Prism Loo

Back to the basics - to design a low-cost toilet module for villages in Cambodia. Based on a hexagonal module so that the units can share walls to reduce costs further.

Chairs

Came across these stacks of run-of-the-mill plastic chairs. Only on closer observation I realised how beautiful and economical the shape of the chair is - and how it is actually a single deformed surface that creates volume with its curves and folds. Then I also realised how the repetition and stacking of the shape creates beautiful textural forms.

Also made me think about how so many things are over-designed and tortured into form when sometimes the most amazing things are made when you just leave them the way they should be.

Rain and other Olfactory Nostalgias

Hulking Desert Rig

Split Lamp

A single surface

A split

A twist

A light

DBS Workshop @ *SCAPE

An entry for a competition to do a DBS bank branch in the youth mall *SCAPE. Did this entry with Colin - my perpetual competition buddy. Really happy with the product! The idea was to create 2 distinct spaces: a 24-hour Interface zone with ATMs, digital screens, media wall, and a transformable Vortex zone with a dramatic infomedia sculpture, and a typical banking area that turns into a cool classroom area for financial masterclasses.

Mute

A constellation of cameras lights twinkle and a thousand lenses swivel and bulge
Pointed at me - the compound eye of an enormous dead fly.
I know this is the crucial moment to speak.
The final certain footstep
on the lip of the chasm before the leap.

I open my mouth, beaming.
And my smile soon collapses;
When I realise what I am:
mute.

Frozen Music

I just found pics of this lamp thing that I did for an exercise in year 2. I think we were given 3 hours or so to conceptualize and make a lamp in response to a piece of music written for NUS' Centennial celebrations.

I think my approach was to not think too much about the music/concept and just make something NICE out of the plastic sheets we were given. Haha. And the bullshitting and post-rationalization came after that. And thinking about it some more, that seems to be my approach to a LOT of other projects.

Whack now, think later.

Air

A few months ago I took part in the CDL Sculpture Competition ... and this was my entry.
The idea is to create a sculpture that inspired by the ground itself - half-earth and half-metal.
The name can be read in 2 ways: the English "Air" or the Malay "A-Ir" which means water.

Shingz-gapura

Shingz-gapura, oh Shingz-gapura
Funny island, shat in the sea
Shingz-gapura, oh Shingz-gapura
Pretty flowerz boomz for you and me.

Stranded Play

Just got a new camera.
I was REALLY tempted to get a mid-level DSLR and make my grand entry into the cult of the lens.. and decided that I'm really not the kind of person who would lug around a 1 kg camera and $3000 of photography equipment. Besides, I seem to have the strange mutant superpower similar to X-men's Jubilee - electronic stuff tends to self-destruct in my hands.

So lo and behold - shots from my NEW point-and-shoot Canon Powershot S90.

Cute, lightweight, and inconspicuous.

Childhood Miniatures

A poster done for a friend's concert - inspired by childhood whimsy, toys, nursery rhymes and dreams...

Amazing UFO Structures in Singapore

I was driving near my place when I suddenly came across these things that literally stop the car in the middle of the road, walk over and take a few pictures:



These gargantuan UFO things, about 6-8 storey tall, just emerged from this endless field of overgrown grass, with a little dirt road that scurried along the side. It's just absolutely surreal to see something like that in Singapore. I just wish I had better photography skills to capture these structures in their full glory.


Upon closer inspection, I realised they are water towers for some Newater storage facility. Where, you may ask? All I will reveal of their location is they are somewhere near a large furniture shop in the east. =)

Avatar of Vengeance RRWW

4/3
Whenever you or a permanent you control becomes a target of an opponent's spell or ability, you may pay RW. If you do so, Avatar of Vengeance does 2 damage to target creature or player and you gain 2 life.

Vengeance: blind, blatant and bloody.

Avatar of Decay GGBB

7/7
Flying
Avatar of Decay comes into play with three -1/-1 counters.
Tap, Remove a -1/-1 counter from Avatar of Decay: Each player sacrifices a land.

I imagine Decay to be a wispy female figure with a long rustling gown of skeletal leaves and wings of papyrus.
She is faceless, with only a beaked mask as her visage.
Her left hand is made of spotless, shiny steel, constantly twitching and squeaking - the only sound that she ever makes.

(Yeah I used to be a Magic cards geek =) )

Naturalization of My Personal Space

Another fun activity I've been involved in: redecorating! Was thinking of how to create designer-looking stuff for my room at a fraction of the cost, while keeping in my favoured theme of nature-inspired forms. Here's some of my mini-projects. And yeah, I have kinda quirky taste sometimes.


Cactus Spine Lamp -
Made from $5 Ikea lamp and 3 x Polyetylene spiky mats to keep birds off surfaces (dunno what the hell is that called)

Foliage Frames -

White frame from Ikea and 3 different artificial grass tufts that I got from Daiso.

Monstera Clock -

I ripped out the clock mechanism + hands from an old obiang clock I've had for years, and cut out a Monstera leaf pattern (you know, those tropical ferns) out of Bristol board. Kinda like this one the best. =)

The Architecture of Archival

Recently I've been intrigued by the language of archival and instruction, and the way that diagrams map out the complex organisation of the world. While the illustrator of the diagram seems to be engaging in a very scientific, methodical process, there is a subconscious point of view that is being reflected.

These are experimentations in digital collage: basically I stitched together a composite scene from images of a 19th-century illustrated encyclopedia, and an IKEA furniture assembly instruction manual. Both, to me, are forms of archival that pay specific attention to an object that evokes hidden worlds: the foreign exotic lands, or the idealised domestic realm of the catalogue home. These collages aim to unveil the hidden fairytales and scenes that have supposedly been torn apart by archival.

Enjoy.


Geological Shrines

The Budkeeper's Ritual

Happy CNY

03:14:14:12:08

Room of indeterminate length
A table that stretches into the thick darkness
Two endless rows of people I know and once knew
Sitting in a pregnant silence; Staring at the space before them.

As I move quickly to find my place
I see, between the shadows of their heads
Spheres of varying light that breathe luminescent
They stare unblinkingly at the radiant orbs that dance in the dark.

I find the only gap - a seat that is undeniably mine.

Five empty cards that lay neatly on a tabletop of velvety black.
A glance to my right and left: like the space between two mirrors.
I look at my cards
and I do as they do.
I breathe and I think and I concentrate.

And nothing happens,
and the stasis freezes into infinity.

Eklipse | Modular Seating

It's been a long time! Just wanted to post a little project that I've been working on recently. It's a design of a modular public seating unit made of polyproylene that can be aperiodically tiled due to its shape, creating a seamless flexible seating surface that suits all spatial situations.





Here's a drawing of what I intended it to look like:

Comes in 3 shades that are (pretentiously) named after varying shades of shadow, as the name Eklipse suggests - Lumina (white), Penumbra (light gray) and Umbra (dark gray).

Here's a really badly taken photo of a great 1:6 prototype kindly cut by my really nice friend Guofeng:

Got my funding to do a life-size prototype of my design, so stay tuned for more updates!

Dripping The Darkness of Night

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. =)