What's My Next Art Project?

I always wanted a solo exhibition! The problem is, I do not have sufficient art works to exhibit. Something came into my mind is that I should go find all my missing and sold pieces, buy back or rent them for the show. The matter is, some of them, I don't even know where they are now. 

I do have a major project which I had planned ahead of. I had bought all the materials and waiting for it to be shipped to me! Yes, this is my first time using Alibaba.com! I was so nervous, due to the high amount of cons and scams involved. I took the risk anyway. I'm lack of fund to source for the materials and the only solution is to get it from China.

It is going to be an overhead art installation. I don't know where it will be published. Looking for a suitable location and permit to display it might be difficult. Since my style is not heavy in its aesthetic value, it makes it harder to get a permit. 

The value I want to be in my art, is the intellectual value! Something with a meaning. It has to be something that sparks the emotions! I can't wait for my materials to arrive!!! :D Oh, so excited!

Market Trash: 2016 Another Great Depression?

Recently I had been blogging a lot about my personal interests on arts. It's time for me to continue blogging trashes!

It came in suddenly in my mind today morning, I just feel like something is going to happen in year 2016. Mainly inspired by the BBC World Service news about 2016 Presidential Election in United States. Well, I suddenly, just suddenly, something came into my mind out of no where... The new great depression is going to come in end of 2016!

Why? You may ask... it's already happening, that the cheap oil price is now holding it back! If you go to the Google Finance and view on the Nasdaq overall graph, you will get something like the graph below:

So what's wrong with that? It's the change of the President of United States of course! Year 2000, Bush taken over from old Clinton. Of course, one may argue that the market was effected by the Y2K phobia...etc... and bla and bla... How about year 2008 when Obama came in? Another depression! Well, I am not economist, not historian or even expert in the market... not even a citizen of United States... What I'm blogging here is just something spark out of my mind... that it has happened twice, it will happen again! LOL.

The market itself is supposed to be a roller coaster. It is about time for it to fall. The recent cheap oil price had kept the other business profitable. How it could happen? The oil price might have suddenly boom and causing the other business to become not so profitable, thus run into the recession. 

I had a wild dream, that the people keep on pumping up the oil, people keep on storing it, people keep on selling it cheap, cutting costs, trying to win the market... and then suddenly the whole oil field gone by a serious accident that caught blazing flames! And the earth finally burns like the sun! Therefore the Armageddon has arrived! 

Okay, that's all for the trashses! Please be informed that everything in this blog post is just a piece of trash! :D 

Rest In Peace: LKY

I finally found my album in Facebook to grab back the photos I've taken during Singapore Biennial 2013! One art installation that brought me to tears! Happy and Free by Boo JunFeng.

Let's just imagine Singapore never left Malaysia... I just unable to imagine it anymore. As a Malaysian, I remember that I was told that LKY "gila kuasa", "mangambil kesempatan"... etc.. After I grown up, my common sense started to play the major role. Such a small country, such a small land, lack of resources. Water is the most basic resources every human need. Cutting the tie with Malaysia is like cutting the water supply. Whatever historical text. May be it is just for the sake of graduating from school. But the truth will be there, the common sense will guide my mind to the truth.

And because common sense told me so, I respect LKY, he successfully turn Singapore from swamp to a city without the generous help of neighboring countries. I would say that it is still in the 2nd place, since I read about Doha changed from dessert to metropolitan in 30 years...

I totally feel the ideal utopia JunFeng is trying to express. A less stressful Singapore, with more resource, less metropolitan but more relaxed and happy. But the truth is not so "Happy and Free". There are tears... a tear so real that it came from a man who is suppose to be a strong leader.

Good bye LKY... RIP. 

The "Lu" Star and it's meaning? Is it Fertility? Or Status?

During the KLAB + Art for Grabs event, the topic which really strikes my interest is one of the visitor bought up a question regarding the "Lu" star (禄星), the source which inspire the Fertility painting in the Triptych. Well, it was a good discussion. I have to admit that I don't really know about the history and polytheistic believes of Chinese people.

