a commitment to active participation, Original Beans is both an example of what a modern company should aspire to and the model that many see as the only way to maintain the environment. Finally, a chocolate we can feel good about eating in more ways then one!

Philipp Kauffmann, co-founder of the company, is dedicated to concepts of sustainability, conservation, and reforestation.  In the 90′s Kaufmann founded an Internet portal for volunteers in development, since then he’s worked with the WWF and on an investment portfolio of biodiversity firms.  He also initiated the reforestation of the deserted delta of the Colorado River with the world’s first saltwater forest.

If you’re planning on being in Singapore on the 9th of October, you’ll have the unique opportunity to hear him speak at Qi Global, the Annual Asian Summit for Sustainable Innovation.  With a line-up of 28 speakers in the field of sustainability, inspiration will be abound.

Need a place to crash in Singapore? Make the New Majestic Hotel your hub.

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Categories: Singapore, Collaborators, Food

Contributing writer: Alicia Reuter