misinterpretation of meanings put together?

To take note:

Translation: understanding ideas from 1 culture to translate in their work, for translation to happen there exist - guest culture and host culture.

Representation: The artist understanding/representation of the object/culture/host/guest culture

Interpretation: Our reading of the artist work

Translation: (Reflection 1)

The reading talked about how translation is itself a problem and not a solution. Why do we see a need to translate? The term “the translator is a betrayer” is also true as the way we translate is based on our cultural background and preconceived knowledge. Nietzsche states that “truths are illusions of which one has forgotten that they are illusions.” It is an irony that although we know that translation in itself is a problem, we are constantly trying to find meaning in things around us. When it comes to Art, are we actually being biased? Like when we interpret, we are actually coming up with new meanings instead of understanding the original intention of what the artist is trying to say.

It is necessary for me to try to understand the cultural, academic, socio-economic background of Kai Lam, to understand what makes him do his art work as it is. Is it his translation of the socio-economic situation in Singapore? What is his source (object of enquiry)? How does he translate it? Is he trying to be critical by re-emphasizing/repeating the images? Is he doing it through humour? His 56 hour durational performance according to the artist statement is “…an ongoing attempt by Kai Lam to relate and translate physical art objects, sounds and visual texts randomly into art actions and creating an installation environment..”[1]

At one point it may seem ritualistic with the smell of incense burning, added on with the raw (half-completed renovation) look of the interior of the building (107+109 Rowell Rd). The bag that says “the music shall not be ipodised” when translated may mean that the sound/music that was being played will not be played repeatedly unlike a music that can be played on an Ipod. The term ‘ipodised’ is itself a translation of Kai’s understanding of the device, Ipod. Is he talking about things that are repeated and lost in the act of repetition? If that is so, why does he repeat ‘5 stars and a crescent in his work’? Repetition may be an act of emphasizing the importance but too much may also cause a lost of meaning.

At the end of the day, my interpretation of his work may be biased and may be totally different from the way he define his work. It is interesting to see how an artwork can have many meanings which can be an irony as an artist does Art to share his/her opinion of things around him.

[1] www.p-10.org

Anthology Blues

56 Hour Durational Performances (Part 1)

Kai Lam

2007

Kai (Lam Hoi Lit) is a Singapore based artist that does works like drawing, painting, sculpture, mixed media installation and performance art. He is the president of Artist Village and co-founded Pink Ark (a sound collective) with Zulkifli Mahmod. He is also known as Singlish Punk.

I find Kai’s work interesting as there are many elements/symbols in his work that evoke certain response from the audience. Kai’s work have certain influence that is very much ‘Singaporean’. I feel that his passion to do art at a full-time basis is motivating as it is something that is not very common (although it is growing now). I feel that there are a lot of things that I can learn from the way he does his work (the gestures that he uses in his performances). Also, I normally take a very long time in analyzing an artist’s work and this project will allow me to analyze an artist work step-by-step. When we translate our own meaning from looking at the art piece, are we actually coming up with new meanings of the work ourselves? Is this act a contradiction, because we are trying to understand the work but are actually coming up with our own meanings?

The aspects of his work that I am going to analyze are the repeated elements/symbols in his work. Examples would be the mini merlion statue, the slogan-“More Good Years” and 5 stars and a crescent. When I look at his recent work, Anthology Blues, it gives a ‘ritualistic’ kind of feeling as there are repeated gestures and symbols. What is the message that he is trying to bring across? What did he do to bring the message across? These are some questions that I hope I would be able to answer or at least have an understanding of by the end of this project.