diary

Recent happenings

1) My friend Brian Gothong Tan is having an exhibition at the Esplanade tunnel called 'The Mysterious Book of Invisible Children'...It's some sort of a more mature (though I can't say more interesting) version of 'Heavenly Cakes and Sentimental Flowers'...but it is certainly more professional...and better than the other two exhibitions at Sculpture Square. Do have a look at it if you pop by the Espalande. Just walk from Citilink to Esplanade and you'll bypass it along the way.

2) I'm eagerly awaiting the Antoni Tapies retrospection which will happen on 30th September in the Singapore Art Museum. Tapies is one of the better abstract artists, belonging to what they call the 'Transavantgarde' movement, I believe (if my failing memory is still correct)...whereby there is an emphasis on the material and form of the artwork (as opposed to 'meaning')...Anyway, I expect it to be decent if not good...and ignore terms like 'Transavantgarde' because they confuse more than they enlighten...

3) Yesterday, I went to Towers at Suntec and bought 'Hide and Seek' by Le Couple, an old CD dated back to 1994 (*gasps*) ....Tried about only four tracks...It's absolutely fantabulous. While the CD costs a staggeing $31, I guess I've already felt its worth in the first few tracks alone...well worth the money.

4) While I have bought many books (three notable ones are Dostoevsky's 'The Idiot', Virginia Woolf's 'To the Lighthouse' and Tanizaki's 'The Makioka Sisters'), I have not been able to read beyond the first twenty pages of any one, due to my busy work load. And honestly, anyone who has tried reading Woolf and Dostoevsky knows how tedious their writing styles are.

5) Continuing from point 4, thanks to two of my friends (LZ and SY) and one student, I have been very inspired to write lately, so much so that I'm neglecting my marking and lesson-planning. That is being highly undisciplined, so I promised myself today that I would finish marking and all my chores and lessons before I start writing. Anyway, writing is a convenient substitute for art because it allows room for mistakes more easily and readily. Also, it helps that I do not treat writing half as religiously as my art, so it's more fun and relaxing.

6) On life in general, I still have not moved out of the phase of feeling like Sensei in Soseki's 'Kokoro'. Nothing much to look forward to, considering that my hols will be spent attending the Police Officer Course for NPCC. If anything, my good friend SY is on a trip to Japan and let's hope she brings back Miki Imai's 'Ivory II' or 'A Night at the Chapel' to cheer me up. Even if she doesn't, she should have at least finished Ishiguro's 'An Artist of the Floating World'.

7) Being in a neighbourhood school, it is very difficult to groom what one might call the creme-de-la-creme. There are only a few students here who exhibit potential of being capable of great things (by this I mean like becoming a good writer, musician, artist etc.) Currently the most teachable one is Aneesha. I hope to groom her into a writer, though her language is not the best in the cohort, she listens, and that is most important. Students must also be good listeners in order to go far. I have a mind to make her do a few things, but the two most immediate on my mind after the exams would be to make her read the Holy Bible and watch Miyazaki's 'Whispers of the Heart'. If anything else, I believe their music teacher has been doing a good job of introducing Bach and Pachabel and the like to the students. If Sherlyn and Gloria are as teachable as Aneesha, they would be able to go far as well...but it's too early to say anything. Only time will tell.

That's all for now...going back to marking....

posted by sin @ 10:38 AM