PUBLISHED September 7th, 2012 03:06 pm | UPDATED January 21st, 2016 08:49 am
There’s something magical about the union of the art and the artist, something sublime about the expression of life mixed with the pastel colours of a pallet and painted on a canvass, a form of art imitating life in the most minute level, created and cultivated by fingers that throb and poured life into the images they create. This was the impression left by Flabslab’s Acoustic Anarchy exhibit, the first solo exhibit by husband-and-wife duo, Mr. and Mrs. Sabotage (SBTG), Mark Ong and Sue-Anne Lim.
Plus grit, of course. Much more grit.
Hardly new to the spotlight, artist Mark Ong has been famed for his handcrafted custom sneakers and street wear under their parent company Royalefam, and this exhibit presents ten years of planning, scheming and creative incubation that exploded into a collective work –executed in perfect detail within three months – that bursts with originality, brilliance and hard-edged creative grit. Each collection of work tells a story, one time or another, of its formative years, its source of inspiration and its painstaking hand-crafted execution, an art form true to the spirit of the artist that made them, each piece a part of a story that tells a ten-year journey to this wonderful imitation of an artist’s soul.
Arriving at Lorong 24A Geylang, you would be easily deceived into a rather passé state of mind, until that is, you step into Unit 13 and a collection stark in red and black and yellow welcomes you, a blast of cryptic symbolism pulling the eye and the mind. This is where we met Mark, obliging and friendly, who offered a tour to the abode of his most wonderful collection of work. This is where the story begins…
Roots Radicals
The red and black and yellow that you see is a story in itself. It tells a story of a fictitious boy named Lars, who grew up with parents that eventually separated and divorced. His formative years were a mixture of a mother’s unconditional love and snippets of father-and-son moments, splayed with his interests in skateboarding and music, and ambition to be a renowned skateboarder and punk rocker.
Living each day like the last, he grew to achieve his dreams, falling in love (and sadly out of it), relationships going astray and getting entangled on the wrong side of the law. He eventually found success and achieved the pinnacle of all his efforts.
The starkness of the 7-canvass digital print series suited the storytelling and Mark admitted that this was an almost autobiographical creation, a retelling of a story close to his heart – his own story. Such honesty put the images in a different light: from its natural state of boldness to a certain softness around the hard edges, a poignancy and nostalgia from the image of a mother’s love to the live-fast-die-young toughness of the wonderful revision of The Last Supper.
Colloquial Camouflage
…is cheeky. Period.
This series is a representation of Mark’s interest in the military uniform style and an expression of phrases that Mr. and Mrs. SBTG use day-to-day: Namaste (a by-product from their yoga classes), Fuck Me! (inspired by the chef Gordon Ramsey’s famous phrase – one of personas Mark looks up to), Evolve Beyond (their company’s logo), Bitch Ass! (an affectionate moniker shared between the two of them), and World Peace (a pop culture satire). It’s somewhat of a private joke that evolved into this beautifully crafted embroidery on camouflage uniform fabric. A very cheeky reminder of the nature of relationship between these two creators.
When asked about his wife and partner for 5 years, Mrs. SBTG’s role in his art, Mark said: ‘She is the one who pulls me out from getting too crazy about my art. She’s the bridge that allows other people to understand the things that I create.’ The practical to the idealist, a perfect mix.
United States of Punk Rock
The American promise of freedom of expression and its grand rebellion to the system are just two of the things Mark drew inspiration from, a concept that’s best conveyed by lyrics from bands like The Misfits, Black Flag, Ramones and Nirvana. This is the concept of this four canvass series of acrylic on USA flag where he painted lyrics from each band into USA flags, his own expression of freedom and his constant inspiration as a kid growing up in the 80s.
Fuctocopied
This is as best as collages would ever get. True to the spirit of handcrafted works, this collage is inspired by the making of Punk flyers and borne from the original photographs of celebrated rock photographer, Eddie Sung, a Singapore-based premier rock photographer who had worked with rock legends like Eric Clapton, Cranberries and Carlos Santana.
Handpainted Vietnam Zippo Art series
Vietnam War. The soldier’s life. Pop Culture. Zippo Lighters.
While this may sound like a perfect combination for zippo lighters, this is sadly only a concept yet to be fully executed. Inspired by the life of American soldiers during the Vietnam War, their trepidations and nostalgia thinking about home, this series of handpainted acrylic over brown paper represents the thoughts that must’ve been running through the heads of each soldier as they thought of home and all the imageries they’ve attached to home, scrawled over zippo lighters, a reminder of that long long wait to going back home.
Apocalypse Now Series
Apocalypse Now is one of Mark’s favourite, if not his all-time favourite, films. And its influence has seeped into many of his works, especially this series. This set of skateboard decks are spray-painted with the movie’s title over coke bottles, the paragon of 80’s pop culture. When asked on which part of the movie inspired him most of all, he said, ‘I love the part where Kilgore says, as the pink and yellow smoke fill the scene, ‘I love the smell of napalm in the morning… Smells like…victory.’ I think that’s the best part of the movie.’ The interpretation of the said scene is not lost in his art, the wild and colorful paint forming the film’s title being at the centerstage over the tiger camouflage-esque background.
The Light Boxes Series
Possibly the most ingenious series in the whole exhibit – and placed even at the topmost showroom of the whole Unit 13 structure, the Light box series presents Mark’s love for the film of the 50’s – particularly horror films – and of course, the ubiquitous influence of The Misfits in his art, as he merges titles from their songs with poster designs from 50’s horror film. In the darkness of this pinnacle of a room, splashed with multi-colored lights from these light boxes and 50’s trailers running in the background, it was like being in a time machine, transported to the days of retro popcorn horror films complete with the deep-voiced trailer announcers and screams of damsel-in-distress tickling your ears. A movie experience in light box sizes.
It is rare to come across art with such brutal honesty and originality as that of Acoustic Anarchy, and while it heralds with glitz and glamour and brilliant creative grit, there’s somewhat a softness and quaintness in the pure honesty and down-to-earth approach in their art, handmade and moulded from fingers that pump the very life to it. Each brush stroke, every pencil line: a painstaking step to the creation of an artwork that is completely and utterly made from an artist’s sweat and blood. Maybe that’s why it arrests us so much, such art form…because the pieces themselves are alive and throbbing with a piece of soul that was from its artist, telling us stories that bring nostalgia, love, happiness, remorse, trepidation, amusement and entertainment.
At least, that was how Acoustic Anarchy has arrested us.
Plus grit. Much more grit.