Evisceration

Thin Air

Some time ago this very dark, twisted image came into my mind - a person being strangled by brightly-coloured balloons that take him high into the sky. Recall the Greek story of Icarus, the man who made wings out of feathers and wax, and flew so close to the sun that his wings melted and he perished.
Ambition kills us sometimes; sometimes you grow so blinded by the threads that hold together your success and your dreams that you hardly realise that those are the very threads that tighten around your neck and threaten to end it all.
And so the hypothetical voice of reason responds, "Cheemz sia. Wah lau why you so angst like wan to die die liddat?"
Errr... no idea man.

My Love and Hate of Architecture

I randomly created this composition, and somehow felt that this really really embodies the love-hate relationship with what I study - Architecture.
It's something that grows and feeds on your energy like a parasite or a virus, yet there's something strangely compelling about it that you cannot tear yourself away from. If you were to ask me now, I think my relationship with the Big A would be quantified as:

48% HATE and 52% LOVE

I guess.

Postcard from the Mind

It's been a long time since I've said anything in this space, and I've decided to break the silence with a snapshot of what's happening with me now - some things are best described wordlessly, and things that don't make sense sometimes are the things that are perfectly, crystal clear.

Just for your info, this collage started from a scrap piece of paper with my architecture design project in progress printed on it. I sort of stared at the thing for awhile, and I had this really really strange feeling looking at something somewhat familiar yet very foreign to me, like suddenly finding an unusual tree in the place where I unknowingly planted a seed long ago.

Kami Kami Kami!

Remember the Kami Chair I posted about half a year ago? Here it is under construction, welded by my favourite uncle from Sam Seng Metalworks. This was such a painful project to execute, but I must say, at the end of it I feel the greatest sense of relief looking at it done.

So where is the final chair, you ask? Stay tuned to find out.. haha. The best things in life are earned through patience. Bleah.

Collage: Deep Dark Dirty Secrets

Deep, dark, dirty secrets are the stars of the freakshow of life: when we hear one, it doesn't really matter who it's about or who it concerns. We gawk and marvel at the abominable beauty of the secret, the excitement of anonymous voyeurism, and the strange power of forbidden knowledge.

Stripped of their previous owners, here are 15 deep, dark, dirty secrets, sheared naked for your perusal. Fact or fiction - this would be up to your judgement. But be careful as secrets without origins, due to their inherent parasitic nature, tend to new owners to feed on...

1. I hate it that I'm fat.
2. I should have used a condom.
3. I cheated my friends of their money
4. I did it, and did it again until I was sore. I could not find a way to stop.
5. I get turned on by dirty socks.
6. Eating raw meat gives me a thrill.
7. I wanted to turn her gay so we could be together.
8. I killed the rabbit. I was curious about death.
9. When she broke up with me I took pills to end it all.
10. I cry myself to sleep.
11. I cheat in everything I do because I am incapable.
12. I hate her. She never told me I was adopted.
13. I stole the plastic dinosaur from the shop.
14. Not being able read or write hurts because I'm useless.
15. He touched me in a place that he shouldn't have.

Dreamscape 1

I opened my eyes and found myself in a dim, open place that smelt of an unwashed cage. Above me were large, boulder-like objects that were held precariously in mid air by stilt-like legs, forming a space not unlike a crypt. The boulders seemed to be carved to resemble animals heads: birds, fish, cats, and many other strange creatures I knew not of.

Humming in an indiscernible pitch were clocks hanging from these mysterious boulders..

Haiku: Lost - Loss

Loss

A valley so wide
The sparrow died; Trying to
Find its way across.

- Haiku

This is a post that has been waiting many many months to appear on the Little Plastikk Qube, but I'm just glad that I have found some time to continue with my entries.

This post is dedicated to all who has felt lost before, or an inevitable sense of loss. Sometimes, when things are down for you, what you need isn't really someone to cheer you on, to tell you things are better, to pick you up. Sometimes all you need is a quiet, white space in which you can mourn. A space where you can put down your heavy, heavy backpack for a moment, to stretch your limbs enjoy the vast emptiness and solitude, and eventually move on.

No, I'm not sad or feeling angst in life - I just feel a need for such a space in life.

A quiet nameless grave by the roadside, where anyone can sit down and think of what you have lost.

I hope I can provide this space.

The Elements - (in progress)

木 / wood - Shop in Daikanyama, Tokyo

If you know me, you will know that I am Wood.

