The medium is the message

Escape, intervention, travel, time difference: with an increasing number of Singaporean artists gaining access to international cultures, a sense of 'elsewhere' seems to pervade not just the subject matter but the mediums used by many young, upcoming artists. Erica Lai, winner of the 24th UOB Art Awards' photography section, has been developing her darkroom skills since she was 14. In 2006, she was chosen as one of 100 outstanding youths under 25, incensing many a photographer who could not appreciate her sparse aesthetic. One photographer on ClubSnap, an online photography discussion group boasting more than 76,000 members, went as far as to say that there was no word to describe her work except 'sucks', and asked who it was she bribed to get the title.

A few years later, with more professional experience under her belt, she laughs the incident off, more intent on coping with her recently acquired travel bug, and using it to expand her photographic portfolio. 'I get restless easily. Travelling re-sensitises me, and shows me new possibilities and methodologies.' Lai, who recently came back from North Korea with images ranging from vast, uninhabited landscapes to the country’s mass games – enormous, spectacular events performed in stadiums as propaganda exercises – believes it is important to be in a place where situations might not make sense to her.

Me and Fir by Samuel Woo

Like Lai, Samuel Woo understands both the travel bug and photography's ability to incite a response. He remembers being deemed 'dangerous' when a number of his photographs of people pretending to 'do the daily' on toilet bowls were censored by the MDA during his first public exhibition in 2005. Three years later, on an exchange programme in Beijing, he was given an assignment that required the involvement of his close friends.

Since there was no practical way to shoot them using conventional techniques when they were in Singapore, Woo ended up documenting their virtual conversations, and using this material in turn to simulate photos of real-life encounters. This series – which transforms a technological gadget, the webcam, into an artistic medium – has turned out to be an ongoing project. 'The project I am working on involves adapting the same approach for other good friends, who are based in Japan and China,' Woo says.

Construction by Farizwan Fajari

And while Woo is busy webcamming from Singapore, artist/musician Farizwan Fajari is doing the same from Texas, where his band I Am David Sparkle has been invited to play at the South by Southwest festival. Known for both his illustrations and his interventions – a medium rarely used in Singapore which one could define as a loose cross between performance and protest – Fajari is the perfect example of an artist who has applied what some might consider a foreign idea to a local context. Fajari's interventions often involve text placed in specifipunkc public spaces, appearing as part of the landscape – but in fact, disrupting the space with their messages.

For example, don't be surprised to see a sign that says 'I have never believed' placed next to real-estate advertisements, or the words 'I have never liked talking to you' above a public phone. When asked about his work, he says that he is inspired by everything around him, with special reference to 'good music, news headlines, coffee, Egon Schiele, [Jean-Michel] Basquiat, good company, wrestling matches, Punk Planet magazine, silly graffiti and Charles Bukowski'.

So what does the world have in store for these three artists? Well, as we speak, Lai is planning her next trip to the Silk Route, Woo is applying for school in New York and Fajari is tuning up in Texas. So perhaps a more appropriate question to ask would be, what do these talented young people have in store for the world?

THE ARTISTS

	Erica Lai, winner of the 24th UOB Art Awards' photography section, has been developing her darkroom skills since she was 14. In 2006, she was chosen as one of 100 outstanding youths under 25...
	Samuel Woo understands both the travel bug and photography's ability to incite a response. He remembers being deemed 'dangerous' when a number of his photographs of people pretending to 'do the daily' on toilet bowls were censored by the MDA during his first public exhibition in 2005.
	artist/musician Farizwan Fajari is doing the same from Texas, where his band I Am David Sparkle has been invited to play at the South by Southwest festival. Known for both his illustrations and his interventions – a medium rarely used in Singapore which one could define as a loose cross between performance and protest...