After the event, I had done some Baidu research on the topic (to find the most accurate info related to Chinese, Google is not the choice of search engine), and found out that the original should have total Five deities representing different values. 福禄寿喜财. The five values stands for Fertility, Status, Longevity, Happiness, and Prosperity. It is confused enough since the Chinese folklore were documented in various versions and the Chinese language character alone, reflects various meaning. For example, "Fu" 福 , translated as Blessing, It also have the same pinyin as the word 富，which means rich and abundant. The original meaning of "Fu" should be the blessing of fertility. Where in the old days, Chinese people believed that being fertile is a blessing. However, today, we normally see "Fu" as prosperity. 

Thus, as a conclusion, the visitor is totally right! "Lu" (禄) represent status and authority. Although today, it could be the one hugging the baby. I also found out that Japanese also believe in these values, and they were represented by one deity. 

I have to declare that I believe in no deities! I see the values as important elements of living. Creating a deity to represent the values are such a confusing idea. Which deity should hug the baby? It  does not mean anything to me. As I believe all blessings, prosperity, fertility happiness, authority or statuses are given by one God who created me. That's why my paintings are just for a CNY decoration. They should not be seen as the deities at all. They represent the values and how to achieve them by hard work. If the paintings make anybody think that they are representing the deities, I shall burn them to ashes! 

So far, I really love this triptych because they brought up lots of discussion and thoughts.

My Exhibition @ Art For Grabs 2015

Finally have time to blog about the event! The overall experience is good, but a bit disappointed by the blocking of the path. The police denied the public entry into Dataran Merdeka area due to fear of protest! 

I am glad and happy that I finally done my first "joint exhibition"! Yes! Joint exhibition means there are other artists in the same event! Although I only have the triptych for show, it was a fun experience! I am so so so so so happy to see people laugh, smile, shocked and disgusted by my paintings! Yes, the details on the porcelain pots are the key to all the emotion and laughter. 

I have made some copies of this booklet to be given for free during the event. To share the ideas is my main objective of the show. I didn't really "sold" the triptych, it should be "given" to a private collector. An art work is like a child for the author, and I am happy that my "child" now is on the hand of a good owner. May be later when there's another art event in KL, I will be able to bring them out again for show!

The things I grabbed 2 pottery work of Caeman Loo. They look gorgeous! Very rustic and handmade feel! Unique in a way that it is different from the machine made items which we saw every day in the market. Yet, it is not a rough job. I bought the lamb just because it is cute. 

Siri Beg Kertas: Doodle dan Puisi

The other thing I grab is the zines from Doodle Malaysia's booth. The reason I love this zine is just because of the cover art! I have to admit that I'm lack of the Malay language skill to fully appreciates the poems in the zine, but for sure I'm able to appreciate the great art piece on the cover by Rizal. All the monsters burst from his head... Monsters are with different expressions, depicting different emotions and imaginations, and they were pictured in such a cute and cuddly way. The overall illustrates that the author was so nervous, no longer able to hold the monster from bursting our of his head. It is beautiful!

Other interesting activities in the event, would be the on the spot doodling. It is fun to see talented people gather around and express their artistic ability! 

Although I personally thinks that there are room for improvement. I surely join the next Art for Grabs! Wish to see more artists in the future.

Happy Lunar New Year

Finally, I get my paintings up on my living room. I was so afraid that my parents dislike them. I was wrong. Happy to get complimented by my mom about the colours of the paintings. They didn't realize the detail thought. 

The Fu Lu Sou Triptych is the only piece I brought all the way back from Turin. I want them to be the main decoration of my new home for the second Chinese New Year we celebrate in this house. Last year's CNY was a mess due to lack of time. We were expelled by our previous landlord and have to move less then a month. Which left us no option but to buy our own house. 

