176 338
ARTS&LEISURE
176
June14
Creative Colony
By Amy Greenburg
With so many skyscrapers and shopping malls
shooting up across Singapore, it’s hard to believe
there’s still a pocket or two of untouched greenery
and charming black-and-whites so close to the
city centre. One such pocket can be found just
off Portsdown Road. Wessex Estate is an artsy
enclave where all sorts of international and local
artists come to work and live in its cluster of
colonial homes, studios and walk-ups. Though
it’s not quite as dormant as it once was, Wessex
still maintains a relatively untouched and tranquil
feel, and continues to inspire the many talented
artists that inhabit it. On a recent tour of the artists’
studios, we asked them what inspires them, and
took a look at their diverse work.
FRANCES
ALLEBLAS, Dutch
Media of choice:
Charcoal and
pencil drawing, printmaking and
watercolours.
Artistic style:
Her drawings
have what she calls “disquieting,
dreamlike qualities in figurative
and narrative atmospheres,”
and show “a world in which
often-expected relations between
different elements confront the viewer with unclear feelings
and certain confusion.”
Inspiration:
Personal experiences, different cultures,
anthropology, mythology, literature and photography.
MILICA BRAVACIC,
Former Yugoslavian
Media of choice:
Painting,
drawing, textiles and local
ornamentation, applied to canvas,
rice paper and silk.
Artistic style:
“In Singapore, my
work revolves around the existing
Peranakan tile ornaments andmotifs
taken from iconic, historic places.
While cultural conservation happens
in museums, my work could be
understood as an aesthetic conversation with the past.”
Inspiration:
“What’s trivial because of our habitual perception
is what can suddenly become inspiring and new, if we change
our point of view. The idea that we shouldn't become mentally
lazy inspires me; reality offers continual excitement.”
VALERIU SEPI,
Romanian-German
Medium of choice:
Charcoal on
acrylic paint.
Artistic style:
A combination of
expressionism and realism.
Inspiration:
“I can translate everything
that gives me an emotion into visual art.
I start with an energetic background,
draw the subject, and then let myself
get inspired by the result.”
DICK LIM, Singaporean
Media of choice:
Acrylic painting.
Artistic style:
His black-and-white
paintings feature both real and imaginary
scenes of old Singapore, in areas like
Chinatown’s Keong Siak Street – works
that, he says, contain “hidden acts” and
offer “loads of conversational values”.
Inspiration:
“The tranquil surroundings
of Wessex Estate and, most of all, a need
to imprint many long-forgotten images in my mind before
they, too, are gone forever from my memory.”
PATRICIA
CABALEIRO,
Brazilian-German
Medium of choice:
Acrylic on
canvas paintings and prints.
Artistic style:
Mostly abstract,
often vibrantly coloured, paintings and print silkscreens.
Inspiration:
“People, inside-out.”