The Postcard - Reframing the watercolor painting into memorabilia

Permanence and the Importance of a great custodian

Turning watercolor painting of Singapore River into memorabilia

I had made many of the paintings into photo postcard for collection. As the exhibition set out to experiment with some ways to produce memorabilia from paintings. Here is my interpretation.

As the exhibition set out to experiment with some ways to produce memorabilia from paintings.  The paintings were re-shot and treated to digital treatment, leaving trails of digital imprints, signaling a copy becoming the original and its inability to duplicate the original. In so doing fail to accomplish the trial of permanence of the analogue medium, which it is destined to deteriorate. Only the derivative original could retain, in its entirety the original, however, which is also prone to perish if the digital storage is not readable, as such, each technology switch means the need to convert and transfer from one form to another. Effort and resources are the determinants of its permanence. And eventually the works need a custodian, otherwise, it is bound to be trashed and forgotten.

AThe custodian has the sole responsibility to preserve and promote the works, giving importance and life to the work. I shall elect one such custodian. In fact, I already did. Now it is to inculcate such responsibility and skill in the custodian.

ll photo postcards are derivative works from the watercolor paintings.

Portraits of History

Exhibition from 28th – 29th April 2012
Opening Hours: 11:00am – 8pm
At the Viridian Arthouse • The Foothills Fort Canning Park opposite Liang Court, entrance via River Valley Road (Formerly the old swimming pool complex)

Reconstructing images through old photographs using watercolor medium and creating vignettes with digital photography, turning them into snippets for digital posters, as memorabilia for keeping and enjoyment.

Merging traditional watercolor paintings and the digital medium, Meng Foo explores history through photographs he had captured over 30 years, re-living the nuances of past experience, with each stroke he recalls history and shares those experiences by reframing them through digital photography.
Through watercolor, as a traditional mean, the photographs are reinterpreted with his particular expression, emphasis, coloration and biases, which perhaps becomes individualized, and one wonders if this process could reinforce or dilute the encapsulation of history within watercolor as a documentary medium. Would the photograph or the watercolor painting attract more attention, or perhaps digital photography could position history as having more currency and gain popularity among the younger generation?
In fact, digital photography is used to its advantage of flexibility, it enlarges, frames, repeats and re-colors. It enlarges the nuances so much that, one begins to see pixels and colors, the image dissolves and becomes secondary, unless one steps back to see from a far. This signifies the dilution of history through the process of consumerism focusing on the particular which trivializes, simplifies, distorts, excites and be consumed.

Download pdf Portraits of History Poster

Punggol Promenade - photographic documentation

I went to shoot the sunrise, sunset and park users for the past 2 weeks. Last Sunday was my sixth visit to shoot. Well, last week the weather was not so kind. There were too much cloud and too little sunlight. The shadow was so weak. The week before comparatively was much better, but I thought the rising sun was covered by the cloud too. Anyway, here are a few shots which I think are the selected few which I prefer. I have to spend more time on the post processing. A glimpse would satisfy one's curiosity. In the past, creating a great shot had a lot to do with darkroom printing  as much as the shooting and it never changes much, I now spend more time post processing and tuning the photos. Photography needs discipline and creativity too.

Hong Kong Street, Singapore, in the 80's

This is a series of snap shots on the paintings. The way the stroke and the colours interact is very intriguing. I thought perhaps The process is first selecting photographs from a series of old shots I had taken many years ago and reconstruct them in watercolours. Then scan or digitally photograph them, bring them into Photoshop and digitally manipulate them. The final output can be done on photographic print or on canvas. Here is the series of snap shots I had taken from the watercolour I had done. This process investigate the translation and interpretation of old photo, converting them into another form, fragmenting them, reframing them, adding digital manipulation to pixelate them, creating myriad of colours, allowing the audience to see the colours and enjoy its form and texture. The fragments are to be printed in large pieces. The audience step back to see the fragment. Perhaps they can them piece together the fragments in their mind. In the process, perhaps helps them to recollect past memories and re-live those memories, although they are tainted by the length of time and personal selective memory.

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Old Shanghai

This continues to explore, through the medium of photographic print which was shot years ago, translating them into watercolour, forming a pictorial landscape, re-photograph them, framing and focusing on different areas, abstracting and reducing images into colours and pixel form. When we are seeing it close, we see an ocean of colours, when we stand back, we see the framing and through the mind perhaps we see the past and our prejudices.

Portraits of Nature – A series on Posters.

