Pay $250 for a photo with nude artist

A STARK naked man has attracted attention from over 350 people so far at the Art Stage Singapore exhibition, currently being held at Marina Bay Sands.

"The man is seated in a booth in front of Mexican artist Frida Kahlo's The Two Fridas - dressed only in his "birthday suit".

Visitors to the exhibition can choose to join him in the room, hold his hand, and get a photograph taken for a token price of $250.

This man who exhibits himself is in fact an artist from Hyderabad, India called T. Venkanna.

And yes, posing naked and taking photographs is part of his art installation about "removing the trappings of identity". "

The first issue about this artwork is the price that need to be paid to view it. For an artwork, $250 is simply too much. If the purpose of his artwork is to convey a message to the public or to represent an idea through his artwork, he should make it more accessible to the public. Many people may find it too expensive to spend on an artwork. This price has also become a barrier between the audience and the artwork. People may be interested in this artwork, however they may think that this artwork do not worth $250. The price further prevents people of lower income group to able able to appreciate this work.

The second issue regarding this artwork will be the argument that whether by appearing nude can be considered as a form of art.

Some of the questions we should consider when viewing this work:
What is art? Is there really a restriction to art? In my opinion, the answer is both yes and no.

Art is defined as product or process of deliberately arranging items (often with symbolic significance) in a way that influences and affects one or more of the senses, emotions, and intellect.

To me, art is an expression of oneself. From this aspect, the Indian artist indeed achieved a form of art. Everyone has their own opinion on beauty and their own way to express their inner self. By been fully naked, he might felt that he had truly removed the trappings of identity in him and to him, this might to the best way to convey his message. Art indeed is very abstract, everyone will have their own interpretations and restrictions to art. We cannot say or criticise that the artist is destroying the image of art or that what he did is not considered as art at all. As there may be people out there who can appreciate his unique form of 'artwork'. What we considered as unglamorous may be what the others considered as the true beauty of human form. Furthermore, people like Da Vinci has also spent their life time investigating the human body. Hence, who are we to say that the human form is not considered as art?

However, in the modern society, people are not yet that open to such 'art' or 'beauty'. The current society does not approve such installation and the society do not regard such installation as art. Hence, many people may feel uncomfortable when looking at the artwork of the Indian artist. It will then mean that people in the society cannot really appreciate his work as many of them may think that what he is doing is disrespectful to the people and the arts. Since the main purpose of the installation is to convey messages, such as removing trappings of identity, to the general public, he should use a art form that is more acceptable and easier appreciated by the general public.

On the other hand, I applaud his courage to showcase such an installation. He must be aware that his artwork will not be very well recieved by the public, nevertheless, he still chose to do it. I think that there should be more artists who should be more creative and daring and through their artworks, they can show and tell the public that there are actually many different forms of art. When art is presented to the public in a diverse way, people will then learn to appreciate art in the many other forms, and even in the form of a nude person.

In my opinion, when the public has a deeper understanding and appreciation of the various forms of art, then artwork can convey its meaning to them. However, we need more artist like him to take the first step to allow people to be more open towards the different forms of art and the notion of beauty.

Inspiration: Artist Laurent Dauptain sees himself staring back from his art

"Artist Laurent Dauptain is known for painting over 3000 self-portraits depicting his gradual aging.

Dorian Gray he's not.

Artist Laurent Dauptain has painted thousands of self-portraits over the past 25 years, capturing every new wrinkle, every new gray hair.

And the 49-year-old Frenchman says he'll do it until the day he dies.

"I don't have to worry about flattering somebody or hurting someone's ego," he said of his strange fixation.

Still, it took one of his most important critics - his wife of 13 years - a while to warm up to the project.

"At first I thought he was obsessed and crazy," admits Sylvie Dauptain, 46. "Now I understand."

"There's a lot of freedom," when you decide to make yourself your artistic subject, Laurent Dauptain said yesterday, shortly after arriving from Paris ahead of his exhibit in Chelsea.

It all started when, at age 20, Dauptain drew 12 self-portraits for a college assignment to imagine himself at different ages.

He was fascinated by the results, which depicted his face from age 15 to 95.

He set out on a mission to re-create the project in real time."

To know more, visit: http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2010/05/06/2010-05-06_artist_laurent_dauptain_sees_himself_staring_back_from_his_art.html

This is an art exhibition showing the around 3000 self portraits of the same artist.

Firstly, I really admire the resilience and perseverance the artist has when creating this series of paintings. He need to constantly paint his self portrait everyday, no matter how bored or tired he might be. This art exhibition really shows us that being an artist is not an easy job. Many a times, artists need to continue with a piece of work for an extremely long period of time. And in the case of Duptain, he has continued on with his work for more than 25 years. Many of the good artworks in history also took a long period of time to complete, for exmaple Da Vinci spent nearly his entire second half of his life time trying to complete the 'Mona Lisa' which is now viewed as the most precious work in the world.

This series of painting also reflects his life. As he grows older, i guess this series of paintings can serve as a memory of his past as he can then reflect the things he has done in his life. Many a times, artists create works not with the sole purpose of exhibiting it. I guess artists produce the works with their own intentions. However, if artist only create works so that they can exhibit it and gain fame and fortune from it, then the process of art making has then lose its purpose and joy. Artists should do art for the enjoyment or reflection on one self or the society.

I guess this shows that no matter in creating artworks or other aspects of life, we always need to put in efforts and persevere on in order to achieve the best result.

This artworks shares the same theme as my course work. By painting his self portraits every day for 25 years, the artist has shown through his daily paintings, his every own process of aging. As we can see from the different self portraits, the physical appearance of the artist ages everyday. Although he did not painted the portraits with much details, however the audience can still feel the process of aging through his work. The paintings seem to be less energetic and having more calmness in the later portraits. He explores the issue of aging and the different stages of life in his painting, and this is the theme which I wish to explore further for my coursework.

Heros at Kranji

These photos were taken at the Kranji war cemetery.That was a really beautiful p lace. That day the sky was very blue and the grass there was very green, so I decided to take some photos. The marble white graves really contrasted with the beautiful and colourful scenery around them.
It is really sad how the soldiers can only have peace after their death.

Portraits!!!

This is Harry Potter. Hope it looks like him. :)

Yes, this is Mr. Obama. It looks weird because I drew it quite out of proportion. It is hard to draw the US President!

I think older people are easier to draw instead as the texture of their skin is easier to capture with pencil.

I did these portraits during Sec 3 Dec Holiday in Beijing for Global Classroom Programme. The teacher gave us each a sketch book, so I just put it to use. :)
I only had pencil, so I started doing portraits of random people and also Mr. Obama and Harry Potter! I copied those two online. I find the hardest part is to get the proportion correct, which I failed when drawing Mr. Obama. :(
I think I need to work more on the eyes too as they look kind of dead for these few drawings.

I really like doing portraits!

Animal Obsession

I really like animals, especially the animals of the wild. However most of the animals are painted by referring to photos. I really wish that some days I can go to the wild to do such paintings. :)

During the December holiday of sec 2, I started painting numerous water colour paintings of different animals. I tried to make the paintings look not too detailed. It would probably not look too good here as they are meant to be seen from a further distance. I am more interested in painting the heads of the different animals and I chose to leave out the bodies of most of the animals.

I realise that I am fond to paint in a darker tone than desired for certain areas. That is why you will realise that I edited some parts of the paintings by using white paint over it. After finishing the paintings, I have a habit to use white to edit my paintings if needed. White colour is like my saving tool! :)