Tuesday, May 31, 2016

First Chapter

  Good morning! I recently had my first ever art exhibition on the May 5th. It is a group exhibition that I did together with my 3 classmates, titled 'The First Chapter'. Because it is indeed our 'first chapter'. It is to showcase our artworks that we did throughout the semester.

 To be honest, I feel kinda regret not writing this post sooner while my memory is still fresh. So this post is all about the exhibition and the challenges we went through to make it a success!


 We actually had our little exhibition in a classroom space because other major seniors were using the gallery hall for their exhibition. At first we were just like what........because it's like we're stuck in this crappy place. So we had no choice because no matter what our exhibition still have to go on and lecturer told us the most important part or the reason for this exhibition was for us to gain experience on how everything works. Ok la when he said that I can feel more willing to do it lmao.

  Also I learnt that when we're facing any challenges, don't complain but find a solution to it. Solutions doesn't fall from the sky, you gotta find it or figure it out. There is really no point in complaining ( I guess I'm saying this because I kept complaining lol )

 Since we're exhibiting in a classroom space, there were alot of furniture that needed to be moved. They were really heavy, then we had to paint the walls, clean the space, scrape the wall, pick up dead rats and all that =________________="  SO MUCH HARD WORK TO DO!!!

First set up

  This was what our first set up looks like. ( Ps it's still in progress ) HAHAHA we were so inexperience that all we did was just taking all the pedestals and PIACKK our artwork there.




We were supposed to have our exhibition on the 22nd of April because we want to tumpang audience from the MultiMedia course seniors' graduating exhibition, because the gallery hall is next to our classroom.

 So the day before 22nd April, we rushed like mad trying to prepare everything! Many things not done. Our posters aren't even out yet!!! until I received a call from my lecturer and he was like ' why not we have the exhibition on 5th of May, same date as the fine art seniors graduation exhibition '... I just jam there like ' are you serious? '  and he was like ' yeah I'm serious ' ...then I'm like okay.......thinking back, ITS OK, BEST DECISION EVER . 



  AND SO our exhibition was pushed to 5th of May, so this time we can tumpang audience from Fine Arts seniors' graduating exhibition because audience that would be coming on the 5th of May would be more suitable. We're fine art students after all!!

  BUT WE STILL HAD TO RUSH FOR 22nd APRIL!  Because my lecturer had invited guest to give opinion on our exhibition, they would be coming around noon. In the morning of 22nd April me and my classmates came really early to touch up,set up and print art labels. So in the morning we cant feel the 'heat' yet so we just dilly dally and do things at our own pace....

UNTIL...the guests were about to arrive and so many things not done yet. That moment was seriously hilarious because everyone was so stressed up, I was as well. But at the same time I kept looking at my classmates super stressed and panicky faces and thinking how funny they looked. Then we run here there, shout here and there it was like chaos!! and then Sabrina just dropped everything, stared her unfinished work then another unfinished work and shouted silently ' F********************KKKKKKKKKKK* and continues stressing with her unfinished work, LOL.


 (I didn't get to take pic of our completed first set up) We made it in the end but an hour late LOL. After discussion, it seems that there were alot of changes to be made! Pedestals had to go because there's too much of them.  Since this isn't a gallery but an art space, we can make it more 'fun' . Plus since it was only 22nd April and our real exhibition date is 5th May, we had time.


 This is a group pic that we took after we finish dealing with all the stress and rush preparing before the guests arrived. My friend posted this and I was like ' issit just me or all of us look like we're dying ' HAHA

YUPPP

Second set up. 

  Thinking back at our first set up, it was really hilarious. Aiman even joked that our exhibition, should be called ' THE PEDESTALS ' hahahaha

  We rested during the weekends and continued with second set up. Here's the progress of our second set up. Because of this we also had to 'level up' our artworks hahaha. From a small tiny work, we make it bigger and better. I feel like our artwork having some digimon revolution or something 



Sabrina resting a lil while haha 




Sabrina's artwork 'Concrete Jungle' in progress~


  We came to class to work on our artworks almost every day ( except weekends of course ). We would always make time to get together for preparations.

  There were funny moments, like when Sabrina sang in a high pitched Chinese opera voice and then Elise came running from the back of the class with her hands placed on her chest, with a panicky face and was like ' oh gosh..did you guys hear that!? ' HAHA we stared at her for a moment and started laughing like mad!

  And how the week before, Me, Aiman and Elise were stressing and Sabrina was so calm and all like don't stress ya guys I have more to do and I ain't stressed. But few days before the exhibition, you can see her stressed like crap. HAHAHA look who's stressed now. ( I think she would smack me when she read this hahaha )


  I'm also very thankful because Elise's mother, Mrs Tan had been preparing lunch for us almost everyday as we had to stay in class from morning till evening. PS Mrs Tan is a really good cook!!! Also during that period I was so broke because I used up most of my allowance buying art materials. So I'm even more grateful for all these delicious lunches!!  THANK YOU MRS TAN!!!






Ok, I assume you guys finished indulging on these delicious food picture. While there's funny and delicious moments, there's also...cough cough horrifying moments....but let me put a picture in between before I write down the horrifying moments.