Wood dreams.
Young saplings that buzz with
Summer and spring, of revels in the almond sun
and all of creation in its cornucopia of
feathers, fur, flowers, fronds.
Beauty that comes with the price of fragility.

Wood bends.
Around immovable rocks, towards precious light,
swayed by the currents and vortices of the world.
Indeterminate, yet focused in its direction of growth.
Nobody can predict where
or when -
Things grow in a pattern that most do not comprehend.

Wood is inward.
If hurt, the forest closes itself to the blinding world,
With no reason.
With no exception.
A dark fort of black trees; leaves that blot light, matted branches that scar the sky.

金 / metal - Steel sculpture in Tokyo Midtown Park

汽 / air - View from 5th Station, Mt Fuji

土 / earth - view from 8th station, Mt Fuji

水 / water - Water Temple by Tadao Ando, Awaji Island

Toyrings - Acrylic Fashion Rings

Toyrings is a product that my friend and I are working on at the moment. Although these rings are not for sale at the moment, be sure to drop a post or email me at kenkqb@gmail.com for information or even complimentary rings for friends and anyone who's interested to have a little piece of quirky fashion at the tip of his/her fingers. =)

Rift Lamp

This is a lamp to be placed in the corner of a room, creating an illusion of a hole torn, and an expanding star-like object spanning the rift created.

7 other parallel dimensions are revealed through this rift.

The illusion is created with the use of 3 mirrors placed perpendicularly to one another.

"Kami" Chair

Inspired by paper construction and origami, I designed this chair as an exploration of the structural and formal qualities of folding. Designed as a continuous loop of folding planes, the chair resembles a delicate paper construction that deforms slightly when one sits on it, creating a visual tension of strength and immateriality.

It will be made of powder-coated aluminium (white) with a continuous layer of black polyurethane foam on its inside face of the loop.

Blood House

I've long had this idea of doing an ongoing comic strip, making use of 3D software to actually model out the scenes and places that the characters will be in. Once these iconic places are actually modelled out, I just have to move objects and place the camera as if with a dollhouse, basically capturing the scenes as I go along.

Of course what would be interesting is the design and feel of these environments. This is Blood House, possibly the dwelling of a predatory seafaring character; a location that eventually culminates in some form of hurt or murder. The idea is to have the lowering tide change the look of the house from inviting to intimidating.

The sad and weird thing is, I feel more excited about this 20-min architectural creation than my entire Year 3's work. I guess the disillusionment of the architectural profession is really setting in.

Lava and Polarity Mazes

Ok... new maze concept!

1st one is just a normal maze for you to get warmed up.

The 2nd maze I call the Lava Maze. Basically the red squares are hot lava, which means you can only walk across a maximum of 5 red consecutive squares, after which you overheat and fry. Make use of the white squares as "rest stops", and be sure not to underestimate your travelling distance in the lava!

The 3rd Maze is the Polarity Maze. When you walk through a colour (pink/cyan) it charges you with the colour polarity (e.g. pink). You can no longer walk through the same colour that you are charged with (pink), but when you walk through another colour it charges you with a new polarity (e.g. cyan).

Enjoy.

New Photography Manifesto

1. The Subject shall no longer be of primary importance; gone are the pictures of budget holidays and pseudo-artistic shots, gone is the capture of old people and shophouses and stray kittens and children laughing. Just as the representational paintings of masters lay dusty in galleries, these photos must lie in dust as well.

2. What is true and beautiful is Komposition, the balance of Lyte and Shadow, hyperrealism of Tex-tures, and evocative geometric Shapes. The photograph should be an ageless work of art.

3. Emotional response shall only be created by visual Tension and Release, and strategic abstraction of Shapes. Beauty lies in the simplicity of the image - in a world full of real complexities, visual art should serve to distill visual Beauty.

4. O! The beautiful Shapes of koncrete and metal, eroded by Nature's hand herself. Why should leaves and birds dominate our canvasses of light when Nature has chosen to lay her hand on Man's own built masterpieces.

5. Let us unite and march forth in a blinding future devoid of Photoshopped images, unidentifiable sunsets and tiresome blurry Lomographs. Let our destiny be one of purity and pristine Beauty. Let us embrace the New Photography of tomorrow, brothers and sisters of the Lens!

Blind Staircase

Some people dream in monochrome,
some people dream in numbers or words,
some people dream in sounds.

My dreams are almost always hyperchromatic visions of deep colours, fringed with colours that serve to densify the bold colours. Even the sky seems a saturated liquid that flows endlessly through space.