We met a really nice house owner. The owner, the lawyer and the buyer are from three different generation of Convent Teluk Intan Alumni. What a surprise. I also learn that, friendship can sometimes be a very weak link when the other side choose to let go. The landlord who choose to expel us, were actually my brother's nanny, and my parents had been calling them part of our "family relatives" before the incident. We know that because, previously, every Chinese New Year, they will brought us to visit the landlord's home. The most difficult emotional experience for my parents, is that their friendship of more than 30 years, suddenly became nothing. Until today, I never understand why they did this to us. People told us that the landlord want us to move out ASAP so that they may have enough time to renovate the house for their son to make Horse year babies. Superstition, for the superstitious benefits of their own family, one willing to sacrifice a friendship. My mom told me that she could never forgive the landlord. 

During the process of purchasing our new house, the owner told us that there is a tenant. Due to our bad experience with our previous landlord, we do not want to give troubles to the existing tenant since we had bought the house in urgent matters. We want to let the tenant to have enough time on finding his new place. Thus, we didn't do much renovation before we move in. 

Back to the Triptych, the only piece which I'm willing to give up all other pieces in order to bring them back to my home. Those pieces which I have left in Turin and Milan are the ones which I spend most time and effort, they have more details in them. 

Although the Triptych piece are a decorative piece, for me, it is an important piece in my life so far. They represent the superstition of Chinese people. The three main Chinese deities which brought Prosperity, Longevity, and Fertility. They are the values which our previous landlord heavily believes in and it is my attempt to mock their believes:

Fertility, needs only love as supplement, and lots of love making.
Longevity, needs a healthy lifestyle, and daily exercise.
Prosperity, needs the tools of trade, and full of hard work.

These three values, are my strong believes. I do not believe that getting a nice house with nice Feng Shui or giving birth to a baby in a year of a great Zodiac will brought them good fortune. 

In March, I will carry this piece to Kuala Lumpur and exhibit in a local art event. Everybody is invited to come! Entrance is free! I wish to spread my stories and ideas brought in this Triptych. I will update this post again once the event organizer had confirm everything.

Love,

Avichen Kei

  

Ang Pao Marketing

I personally believes that red packets can be a better marketing tool compare to calenders and diary. Based on my personal experience of getting too many calenders every year, and ended up thrown into the bin while it is still unused (because I only need one). While red packets, were carried and pass to many people, old and young, being used as decorations... etc... Sometimes, I need more than one! Thus, I recommend, forget about nice expensive calenders as corporate gifts! Use red packets, green packets, white packets, purple packets, gift wraps as corporate gifts!

Let me justify my logic behind:

Intimate touch to the targeted group: During the Christmas season, provide your customers some free gift wrapping paper or ribbons which are nicely designed and of course, full of your company's logo. Yes, the kids received the gifts but before they have it, the adults are the ones who bought it and carry it all over. Same goes to the red packets during Lunar New Year. Green packets during Hari Raya (in Malaysia only)... etc. 

I do understand that distributing calenders or diaries or planners are good since it is more general and everybody needs one. Well, that's also the problem since everybody just need one! The competitiveness of the "Market" is so high, that only the best gift will survive and serve it's purpose. 

If a physical calender is your thing, try to make it out of the traditional way! yes some people put some hunky fire fighters or sexy super models. It's not going to work since it only targeting a group of people who fancy those kind of stuffs. To do the calender in a better way, for example, put it on a mug, or mouse pad. Some crazier ideas include, T-shirts with calender, plate, letter opener, mouse, whatever which is not common to have a calender. Something which people will not just throw them into the bin. 

Red Packets Marketing: I must say, it is the most efficient marketing item among Chinese people. We need to use them (many of them) and we carry them along, passing them to people. It can be the most desirable free flowing "flyers" carrying your brands on it.

Thus, I wish everybody who celebrates Lunar New Year, a very happy holiday!

Disclaimer, Avichen is a professional Trademark and Branding consultant. Do contact her on: asvoria@live.com for free consultation (for Small businesses only).