Restart 2020

To be written

To be written

To be written

To be written

As the place filled up, we needed to add small but essential elements like price tags and QR codes that are part of the navigation system. 

Lights were put up after the paintings went up, to ensure they were positioned right above each painting and shone down at the right angle. When the gallery was lit up, the ambience of the place transformed. It began to look like a professional venue for the display of art.

Staff from WL Framing arrived punctually at 9.30am and brought along the bigger pieces from their shop. After arranging all the pieces on the floor and finalising the spaces between the paintings, they started to put them up. Paintings placed on concrete walls were suspended using nylon strings and hooks. 

The drywalls have been installed. They started at 9.30am sharp and finished around 4pm. I am glad. They look good — shaping up like a “real” exhibition hall.

Managed to publish all the stories that would be needed for people to scan and find out more about my art at the exhibition. The website was created over a few weeks using the Ghost engine recommended by my son Wan Tsau. 

Sent out an “RSVP” today to all my invitees with some SOPs in view of Covid-19. It reads:

Hi [name]

It is less than two weeks to the exhibition. I look forward to seeing you on Oct 26, 6.30-9.30pm, at the private reception in conjunction with my exhibition at APW. Thanks for agreeing to join us!

Also, Covid is still around, with an undercounted 23,000+ active cases as of Oct 5. And we want some vulnerable people and those who care for the unvaccinated to join us at the reception. In view of this, I hope to make the following requests:
(1) Please do a self-test before you come, and
(2) Wear a mask in the exhibition hall, which is expected to be crowded. 

Food and drinks will be served outside the hall in an area that is well-ventilated.

Thanks
Siang Jin

#kitajagakita

An e-card will be sent to you under the name: [title] [name]

I spent the better part of the last few days at the framemaker and signing my prints. The latter I discovered is an art (or craft) in itself. I used pigmented pens for the uncoated paper and it worked well. For the coated paper, the felt markers get clogged by the coating material and ink-flow was interupted. Luckily I did not mess up much. I must remember to ask for such paper distinctions in future. I have also decided to use pencil to sign all coated prints in future — they are afterall of archival quality.

The Ghost web engine, while being very friendly and powerful, has many limitations. For example, I had to refine a few things offline (like replacing its gallery with a collaged image). At about 10.30pm, I finally settled on a design that allows me to portray the subtlety of a well-designed print page with the much-needed in-the-face portrayal of the paintings — especially if you were viewing from a mobile. See here

Using the two images at the top of this page and a link to this website, I began to post on FaceBook and Instagram to my friends. Very happy with the response. “Hard sell, sorry, haha...” I said at one point and explained: “If not now, when?”

I collected my printed A4 posters today and sent out a few PDFs to various groups of friends. Also went to the framemakers along Jalan Gasing with my first prints to be framed – three sets of “miniature archival-quality pigmented prints”, MAPPs for short.