the Puzzle and the Gate

Puzzle Painting:

23 Dec 08 - I went to the nursery getting the Puzzle Painting's participants to refine their own puzzle. Finished touching-up with crayons, getting them signing their names and the last thing to do was to apply a thin layer of clear spray. Some of them insisted this to be on the net, so here it is (click to enlarge):

Many thanks to the very young enthusiastic artists (in alphabetical order): 升 aka Chan Yun Sheng, 俊杰 aka Chong Jun Kiat, 轩 aka Lai Ming Xuan, 宏 aka Lim Jun Hong and Wolise aka Wong Kai Wei for such an amazing job, even till the last day! Drop some comments!

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Designing Life:

23 & 24 Dec 08 - The participants are getting impatient...but hey, the gate is almost done. Here are some shots:

Their concept? Jungle as a labyrinth of knowledge, of cultivation and of nature and life. Drop some comments!

Day 09 (Puzzle Painting)

Workshop: Puzzle Painting (forth/last day)
Date: 20 December 2008
Time: 5-6.30pm
Participants: Chan Yun Sheng, Chong Jun Kiat, Lai Ming Xuan, Lim Jun Hong, Wong Kai Wei
Details: Puzzle Painting hopes to spice up the participants' creativity by asking questions - simple questions. To paint a puzzle, is to paint fragmented stories, whereby those fragments or anecdotes, can be integrated into a bigger or a more holistic story/scene. Unlike painting only a scene on a paper, this workshop manages to trigger the participants' creative thinking, to have them visualize what's beyond the paper, and what's next.

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Woosh-woosh! The last day to complete the puzzle.

The progression was alright. Effort spent...and being overly excited with water-based medium wasn't exactly a good thing - the mess at the end of the workshop, you know...

I hope all the participants still remember what they have learnt on the first two days. No more nagging, and here are the pictures:

Almost done.

Full concentration.

Getting busy.

Kai Wei requested me to take a picture of her with the puzzle before leaving, her brother Kah Lok on the left.

Can you recognize this animal?

Kai Wei enjoyed mixing different colours and nearly forgot about her task.

Ming Xuan told me that he saw eyes on the floor. I was a little worried at the beginning until he pointed this to me. That can be an art too - to see things around as something else, to imagine from simple shapes. (Those were the paint on the floor by accident if you wonder)

This group of participants was so egocentric that each of them (only the guys) wanted this cup of water to turn into the colour that they were painting with. They called it 'the World' because I made a necessity to put this cup at the center so that everybody can reach it. So the fights came when 'the World' changed its colour. It is a performative, interactive art that they were doing, despite unintentional.

According to the Theory of Cognitive Development by Jean Piaget, children around age of 7 are egocentric as they thought everybody thinks alike themselves. Don't you think these kids are just full of surprises?

Yup, the completed puzzle. Come and visit us during the exhibition for a clearer and closer view.

Aftermath of the 'World War of Colour'.

After the exhausting cleaning of the fast-drying acrylic, I packed and went back home around this time;

Some thoughts of mine:
The result might not be as interesting as the process (they might be too young to know how to control water-based medium), interestingly, if you get to witness their excitements; of how they enjoyed mixing colours (without knowing that they were actually wasting my acrylic - oh well), of how they created the mess, of how they learnt to paint water-based medium, of how they saw 'opportunities' to make fun/play with in almost every minute during the workshop, of how they argued with each other, of how impatient were them - this puzzle is nothing but the result, the documentation of all those brilliant 'performances'. And those 'performances' were important as those were part of their juvenile artistic learning process.

Day 08

Workshop: Puzzle Painting (third day)
Date: 19 December 2008
Time: 5-6.30pm
Participants: Chan Yun Sheng, Chong Jun Kiat, Lai Ming Xuan, Lim Jun Hong, Wong Kai Wei
Details: Puzzle Painting hopes to spice up the participants' creativity by asking questions - simple questions. To paint a puzzle, is to paint fragmented stories, whereby those fragments or anecdotes, can be integrated into a bigger or a more hollistic story/scene. Unlike painting only a scene on a paper, this workshop manages to trigger the participants' creative thinking, to have them visualize what's beyond the paper, and what's next.

