On our radar

Formed two-and-a-half years ago, SILNT (pronounced ‘silent’) is made up of art director Felix Ng, 25, and studio manager Germaine Chong, 22. This jack-of-all-trades design studio has produced videos for the Republic of Singapore Air Force open house; published a series of children’s books; and directed a music video for now-defunct local band Parking Lot Pimp. All this, and the pair still has time to prepare for their biggest exhibition to date: ‘Dual City Sessions: NULL’, in collaboration with Artless, one of Japan’s edgiest design collectives. So what’s the big deal? For one, Artless has never worked with any designers outside Japan; in fact, it’s even turned down offers from European studios. All Artless exhibitions (which fall under the umbrella term of ‘NULL’) explore traditional Japanese aesthetics and graphic work dedicated to the minimalist mindset of ‘to subtract is to add’. In ‘Dual City Sessions’, the participating Japanese and Singaporean artists – 28 in total – will each render this design theory on two 8-metrelong original prints. 

Ng first encountered Artless while at the Tokyo International Book Fair in 2006. He and Artless head honcho Shun Kawakami hit it off, and Ng expressed interest in curating an exhibition for the Singapore Design Festival. In the weeks that followed, SILNT was invited by Artless to bring NULL to Singapore for the festival, and ‘Dual City Sessions’ was born. Aside from helping to conceptualise the exhibition’s theme and direction, Ng also selected the Singaporean artists that best refl ect the ethos of the exhibition. This bilateral travelling showcase – which will debut in Tokyo and then move back to Singapore on 27 November – involves local artists such as Christopher Lee (Asylum), Hanson Ho (h55), Grace Tan (Kwodrent) and Daniel Koh (01/Unit), as well as Kawakami (Artless), Koji Nashida (raku-gaki) and Japanese photographer Taisuke Koyama. Ng adds that in the future, ‘Dual City Sessions: NULL’ may include workshops, talks, or even music performances. ‘Our ministers go for cultural visits; they see people, visit places and talk about future agreements,’ Ng says. ‘It’s the same idea [as ‘Dual City Sessions’] – to have a mutual exchange of ideas with other countries; in this case, in the areas of design and the arts.’ 

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