Horrifying moments is just horrible. There are rats everywhere in this class....You know I don't care the rats BUT THEY DIE EVERY WHERE!! I wasn't joking when i wrote up there ' picking up dead rats ' 

Horrifying Rat-ifying moments 

1# Live Rat swimming on a toilet bowl, stuck there. Thank goodness Sabrina picked up 

2# Dead rat below the sink, cause of death: unknown. Thank goodness Sabrina picked up

3# Rat chewed on my artwork, so there's a hole and I gotta fix it

4# Rat vomit on the shelves DISGUSTING. 

5# RAT POOP EVERYWHERE!!!!

6# Now here's the most rat-ifying moment of all!! Apparently this lil rat was playing with my friend's artwork ( a heavy crown on a plastic plate ). Its on a pretty high shelf...and then...the artwork fell together with the rat and PSHHHHHHH GUASHHH the rat was squashed by the heavy crown and the guts exploded. like literally. oh gosh....

 Nobody noticed the gut exploded dead rat. But we were complaining about the smell and I even said to my friend 'HEY u better bring air freshener tomorrow, ur artwork place so damn smelly la '

 The funny thing is the rat played with his other artwork before its guts exploded. So the morning before we discovered the body, he messaged us this in group chat.


LOL!! it was so funny when he discovered the dead rat at the end of the day, he's like 'guys a rat just died on my artwork ' I was like ' hahahaha yeah right ' turns out he's not lying! 

It's also very funny because Aiman boldly made that statement and in the end he dont even dare to go near it!!! actually me too...like ew....umm....soo......haha....ha......thank goodness Sabrina picked it up . She covered her hands with plastic but EWW RIGHT U CAN STILL FEEL LIKE EXPLODED BODY!! phew....sabrina saved the day again! After pick up the dead rat hor, there's still like rat intestines sticking on the plate ( since it got stucked in between the heavy crown n plate ) 

HAHAHAHAHA I like to keep saying this story to disgust everybody. HAHAHA I quite like to see everyone's disgusted reaction. very funny. I dunno how many time I repeat this story to my family and friends...hahahahahahahahahhaha

Even though I like to cerita it to disgust everyone, I feel like that's it. That's the limit of my endurance. I used to not care about rats but now, after the exhibition...i CANNOT see rats!!!! Whether fake or real, ....NO


Um let's get back to the main part of the story shall we? Finally, by hook or by crook , we made it for 5th of May!!! A lot of people came on that night because there were 2 exhibitions going on at the same time. 



Here's one of my before and after some digimon revolution the second set up!



Hohoho ma Potatoes~~ This artwork is titled Potato Head.
I think I will make another post with all the context of my artworks,if not this post would be too lengthy ( even though it already is ) Here are more artworks that we showcased during the exhibition!






Elise's artwork title Parable of Eggs


Also Elise's artwork Uniform~



Sabrina's concrete jungle





Concrete Jungle's view from the top.


Sabrina's Balance. This artwork is a game haha 



People having fun with that artwork during the opening night!







*picture credit to Aiman*


One of Aiman's artwork, Framing~




Another one of my artwork 矛盾 . Audience is allowed to drink from it la hahaha. Sorry to disappoint, it's not real alcohol, I replaced it with tea. I got alot of funny reactions to this artwork lmao!!

Me: Hey u wanna try and have a drink? 
A: No, I know it's not alcohol. When I came in I was like wahh! ( aka SHING SHING reaction ) but when I saw that it is opened I know its not alcohol. Cheat my feelings. 
Me: hahahahahaha 

Me: U wan drink I pour for u
B: oh no no. No thanks I dun drink alcohol
Me: hahah no it's not alcohol its tea!
B: sure anot? dun trick me!!!

HAHAHA! and then I heard other people wanna sabotage that artwork. They wan buy alcohol from outside, and throw away my tea and pour alcohol inside.LOLOLLOL


People chillin at my artwork~


There are a few more artworks that I didn't include in this post because I dont have proper pictures of them . I'm glad that we had quite alot of positive feedbacks from the visitors!! haha while working on this exhibition I feel like we're going all out of something lmao. 

Anyway, I'm very thankful and grateful to my friends that came for the exhibition!! hohoho  Sorry because didn't get to take picture with some of my friends.





Also, not forgetting, my OLDER brother that came from far far away to support! It probably bore him to death...paiseh



  To me the most exciting part of this exhibition was working together with my classmates even though it was pretty hectic and tiring. It was really great because everyone was just so cooperative. We would have discussion, figuring out solutions for each other, helping out with each other's artwork. I find this exhibition really meaningful to me because my friends were part of it. What I cherish most was working together behind the scenes. The teamwork we had actually amazes me hahaha. I kept thinking like wow I feel so blessed to have them as my classmates.

  Besides that, I'm also very thankful to my lecturer Zelin being so kind and helping us all the way! He even came to check on us during preparations even though he's not feeling very well. 


I look forward to our third year together! 

  Lastly I really thank God for helping me to overcome all the challenges that we faced throughout the exhibition haha. There are alot more things that happened but I don't want to make this post anymore longer LOL. You know at first when we had to showcase our artwork in the crappy classroom, I felt very reluctant and kept complaining lo like ughhh...nobody gonna come also. But turns out it is like a blessing in disguise. If we did not showcase in this classroom we would not have any 'opening night' , we wouldn't do as good as we did and we wouldn't have that much people coming to see our artworks. You know if our exhibition dates did not change, the pedestals would just be IT. There won't be second set up and our exhibition would be titled ' THE PEDESTALS ' .I also feel like God telling me ' HAH in your face! ' LOLOLOL.