PUBLISHED October 17th, 2012 12:00 am | UPDATED January 21st, 2016 08:40 am
In this day and age, when we are so rushed off our feet with the trivial and banal, it is little wonder that the creative souls that were once in there somewhere; have for many, almost entirely withered away. Well all is not lost. Help is at hand, thanks to The Hearthrob Project which seeks to inject into our lives, a little of the creativity and emotion that sometimes gets passed up in our fast-paced, wheeling dealing world.
Founded by Sirhan Haziq and Jeremy Tan, two rather lovely young gentlemen who want you to stop, read, see, imagine, feel and be alive, their single mission to make your heart throb once more (hence the name!) at the sight of boundless local creativity, which the disbelievers say does not exist in Sing – but that we at City Nomads know is abundant!
Imagine a local artist exhibition, online, all of your very own, which can be dipped into as you choose, that you peruse whilst works jump out at you, which makes you feel kinda warm and fuzzy because it shows, yes! Singapore is creative people!
Enough of me rattling on – let me show you what I mean because I’ve picked out some of our favourites here:
The Last Kopitiam by Eugene Soh
I love this tongue-in-cheek version of Leonardo Da Vinci’s Last Supper – one of the most ubiquitous art images in the Western world – and how it has been translated for the East, moreover for Singapore…in a Kopitiam no less.
Porcelain by Diana Rahim
All I have to say on this piece of fragile and emotive poetry is read it. And be moved….
I am not porcelain skin, perfect posture
and the image of intertwined toes.
There is nothing graceful in the way i fall.
No sunlight will light the intimate features
of my face, peaceful on the pillow.
An image of tenderness.
Me; I burrow between the sheets.
My hair a black river hiding a drowning face.
My limbs arranged in their own clumsy geometry.
I am not good with words of the spoken kind.
I am awkward pauses between past lovers.
The silence a conversation of pain;
immediately and intuitively understood.
I am the silent dance of ‘to hug or not to hug’,
carving a sculpture of uneasiness from the
air and space between two shy bodies.
No, listen.
I cannot live with forced grace,
(it does not come naturally to me).
My limbs have always known space.
There was never an audience, all i’ve done
i did in genuine aloneness.
So while it may be queer, it is also true.
Honest. I do not regret speaking à la
Hemingway’s iceberg. Reading love stories
instead of living them. Wearing my shyness
in place of a forced confidence.
The greatest pleasure is to be true.
Strings Attached by Gong Hua
This simple and ironic illustration speaks volumes about our lives in today’s complicated world…
He Hears You Better When You Pray Closer by Othman
There is something very arresting about this photograph – it’s so intimate yet voyeuristic as the figure captured is caught in a beautiful private moment….
So go on, take a peek and see what creativity you might discover, and if you so feel inclined, and ‘heart’ what you see, give it a hearthrob of your very own.
Or if you’re wondering why your work is not up there, as are we…then perhaps it’s time you did something about it because the Heartthrob Project is an open invitation for anyone and everyone who possesses a wild imagination, or has a story to share. If you have a penchant for writing, a knack for illustration, or possess any creative medium capable of telling wondrous stories, then what the heck are you waiting for??
Visit The Hearthrob Project online here or like their Facebook page here.