Portraits of Arthropods - Sentosa 2016

The exhibition lasts for a few months at the Sentosa Exploration Centre

Transference - from Kandinsky to Architecture to Digital Suprematism

A book Exploring Kandinsky, Architecture, and Suprematism. Shengyiyu Zhu and Italo Castella in collaboration. Buy paperback at Amazon or hardcover at Lulu

Kandinsky’s work of lines, shapes and colours was chosen as the premise for exploration and translation of art into an architecture language to be used and demonstrated in a dwelling project for a musician. Kandinsky’s very special form of abstraction derived from his understanding of music, free of things of nature and the past, but of things of the abstract which were forms of virtual creation derived from his subjective universe. As paintings should never be a copy of other things, not nature, not human, not everyday things, but of itself.

A two storey house of two geometrical shapes, one stable and another rotated, punctured by an axis from one into another and terminated on the outside with a subtraction in a two-dimensional circle. Planes of different shapes attached themselves to the axis, all miraculously anchors themselves with the line.

Using the three-dimensional model of the house, a virtual camera explores different angles with varying focal length, perspective and axonometric were generated with different shading of the model, such as wire frame, X-ray and hidden lines. At times the model is also sectioned to allow one to explore the inside of the model. Sectional planes could be vertical, horizontal or slanting. The lines also take on different forms, thin continuous or dash lines. 

With the captured images, certain areas were given weight with black fill or sometimes various greys. The images are presented with different layering, alternating between two-dimensional and three-dimensional. 

Through the digital medium, the final images started from the simple to complex interactions where the mind is no long able to grasp the initial simplicity of forms. It is led to trace and move from one line to another to another, pausing as the becomes shapes. Energy moves, pauses, explodes, coalesces, races, and dissipate in a geometrical landscape of transference between the two and three dimension.

Portraits of Singapore with Antonio Berlusconi

One great book on the Art of Street Photography. It details how fun street photography can be done even with an inexpensive action cam, the Xiao Yi, from the same company that brings the Mi mobile. It makes street photography seems so easy, in fact, it is that easy, if one learns to strike a quick rapport with strangers, and yes anyone can learn the skill, which the photographer has shown in the book.
Simple text accompanies each photograph and provides additional information that makes for an easy read. It is a leisure book that showcases Singapore's unique people and culture that most tourists would not have encountered. It shows the liveliness and spontaneity of the people in multicultural Singapore. One would definitely feel the pulse and dynamism of Singapore's diversity.

The book can be purchased here: http://www.lulu.com/shop/antonio-berlusconi/portraits-of-singapore-the-beauty-of-action-cam-the-art-of-street-photography/paperback/product-23375877.html 

Dao De Jing

This is a coloring book for all ages, children, teenagers, adults or seniors. It is the first of its kind where the ancient classic Dao De Jing is reproduced in Modern Chinese Calligraphy, using traditional Chinese brushes and ink written on rice paper. On the left pages are the most common texts reproduced in Fang Song typeface, with calligraphy artwork on the right. These pages allow for quick references. Dao De Jing is the most translated text written around 500 B.C. by the author commonly know as Lao Zi. It forms the philosophical text of Chinese thoughts apart from Confucianism.

Coloring for Seniors - Little India, explained

This is a very special colouring book - sketches of real places and real people of the EXOTIC Little India. It is also special to me as I worked on this book together with my younger son. Inside you will find our sketches, documenting the lives and activities of Little India. The sketches are rendered with lines and etching, creating a classical form with a modern twist and perspectives. You can get a copy here, http://www.lulu.com/shop/meng-foo-choo-and-shengyiyu-zhu/coloring-for-seniors-little-india/paperback/product-22813286.html

The cover is a sketch of the fish monger at the Tekka Market from a high angle. This market is special because the frantic activities can be viewed from the upper floor. Here we can see the spectacle of morning grocery and food marketing. This was a scene recreated from photographs of the 80s, where sign boards and refrigeration were not a common sight. Fishes were laid on top of the stall with some ice cubes spread above and underneath them. The floor was usually wet and soon it would become greasy as one walked along the aisles from one stall to another. Perhaps, one could recall doing grocery with one's mother or aunt, mesmerized by the price haggling, laughter, at times screamings, couples with the stench of raw fishes, pork and mutton.

Drawn with Platinum 3776 EF Nib.
The Gentleman. It is a common scene where old India gentleman’s dressing in their neatly ironed traditional daily wear, having his breakfast. The same beverage and the same Prata, nothing special, nothing bothers him. Every day is just another day. The same dressing, but he is not complaining about boredom as everyday is another repeat of the same. Perhaps he has seen through all the fancy and superficiality of live. Perhaps the ultimate reality lies in the flavour of ‘masala cha’ and the daily recurrence.

Coloring Places - Tiong Bahru

This coloring book is about real places and real people, it captures the Genius Loci of Tiong Bahru, a place that is constantly changing, reflecting the pulse of the young and spirit of the entrepreneur generation. The creative spirit and innovative approach to life is part of the everyday scene of Tiong Bahru. Though it is constantly moving, it has tried to hang on to its rich history. However, the sweeping economic forces and social changes would slowly shift and mould its current history. Its history is also influenced by global trend through the huge influx of both foreign and local creative class. The hip and trendy, late twenty to late thirty, artists, writers, designers, architects, lawyers, accountants, economists form the proactive residents of Tiong Bahru. Contrary to popular myth of authority's gentrification as the impetus for the changes in Tiong Bahru, causing rental to rise and displacing the existing residents, it is the economic forces and flow of foreigners vacating from the town center to the peripheral accelerating these changes, for some it is for the better, but for those being displaced it would seem that it is going down hill.
Since the sketches had been made, many places had changed, trees had fallen and landscape had been  re-moulded, people came and left, shops opened and shifted away. Many of the sketches become a figment of the memory of those yesterdays, for the new comers it is the history of the place, for those who lived through them, it is a certain loss and erasure of their existence. Perhaps through these sketches and colouring them, it would bring back fond memories.

Learning about art

Interesting story of how the Art is a storage of money and how it can use for evading taxes and money laundering. The Panama Papers are quite revealing.
See here, http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/12/arts/design/what-the-panama-papers-reveal-about-the-art-market.html?smid=fb-share&_r=0