Thank you everyone for coming down!! These are just a few of the many pictures taken.

This would have never been possible without Justin and all the other good people of forth gallery, Justin zhuang for his extensive publicity plans, Jolene for the wonderful chocolate mousse shots, Jovian for running around photographing the event, and all family, friends, and passerbys for dropping by and making this a blast. All of us artists thank you for your support and enthusiasm.

Exhibition runs until 14th april.

 Will update with pictures post opening.

It’s 7pm at Forth Gallery, Chinatown. See all of you there!

 With school project deadlines also competing for dominance and priority, we’re all starting to get real dizzy from all the pressure and anticipation. Something amusing happened though.. which concerns the use of cooking oil because of the lack of linseed oil at the last minute.

The invites are ooouuutt thanks to justin jr.’s trusty printer. I stuck it to my bedroom wall. Click the thumbnail to view it large. Once again, the very pretty illustration is drawn by Julienne.

And here are the details for opening night (again and again),

Friday 4th April, 7pm

Forth Gallery, Chinatown

Also, many many thanks to Michael from Malaysia (Please do let us know your surname if you read this!) who has very kindly given us some funds to keep us going.

PS, Do check out Kai and Xing yu’s artist page as they have put up some information about the adoption policy for their installation pieces!

Here’s a random snippet of nonsense.

When I paint, I listen to the most random things. The last band on my for-painting playlist was B-quartet. And now it’ll definitely be Múm. I’m still reeling from post-Mosaic festival goodness.

On Veronica’s playlist is…. Sara Bareilles.

And Annette paints to silence. She likes it quiet so that she can “hear what (her) painting needs”.

(So full of nonsense. More on the other artists next entry!)

-shuxian

 Sorry but this is seemingly very exciting for me. More reasons for everyone to come to the opening to chill out with us. Remember, Friday, 4th april! 7pm!

 And the design for our posters/postcards is done! Beautifully drawn by Julienne. Hopefully it could be put to print soon..

It is a week’s break from school for now (already approaching its end) and regardless to say, it is still work at the canvas for us. Do check out our artists’ page as there will be updates from each artists on our progress.

There is also a facebook invite group set up here:

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=7876309682&ref=mf

Do visit, invite all your friends and leave messages if there are any queries.

On the publicity front, we’ve recruited overseas talent, Rongjun (hahaha, he’s not in Singapore now so that’s counted overseas, right?) who will be designing most publicity materials, posters, flyers, etc for the exhibition. So do keep a look out for it once it’s done and up for printing. Oh, you definitely will.

Anyone interested in covering this event, do check out the “media” section on the navigation bar on the top. It includes the press kit nicely done up for your journalistic desires.

Do bookmark this page (and tell everyone about it). It will be a behind-the-scenes sort of commentary about the exhibition. I’ll try to make it interesting and maybe dispense a random fact or two.

Oh yes, fun stuff. My first time being in a TV studio despite being in film. (haha!) Oh well, the differences between film and broadcasting my friends. Just alittle background info for anyone who is interested, most of us are NOT studying painting or anything like that. We have people majoring in film, product design, fashion management, visual communications.. etc. but of course our love for the fine arts transcends all academic boundaries.

Anyway, we’ve run into a few problems here and there… but nothing to fret about! One of our major concerns now is funding.. It really is quite abysmal. Hopefully there would be people willing to support the arts and support young artists! It is not a stereotype, we really are poor and the cost of art materials make my heart ache.

-Shuxian

“Will You Be | So Close” will be on view from 27th March to 15th April at Forth Art Gallery, and represents a group effort from eight Bachelor of Fine Arts undergraduates. Curated by Annette Heitmann and Lee Shuxian, both students from the School of Art, Design and Media (ADM) at NTU, this exhibit promises a collection of paintings, illustrations and installation pieces. Revolving around the complexities of human relationships, the artists take turns to explore issues of intimacy and yearning.

What is essential here varies with each individual interpretation, and the exhibit sheds light on the many nuances of the theme, “close.”

Oh JiJi seeks to intertwine seemingly disparate subjects to represent the things we often take for granted in life. She said, “My purpose is to highlight the idea that sometimes we are so close to some things, that we don’t notice it.”

Others, like Julienne Tan choose to tackle the grey areas of human relationships and the immaculate fear of opening up to someone completely. Through mixed-media illustrations, her work is best summed up by the line, “Maybe in our effort to get closer, we pushed words out of the way.”

Nigel Heng organizes objectification, love, desire and disgust in a way which offers a discourse in the nature of the human gaze – writ large in a single image of a life sized nude. Daniel Lim’s paintings of figures in embrace express the mutual desire to be loved and accepted, whilst hinting at the stifling nature of holding someone too close.

Forth Gallery will present more visual metaphors and conceptual ideas from the group in its entirety, which includes works by Heitmann and Lee as well.

For many of these young artists, taking part in an exhibit also means self-progress beyond the confines of an art school regimen. As curators, Heitmann and Lee look forward to the exhibit as a platform for their peers to showcase their talent, and to promote traditional art forms within the local scene.

“This is a chance for us to explore the theme and to stretch our artistic styles, without fear of academic judgment, or grading,” Heitmann said. “I think mostly, everyone is just excited to be part of something that we feel belongs to us, which gives us the motivation to create art that means something to us.”

This article was written by  Tan Pey Chuan.