I dream of places. Places I've been before, but twisted as if seen through a glass bubble. Curtains flap soundlessly in the invisible wind. Things that should be there are ripped from the world, leaving a silent void that maintains its boundary with the rest of the polychromatic world.

I dream of trains. Of parks. Of houses that I've stepped into before, but now as a helpless intruder.

I dream of people. The soft warm faces that I know and love, the transparent ghosts that shuffle through the maze of my life, the glowing seeds that are people who are yet to be.

I dream of a blind staircase, leading to a blind door.

30-sec Portraits of Idling People on the Train

When you're on the MRT train and you're bored, one of the most entertaining things is to draw. And the most interesting subjects you could ever hope for are sitting right in front of you in a row, sitting still, engaged in their own little space, unaware that someone is watching them....

This really nice auntie sitting beside me peeked over to see I was doing and started giggling loudly once she figured out which people I was drawing. She then thanked me for making her laugh. Glad I was able to make a random person happy today. =)



"Woman With Pursed Lips SMS-ing Boyfriend"

"Big Hair, Big 'Phones"

"Dog Tags Are Macho"

"Immersed In Canto-Pop on My IPod"

"Uncle Turtle"

"The Seat Beside The Glass"

"PSP Boy"

"Momma's Mountains; Sista's Valley"

Fibrous Sticky Cocoon

It's been a long time since I last updated this blog, mainly because of work and reservist training commitments. Thanks to those who regularly checked for updates here, and I promise more exciting content will be added in the near future.

We had an 2-day exercise which involved setting up a defence position in forested area somewhere in Marsiling. The thick jungle vegetation consisted mainly of large fruit trees like durian, jackfruit and rambutan trees, and we were tasked to dig shellscrapes or trenches in the ground in which we would sleep in. Very much like sleeping in a shallow grave, I suppose.

I lay in this damp hole in the soil, slipping in and out of consciousness as I struggled to sleep, the strange intoxicating stench of rotting fruit, the sounds of metallic rifle magazines clicking in the dark, and the texture of crisp leaf litter and moist organic matter brushing against my skin, the depthless freckles of light that streaked through the aged leaves of old trees, completely immersing me in a surreal, deeply tactile environment.

Call them visions, or dreams; these few images vividly surfaced in my mind as I sank further and further into a sub-conscious state of mind, a distorted reflection of the reality around me....

cilia on sticks
pustule-like, glistening like insect eyes
nowhere to shift without touching them

a heaving mass of scales
some brittle and skeletal
some black with age and decay

fibrous husk of tissue

like frozen muscle

deep scars that hide dark secrets

feathery antennae that bristle

that curl and wisp and fray

invade the crevices of your body

Don't Bottle Up Your Feelings...

Bottle A: Darling, your eyes are gorgeous. They're so....clear and transparent.

Bottle B: That's because they're made of glass?

Bottle A: Errr.... your beautiful head is so.... shiny.

Bottle B: That's because my WHOLE BLEDDY HEAD is made of glass?

Bottle A: Well... I love your... transparency. And your... openness towards me. It's as if I could see right into you, into your beautiful, pure soul.

Bottle B: In case you haven't noticed you could probably see right THROUGH me. And that's coloured water by the way. Probably food colouring... you know.

Bottle A: Come, let me hold you tight!

Bottle B: You've got no frickin' arms.

Bottle A: Oh. Crap.

Teleportation Puzzle

Care for a little bit of of cerebral stimulation?

This is a little invention of mine called the teleportation puzzle. Basically it's a grid of patterns which act as pairs of teleportation gates, and you need to get from the top left hand (entrance) to the bottom right one (exit).

The trick is, when u step into a gate, you immediately get teleported to a gate of similar pattern, and from there you choose another gate, moving only horizontally or vertically. So eventually u have to get teleported to the pattern at the bottom right, and then you exit.

Sounds easy? Try for yourself lor.

Sounds hard or don't get it? Just take it as just another drawing lor.

Saccharine Sweet Beach Babies

This is more freakin' saccharine sweet than sugary caramel drizzled on strawberry cotton candy with colourful sprinkles on top.

Something I did, that is more lighthearted...and kawaii... I guess.

Someone call a dentist before I get tooth decay.

Azure Cavern Lake

This is a digital painting that is still in progress, but I thought it would be interesting to share with you guys a little bit about my work process. First stage would the conceptualization stage, which usualy is a sketch using pencil, which might be inked in properly with .3/.5 pens afterwards, depending on the look. This time i'm going for a more "painterly" effect without the sharp outlines, so I just scanned in a very rough pencil composition.

