UNSEEN ART WORKSHOPS
Unseen Art Workshops is an on-going experimental lab where we introduce diverse art forms and expressions to different groups of people to encourage exchanges of ideas through art-making, while discovering new knowledge and methods for accessibility.
This 2018 project brings forth a series of hands-on workshops led by professional artists focusing on the theme of self-identity for visually impaired participants from 3 organisations: Guide Dog Association, Singapore Association for the Visually Handicapped (SAVH) and Ahmad Ibrahim Secondary School. The artists include sculptor Victor Tan, visual artists Alecia Neo and Mintio and painter Kok Choon Choo and theatre director and educator Jeffrey Tan.
Artworks produced from the workshops will be presented at Bedok Library from 3-16 Dec 2018.
CYANOTYPE WORKS
Title: Our Mind's Eye
What objects do I hold dear? Why are they special to me?
Participants created of photograms and cyanotype collages of objects that they personally hold dear. Using the cyanotype process, they explored the technique of UV or sun printing, used to create the famous Prussian blue prints. In addition to their individual collages, the participants also created a 2m x 2m unique collective cyanotype portrait via a collage of carefully curated personal objects and found items, accompanied by handwriting of memories and values attached to these objects. By placing their personal objects within a larger composition and negotiating its space, each participant learns to create a meaningful dialogue with others in relation to him or herself.
The exhibit of the participants artworks are also accompanied by the soundscape of the creative making process, recorded during the making of the large collective portrait.
COLLABORATING ARTISTS
ALECIA NEO - VISUAL ARTIST
Alecia Neo’s projects and artworks usually evolve from her interaction with people and their neighbourhoods. working primarily with photography, video, installation and participatory workshops, she develops long-term projects involving a variety of individuals and collaborators, overlooked communities and their spaces.
Since 2012, she has developed projects with visually-impaired communities in Singapore, Malaysia and Taiwan. From 2014 - 2016, she initiated a long-term art project engaging with Ahmad Ibrahim Secondary Shcool’s VI students on a unique mentorship programme titled titled “ Unseen: Constellations “, exploring sight and sightlessness in society through the voices of youths living with visual-impairment. She is co-founder Brack , an arts platform for socially-engaged artists and their projects.
www.alecianeo.com
MINTIO - VISUAL ARTIST
Mintio is a visual artist born in Singapore. Trained as a photographer at the School of Art Design and Media in Nanyang Technological University, Mintio has been actively creating works and participating in exhibitions both locally and abroad. “Table for One” was Mintio’s first public venture into a participatory project, in which she dined with people she found eating alone over a span of one year. Following that in 2010, she participated in an artist-in-residence program hosted by MES 56, a photography collective in Jogjakarta. The project “The Wax on Our Fingers” was the outcome of her residency, where she had produced batik-portraits of batik makers from the village of Kebon Indah together with fellow artist Budi Agung Kuswara (Kabul).
She is the founder of Ketemu Project Space in Bali.
