We decided that parts of the project needed to be accessible to students and so we used an animation to form the backbone of the project. A rather general narrative was developed and that being a land being destroyed and the students needing to help salvage the situation. The art workshops that were organised for the students then felt more like an important mission that they were a part of and their efforts amounted to a greater cause.

In the style of Choon Lin’s previous animations, where she usually worked without a fixed plot, and then incorporating materials and objects that she seen along the way, as the animation progressed, From Green to Brown to Black to Brown to Green featured artworks created by students, and they influence the making and development of the animation.

Sypnosis of From Green to Brown to Black to Brown to Green:

Part One: The Destroyed tells the plight of creatures when their land is being developed and Part Two: The Rebirth shows how it is being rebuilt with the help of hundreds of recycled toy figurines that is collected around Fukuoka.

Here is a breakdown of the project:

The backbone of the entire project

• Animation titled From Green to Brown to Black to Brown to Green (Part One: The Destroyed  and Part Two: The Rebirth).

At the Lost in the City exhibition, National Museum of Singapore

• Mainly an installation which altered the environment of the exhibition site, perhaps in the rubric of relational aesthestics.

• From Green to Brown to Black to Brown to Green (Part One: The Destroyed).

At the Art Exchange Programme, 4th Fukuoka Asian Art Triennale, Japan

• From Green to Brown to Black to Brown to Green (Part Two: The Rebirth).

• Art workshops with local junior high students where they created simple artworks using over 600 recycled toy figurines collected in Fukuoka. All the artworks were featured in the animation, and voice recordings of the students were also used as sound effects in the animation.

• The animation was filmed on a miniature landscape that was constructed in Fukuoka. This landscape along with the toys were installed in a room where the animation were projected.

From Green to Brown to Black to Brown to GreenF

We are concerned with the rapid pace of urban development, especially the adverse effects on the environment and the behaviour of its inhabitants.

We are also fascinated with the Situationist practice of dérive or psychogeography.

Situationist International head honcho Guy Debord defined psychogeography  in 1955 as “the study of the precise laws and specific effects of the geographical environment, consciously organized or not, on the emotions and behavior of individuals.”

Another definition is “a whole toy box full of playful, inventive strategies for exploring cities… just about anything that takes pedestrians off their predictable paths and jolts them into a new awareness of the urban landscape.”

In January, Choon Lin was informed that she would be exhibiting her work, Come Out and Play, at the 4th Fukuoka Asian Art Triennale (FT4),  Japan. The largescale international exhibition consisted of two parts, one which was the main exhibition and the other a seven-week art exchange programme with the local community in Fukuoka.

The art exchange programme gave more freedom for Choon Lin to initiate a project, so she invited me to collaborate in this programme. We are actually also a collaborative duo who have worked in a few projects, with the most significant work, being Sungei Roadsters, which was exhibited at Welcome to the Real World, Singapore Management University.

It was the first time Choon Lin and I were  going to work abroad together and so we had to make immense preparation while in Singapore before we headed to Fukuoka. Then the good news came that National Musuem of Singapore invited us to work together for an exhibition titled, Lost in the City,  the theme was consistent to the project we were working on for FT4, and  the exhibition would open just before we leave for Japan, so it just fell in place as an excellent platform for us to lauch our project.

Lost in the City was also a four-month exhibition, so by the time we were back in Singapore, we could return to it  and  present a full conclusion to the entire project, while all were fresh in our minds.

In essence, the idea of exchange played an important part, and that meant both places got a little something.