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The participants were excited as they got to paint with acrylic and water-based medium - something they haven't got to even touch. While they were enjoying, the mess was disastrous for me.

Yo! Lim Jun Hong asking some questions regarding the DSLR camera.

Finish drawing, so put every piece back to its position and take a picture!

The young artists. One hiding his face, one hiding under the table.

Start painting.

This might be some aimless splotches to you. But to them is an effort that they would be glad of. That is the aesthetic of children's art.

It was 6.30pm, all of them left the room. And I saw this palette! What profligates we have had here!

Ok, two days for them to complete the whole 1m x 1m wooden puzzle, today and tomorrow. All the best to them.

And I have to repeat this: PLEASE WORK TOGETHER AS A GROUP.

Day 07

Workshop: Puzzle Painting (second day)
Date: 18 December 2008
Time: 5-6.30pm
Participants: Chan Yun Sheng, Chong Jun Kiat, Lai Ming Xuan, Lim Jun Hong, Wong Kai Wei
Details: Puzzle Painting hopes to spice up the participants' creativity by asking questions - simple questions. To paint a puzzle, is to paint fragmented stories, whereby those fragments or anecdotes, can be integrated into a bigger or a more hollistic story/scene. Unlike painting only a scene on a paper, this workshop manages to trigger the participants' creative thinking, to have them visualize what's beyond the paper, and what's next.

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Chong Jun Kiat - a new student joined in today, so the workshop started 30 minutes earlier, only for him, just to make sure he managed to catch up.

Same exercises for him. I found him sensitive to details and have very unique ideas. The picture below was one of the most original ideas amongst others:

A & B given, C & D by Chong Jun Kiat.
C: Tree monster in pain after one of its apples being plucked down by the man. D: The man ate the apple and plucked the second apple, the tree monster died in pain. While all the other participants viewed the monster tree as something superior, Jun Kiat thought the other way. Instead of the tree monster swallowing up the human, the human 'defeated' the monster. Peculiarly brilliant!

As mentioned in previous post, there would be one more exercise. The exercise was to let each of them draw a picture of any kind. And then to put all the random drawings together and they would be asked to link all the images together with a simple story. In between every drawing, I gave them an allowance - that they can have two more drawings in order to link the pictures together as one single story. Somehow, this exercise trained the participants to connect the unconnected, and it required their creative thinking.

Their initial drawings; 5 participants, each produced one.

The two 'additional' linking drawings produced when constructing a story.

Amazingly, they need only two pictures and they really did construct a very logical story; yet without all the illogical magic of A turning into B or some other silly efforts to ensure a polish story etc. Good job guys!

*We will have a small display at the end of the workshop where all the works will be showcased, so if you are interested in knowing the storyline, do come! Date and time will be confirmed after the workshop.

After connecting the unconnected, we moved on to the puzzle. They have decided to draw kampung and they did apply what they have learnt earlier: the idea of multiplying narrative and evoking curiosity upon the viewers to ask what's beyond the singled piece.

Here is the thumbnail (click to enlarge):

and some pictures of them working in a serious manner:

I am quite happy with them...and here're some advices for them, under each respective paragraph is their drawing on the puzzle:

Yun Sheng, you have great drawing skill, but try to be humble and be gentle to your friends. You can criticize them but be kind and less abrasive. You have talent in figurative drawing too.

Jun Kiat, you are sensitive to details, keep it up and remember to stay focus during the workshop. It's good to know that an 8 year-old can draw the top view of a car.


Ming Xuan, the fact that you like to play, you tend to make things around you fun, and you created laughter with your somehow cynical drawings. Continue that, have fun but be obedient too. Your drawing done with Yun Sheng. Very imaginative.

Jun Hong, you are a kind and helpful person. You can draw many things, you are not afraid of trying. But be tough when you receive criticism from friends, don't take it emotionally.
Your sun is huge and took up the whole piece! Doing good. I appreciate your intention to darken the outline.

Jia Wei, you are the only girl in the group, but don't let that resist you. You have to believe that you can draw, shun the fear of making mistakes - failure means a chance to learn anyway.
And thanks for the 4 beautiful jagungs, they might not look like real corns but they are graphically terrific.