It is fun to design different posters with consideration of the colour and composition of the photos. Here is a series I had created with the 'Portraits of Arthropods'

Hope you all like it. You can print out and put it up anywhere. It would be great if you put it up in your schools, organization or public places or even your home. THANKS everyone.

You can download the big files here for printing purposes, thanks!
https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B9OCj8WZm6J3ZDBhYzU1MGYtZjIzYy00N2UyLTllNzUtMjgyMTYwZGU2YTFk

Portraits of Nature - Preview Night

The Preview Night was graced by our Guest of Honor, the honorable Justice Tan and Mrs Tan. We are grateful for their presence and generosity. We also thanked our sponsors and supporters who turned up for the opening. It was a great night, amidst the art work with  music, food and wine. We had a wonderful opening and the exhibition open from 4th to 26th Feb.

For opening hours please refer to : http://portraits.dimagehunter.com

For those who wish to purchase the work, please get in touch with us : choomengfoo[a]gmail.com

The Catalogue lists here: http://portraits.dimagehunter.com/Cat/Site/Cat/Cat.html

Sky #1

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问天，好像我有许多不解之迷是的，或许是吧！天虽大，可也有尽头，星星虽小，可它遥远得大不可测。 我们的眼睛虽明亮也有看不见的时候。

I found out, through Mike, that Alfred Stieglitz shots a series of clouds, Equivalent. Read through his biography and his clouds, inspired. There were so much technical issues during those film days. It seems that digital could achieve better results.

http://www.phillipscollection.org/research/american_art/artwork/Stieglitz-Equivalent_Series1.htm

I had a discussion with Pauline about sky. She said the sky inspired her when she was young and she could imagine many things while observing the sky. Here is my attempt to capture the sky. I realise that the clouds are abstract and they move.

I watch the sky when I was young too, however, I was searching for that saturated blue that would make my subject stand out. The colour was what I was after. The sky itself was never my subject. After learning from Pauline, I decided to make the sky the subject of this series.

I watch the sky when I am searching for some un-answered question. I meditate on them. I could call the series '问天‘ too。

Attending Fudan

复旦复旦我来了！高兴。来人文与智慧班是为了好玩，好学，思想是一场智慧的博弈，知道得越多认识得越少，感悟得多，迷茫得更过瘾。上课不时都是在恐惧与惊叹中度过，偶尔半醉中度过，少数与周公度过，不是不累而是小时养成上课不允许睡觉的纪律，儿时藤鞭吃多了。
对无神论者哲学的衰败，陷人的生命于无价值，文明的即将歼灭，使人颓废，恐惧，感叹现今人的生活欲望谨谨是生存与今天。惊叹的认识到哲学的使命， 一场虚惊，人还能救。哲学无价的价值，男人味的素材，泡妞的绝学。哲学能重及能轻，人生及能谨慎也可拂笑值之。妙哉！
对老子与庄子羡慕已久，却被两场笼罩成都与上海的浓雾使我错过了去年底的良机。听中国讲师说老子真是今生的一大愿望，读老外阐述道德经甚多，总是不到味，语言局限了思想与概念。终于在六月补了老子一课，庄子遥遥无期，恨。学老子，学无有，谨背了第一张就有大成如能‘得其神，忘其形’且得，名可名，非常名。纳闷何以老子之学只能在危机时代暂且让无名狂欢，兴盛时代毫无作为，反是儒学更新被推崇为解救中国文化更有可能性？毛骨悚然，无名的狂欢后是恐怖，你我何曾不曾无名的狂欢过，难到那生命的自由就是那么可怕，或是对无的无法琢磨的无助，不常漂浮在无限的虚无，那是你我对有的熟悉性，无的认知与体验不足。真佩服那僧人能凭衣钵走天下，对明天毫无忧虑。无有的解构构成，不是创造的思想奠基吗？已发展城市不是最需要创新阶级吗？
老子，冷酷的认识到生命的微小和毫无意义。权势确定对与错，意义在于人的创造，人的经验经历，尼采的存在主义奠定了生命的使命。背包走天下是人生的一大乐趣与意义。

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Talk cum workshop at UTM (University Technology of Malaysia)

A talk cum workshop held at UTM (University Technology of Malaysia) for the architecture school.

 

 

[caption id="attachment_1372" align="alignnone" width="700" caption="They were doing the "The eye is the Story" exercise."][/caption]

 

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[caption id="attachment_1374" align="alignnone" width="700" caption="The " See, hear and feel the lag" Exercise."][/caption]

 

[caption id="attachment_1377" align="alignnone" width="700" caption="We all did a jump to commemorate the workshop. We had fun."][/caption]