A review of the 2019 AFF edition – for kids.

 

Art as education, art as inspiration, art as interaction, art as mystification, art as entertainment … it was there in all its manifestations, especially for children.

 

The 2019 edition showcased a broad range of work by both emerging and established artists, with over 200 new artists featured this year. A special #SPOTLIGHT feature highlighted the work of seventeen artists whose work ranged from painting to sculpture, and materials varied from acrylic to ceramics.

 

 

The Young Talent exhibition featured eight rising stars, hand-picked by the Young Talent Programme Selection Committee. Three of the shortlisted artists worked closely with the Programme Curator for over ten months – developing new works, a Southeast Asian tour and exhibitions in Manila, Penang and Singapore.

 

 

Expressions of creativity stretched down the corridors in many artistic variations – thread, wire, embroidery, porcelain, net, paper, paint, metal, acrylic, PVC (polyvinyl chloride), photographs, clay, glass, wood, marble … a wonderland of discoveries for children who are creative, curious, open to ideas … and want to know.

 

Three specific experiences (apart from many more) that children would have enjoyed …

 

If Lines could Dance : Art Wonderland offered children workshops (free and ticketed) in three-dimensional mark making, working with an immersive installation – a physical immersion in a spatial canvas.

 

 

Silkscreen Mashup – was a collaborative silk screen printmaking trial with Steve Lawler – aka Mojoko – a multimedia artist with eclectic, electric combinations of Trash Pop culture and historic Chinese references.

Visitors were offered free trials to create and own a screen print from a selection of his work.

EYEYAH – his latest publishing project, was available to browse and take home. This 44 page illustrated issue using art to educate – for kids (&Kidults) – celebrated the Sea, its magic, and life on, around and below the ocean.

 

Now Playing by Rehyphen® – was an incredibly interesting up-cycling initiative which wove discarded cassette and video tapes from local communities into pieces of MusicCloth®.

Visitors could interact with the installation by choosing from a selection of cassette tapes to listen to.

(Musiccloth® swatches have been stored and are available in Material ConneXion world-wide libraries & the University of Pennsylvania material lab. The material has been exhibited at TEDx, chosen by the American Design Club as one of the modern methods to build an object and awarded one of the excellent designs of the 21st century world by RedDot 21.)

 

Everything you can imagine is real, said Pablo Picasso, and children would have found that true in the three days of colour-soaked, reality-bending extravaganza of people, pictures and things that filled the corridors of the F1 Pit Building in Singapore !

 

Hope you took the kids, hope you enjoyed it.

 

All photographs by SingaporeforKids.