Southeast Asian contemporary art help? (anything at all!)

Muffinman · Post by **Muffinman** » 31 Mar 2006 22:21

I'm running reeeeaaaall low on steam.
I finished 2 3000-word essays in the past two days, and I have two more that I NEEDED to finish today ('cause I have 2 finals to study for an another project I all need to finish by, like, Monday night), but only just started one. They're a lot shorter, but I haven't done any research yet on one.

The topic I think I will go with is CONTEMPORARY ART in any Southeast Asian country... for some reason I was going to go with Singapore, I guess because it kind of stereotypically screams contemporary and modern more than the others do to me.

But if anyone really knows ANYTHING or can give ANY leads on any form of contemp. art in any of the SEA countries that would help out a TON... anything, really...

Have you heard of a neat building, or some crazy...something?
Maybe I will go with those big towers from that one movie...was that Singapore? Or Malaysia?... my head is so overwhelmed. Scchhooooolllll

Pengu · Post by **Pengu** » 31 Mar 2006 22:59

I remember writing something about I.M. Pei and his contemporary architecture. Have you checked him out at all? I'm sure he's had a few in Singapore in its hayday of industrialization and modernization. In fact, I think that big tower in the core of Singapore is by him. I forget what its called... OCDC Center? OBCD Center? OCBC Center? It had a bunch of letters in front of it. It's huge and ugly and very stoic. Not much design sense if you ask me.

The Bank of China tower in Hong Kong is pretty cool. Also by I.M. Pei. Does Hong Kong count as Southeast Asian? What about Taiwan? I.M. Pei also did this crazy sloped chapel for a Taiwanese university. Perhaps I still have that paper somewhere. I'll look in my files for you.

krawallier · Post by **krawallier** » 01 Apr 2006 04:24

i just remember reading somewhere that in singapore there is a lot of individual t-shirt desingning and stuff going on and that there is a huge market for this - a bit like commercial grafitti style - there should be stuff on the web about it. i dunno whether you are interested in "commercial art"

good luck!

Muffinman · Post by **Muffinman** » 01 Apr 2006 09:00

Thanks guys. I will totally look into Pei. The name sounds familiar. Unfortunately Hong Kong and Taiwan don't count as SEA -- at least not what I'm studying (ASEAN -- Association of Southeast Asian Nations) -- I'm pretty sure Taiwan is excluded.

The countries are Myanmar (Burma), Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei, Indonesia, and we didn't really cover the Phillipines, but I think I could write on them too...

I just gotta finish the english paper I'm working on and then I'll come back to this. Again, thanks so much Peng and Max!