One last advice for all: PLEASE WORK AS A GROUP.

Day 06 (Puzzle Painting)

Workshop: Puzzle Painting (first day)
Date: 17 December 2008
Time: 5-6.30pm
Participants: Chan Yun Sheng, Lai Ming Xuan, Lim Jun Hong, Wong Kai Wei
Details: Puzzle Painting hopes to spice up the participants' creativity by asking questions - simple questions. To paint a puzzle, is to paint fragmented stories, whereby those fragments or anecdotes, can be integrated into a bigger or a more hollistic story/scene. Unlike painting only a scene on a paper, this workshop manages to trigger the participants' creative thinking, to have them visualize what's beyond the paper, and what's next.

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The four participants entered the class, looking pretty excited with the big wooden puzzle. The hard fact is that they have to paint it within 4 days - a 1m x 1m puzzle:

Today wouldn't be the day to begin though, but rather warm-up exercises were conducted to educate them the whole idea of constructing and multiplying narrative in a scene.

The 'Interior series' paintings of Mastura Abdul Rahman which I have shown them are classic examples. I recalled when I was fixated by the flatten details of her paintings, while Mr. Sim Tan (art dealer) fervently explained to me his appreciation. Of one that I found relevant here, was where he talked about the cropped objects at the edge of the paintings like carpets, stairs, congkak etc. Those are actually indications of things, of life happening beyond the artworks.

Mastura Abdul Rahman, House of Flower, House of Harmony (1999)
See those cropped carpets and congkak?

The patterns are showy, but the value of this piece - at least to me - does not lie on the details, but the composition, the aerial perspective, the tradition and of most the symbolic indications (those magazines/newspapers/congkak indicate lives; those cropped objects indicate something beyond, those aerial pillars indicate the God from above). Perfect contemporary rendition of Islamic art.

Another visual reference was the image of 'A Closer Look At The Illusion of The Whole' by Yap Sau Bin:

Yap Sau Bin, A Closer Look at The Illusion of The Whole(2005)
photo courtesy of Yap Sau Bin

While Aristotle said 'The whole is more than the sum of its parts', emphasizing the idea of holism, this artwork seems visually reductionistic - it reversed the process of holistic thinking. With this minimalistic artwork, the artist questions 'Could contemplating on the less apparent structure bring us a perception of a much larger whole?' And that perception of the much larger whole emerge beyond the semi-framed painting, the 'whole' is imaginary and that process-of-imagining remains as the main excitement of the artwork.

The warm-up exercises manifested the above concepts, the participants were asked to link, create, imagine ideas beyond a given set. Those ideas were narrative-based and contained a plot where they have to visualize what's beyond and taking notes on the existing indications.

"Peace!"
left to right: Chan Yun Sheng, Lai Ming Xuan and Lim Jun Hong.

Something like this.

A & B given, C & D by Chan Yun Sheng.
C: Escaping from the monster; D: Get caught again. (Stretchable branch!)

B & C given, A by Lai Ming Xuan.
The beauty in most of his drawings is the straightforward depiction of raw expression. And most are gothic too.

A & C given, B by Lim Jun Hong.
B: The car can stretch? He thought about Transfumers (Transformers). Nice!

A & C given, B by Wong Kai Wei.
B: Glass broken due to strong wind. Being the only girl in the workshop, while others thought about breaking the glass physically, she thought about something else. It might not be the best solution, but it was an original one.

After that, we went straight to the puzzle and the participants started brain-storming on what to draw. They wanted kampung+garden+paddy field+farm etc. Just to keep them busy, I kept asking what's beyond this particular small little piece...

Puzzled with puzzle.

Sketch.

I thought they were amazing small kids, and they gave me rivers, roads, bridges, directional composition (like Giotto's Mourning of Christ/Kiss of Judas) etc.

Mourning of Christ by Giotto.

Just in case you have no idea what 'directional composition' is:

The composition has been specifically arranged so that the focus point is on the head of the Jesus.

There will be one more exercise tomorrow about linking arbitrary ideas together to form a story before getting serious with puzzle painting.

Good luck to them.