The idea is a scene of a large underground lake, cavernous but with its own network of jetties and pendulous architecture hanging from the cavern ceiling, a bit inspired by the carved profiles of classical balustrades and columns. We see a protagonist taking in the whole scene, but I haven't defined him/her yet.

The next step is to paint the entire scene in a monochrome wash to establish all the darks and lights of the scene. This creates some form of depth and defines the main objects. Of course, this is done very quickly and intuitively so I won't get obsessed with filling in confusing details right at the start.

Now I establish the main colour scheme for the picture - a dark, greenish-grey look that makes the buildings look like they are carved out of jade. The only differering colour is a warm highlight in the corner, where an opening to daylight allows little sphere-copters to emerge out of the cave.

That's all for now, folks. Stay tuned to monitor my progress!

Metallic Cords Around My Head

Cords.
They hiss and writhe around your torso
Metallic Medusa.
Warm eyeballs that freeze into directionless titanium ball bearings
Flesh that becomes cold plastic.
Diaphanous blood that now throbs through your body.

I watch silently as the transformation takes place.
Not thoughtlessly, nor painlessly.

Your body remains rigid while something in you
collapses
and dissolves - I can see it in your glazed visage.
Like a machine.
Little red lights and circuits that shut down at regular intervals;
You die a thousand deaths, whirring to a stop.
And I anticipate the silence that follows.

Part of me watches helplessly
As one would watch the disintegration of a massive glacier
Falling impossibly, slowly, majestically.

I wonder too about the ghost in your aluminium shell.

Aural Score

An aural score is a written or drawn interpretation of a piece of music that cannot be noted in normal musical notation. This is a score I did as an assignment in a class, and the piece that this score corresponds to is definitely not your usual pitched music. It begins and ends with the sound of doors opening and shutting, noting the movements in the piece.

Each segment is a soundscape that depicts a scene - the 1st minute or so that you see in the score is actually the sound of a clattering carriage, which suddenly morphs into the sound of a city street in the dead of the night, with rain and soft traffic sounds.

Does music need notes and rhythm to be beautiful? I don't think so. Perhaps it's the little sounds that remind of you of a special place, the voice of someone, the comfort of the hum of your PC - things like these that become the music of life.

Japanese Assassin in Full Fuschia

Some friends commented that I had this cutesy style that's quite recognisable so I decided to have a bit of fun and go out of my comfort zone in doing this one... Not much to say about this, except that: if I were to design a CD cover for background electronic music played during Japanese Cosplay events....this would be it I guess. Not that I really think there's a market for that kind of music...

On hindsight, when I'm free I'll probably do the following things to this:
1. make the stuff behind her more symmetrical
2. clean the lines up by re-drawing the whole assassin digitally
3. reduce the flowery stuff a little

But oh well... probably won't do it in the end....

Planar Burrows

This is an idea that I will be working on in the near future, which may actually materialize into a physical product. Just to give you a hint of what this is about, it's a mix between ideas from a book called Flatland, a colourful PSP game called LocoRoco and some of the creatures I have created so far....

Will keep you all updated on the progress of this! Watch this space.

Loss, Isolation, Perversion, Hopelessness and Frustration

In the light of current events... here's something more negative to darken up your day - a 5-panel abstract piece featuring 5 dark emotions.

Enjoy yourself figuring out which is which.

Evolution to the Zodiacs

Time for a drastic change in frequency and style as we travel back to the past a bit more. This is a doodle I did a long long time ago on the back of a writing pad - you can still see the creased texture of the brown paper. I've just colourized it on Photoshop to add a bit of depth to the picture and you can still see the title that my friend helped to give to this drawing - "Evolution to the Zodiacs", in his own handwriting. A pretty optimistic title, considering that I envisioned a sad, mutated bird-like creature unable to fly, clutching a beautiful wilting lily in its beak.

Ok, maybe I admit the teenage years fuelled some kind of artistic angst.

Radioactive Angel

Here's something I did pretty long ago in an anime-inspired style. I took part in this T-shirt design competition, and the theme was "Radioactive" so I decided to interpret this theme in a slightly unconventional manner - designing an Angel of Radioactivity, spewing unstable molecules with her staff and holding an orb canister of uranium or something. OK, looking back at this I find it a bit cutesy and Power-Puff girl-ish, but anyway here's what I did. Notice the bright C100% Y100% green colour - it's meant to be Radioactive!