Work-In-Progress

**Special thanks to artist Motoyuki Shitamichi, Yamagami Tomonori and volunteer Watanabe-san driving and walking around together in this adventure journey in Aomori area.**

28 November 2011 ~ 21 February 2012

This year the Aomori Contemporary Art Centre(ACAC) will hold an exhibition on “Re-Modernologio” which will examene contemporary social structure, lifestyle culture, and the relationship between regional daily life and art over a three periods based upon the keyword “modernologio”, a movement first advocated by Aomori-native Kon Wajiroh. the theme of the phase3, the third installment of “Re-Modernologio”, is “Landscape of Traces”.
We see the “modernologio” as a point of view that finds the traces of human living in the city, and observes it and describes it.

With Takeshi Kitano, Nara Yoshitomo and Miyata (President of Tokyo Art University)
the date: 19th November 2011(sat)

WATCH IT HERE:

**SPARK reaction by the SAW during repairing process**

by Joo Choon Lin

I SAW You SING, series #01 Singapore + Malaysia, 12 mins, 2011

By Joo Choon Lin

“I SAW You SING” is a new revolution to structural crack repair. It is a dream saw which can repair any concrete cracks and fractures in walls. When the cracks are stabilized and cured, it leaves behind a permanent colourful mark. This saw will also sing you a song during the repair process.

It is ironic that a saw has become more significant as a tool being returned to its initial purpose of aiding construction, because in contemporary culture, we often see the saw as a tool of violence, mutilation and destruction in horror-gore films such as SAW and Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

In this video, through the process of make believe and creating dream-like sequences, Joo Choon Lin sought to respond to the gaps between the social classes in global society and using the saw as a symbol of expression to bridge social fragmentations/barriers.

13 May – 3 Jul ( Fri – Sun) Tunnel, Esplanade

Created in collaboration with the children from Jamiyah Children’s Home

Familial problems and social conditions often neglect, entrap, and render children powerless. Inevitably, they would have to enter society one day, hopefully with the realisation that happiness is within their control. Organisations such as Jamiyah Children’s Home have continually tried to help such children mend their broken dreams and give them hope for their future.

Joo Choon Lin has been organising art activities for these children in the past year, the result of which is the development of this installation featuring stop-motion animated film Too Big in the Tank. Metaphorical to broken dreams as well as the deep emotional and spiritual struggles of these children, Too Big in the Tank portrays a fish’s desire to make its way into the sea, which ultimately represents its sense of nature, home and security.

Short Synopsis:
WIO has estimated that the dramatic figure of 200 million young and extreme vulnerable children without parental care has been reached. … This unprotected group of more than 200 million orphaned and abandoned children is estimated to grow within the next five years to around 250 million. In 2015, it is predicted, 400 million children and young people will directly or indirectly fall into this category. They have no or limited access to education, food, medical care and family love, and are defenceless against abuse, exploitation and child labour… When children are neglected and forgotten, they grow up too fast. When irresponsibility becomes the rule in a society, its whole system of morality alters. Children establish their own laws, their own hierarchy, and their own methods of distributing wealth. On the one hand, these children grow up very fast. On the other hand, they never really mature; they stay in a strange intermediate condition.

The artist started thinking about making a film about the subject and wanting to tell a story in an almost semi – documentary manner. In the film, the character was confused by the strange situation he stumbles upon. The director toyed with some thoughts along the storyline and gets some inspiration from the selected orphanage. For example, the fish tank in Jamiyah Home. Some objects are selectively chosen to symbolize a connotation. Too Big In The Tank title is metaphorical and trying to show the feeling resembling a fish of wanting to leap out and make its way to the sea, their nature, their home and security.

Installation View

(Click Picture To View Ablum)

In the film, I have my inspiration for the storyline from the home through daily interaction and conversation with the staff and the children. In the film, I selected materials, objects and symbols that are familiar to the children. I saw the fish tanks placed in the lobby of the home, the children playing football during their free-time, a cabinet filled with soccer trophies, so slowly I tried to piece these objects and activities all together in the film.

Through the conversations with the children, playing football is something they enjoy to do and their favourite pastime. It is their passion, so my intention was for the children to use favourite hobby football as a form of language for expression. The character in the film is kicking a ball into the wall, trying to break it down this somehow shows their frustration about their plight.

The superintendant always mentioned to me that the children come with broken dreams and from broken homes. This is also mentioned in a video interview I had with him. So therefore there are many scenarios of walls breaking down in the video, and it represents the broken dreams and homes, and the deep emotional and spiritual struggle of the children.

The conversations and time spent at the home all helped to form the backbone of the script and storyline of the film. The title and the video itself “Too Big in the Tank” is metaphorical, trying to liken the children to fishes in a tank. The fish desires to make its way into the sea, which is their nature, their home and sense of security.

I do not have any specific reading about some of the sequences in the film, like the part when the fishes are hitting into the walls. It may be read that the fishes are the children themselves trying to escape from their broken homes. They keep banging their heads into the walls, trying to get out of the room desperately, and implying a certain kind of domestic situation that is not in their favour. The room is the extension of the child’s imagination and he is looking into his broken home and into his situation. The cracking hole on the wall acts as a transition of bringing him to his imagination. Near the ending parts, you can see colours of rainbow emerge in the room as the fishes are banging their heads into the wall, there is a kind of desperation but there is also a sign of hope. The rainbow colours represent hopes, so as to repair their broken dream. It transforms their heartbreak into hope and courage, turning adversity into strength.

During the filming with the children, it is done with just one take. This is to prevent from a sequence to be taken too many times, because they will feel awkward to retake as they are not professional actors. I prefer something more natural and have the character to be at ease with himself, enjoying the process and be more spontaneous. The film is done in such a way that it gives the impression that everything seem to be inside a tank, with a glassy, reflective, translucent outer layer with water droplets in the frame. And the cracking glass with hand print again shows the desire of the children to break free.

The script is inspired by lyric writing. Playing with words that have different meaning, using connotations. Connotations are words that may carry emotional implications and associations. Connotation allows great depths and subtleties of meaning to be expressed in the few words. Choosing the right words in song writing has a lot to do with considering not only their literal meaning, but also the connotations they have for you and for your listeners. Rather than saying everything you have to say through literal statements, the results will be more subtle and artful, more concise, and often more memorable.

The entire of the installation and video seem to have an overall feeling of being quite enjoyable to view, however the undertone of the work begins to prick the conscience as the viewer tries to understand the work further.

(click images to view the whole ablum)

(Click images to view album)

An Animated Film: The Beat Of the City That Freezed

Duration: 08:43 min

Location: Aichi Triennale 2010, Nagoya, Japan – CHOJA-MACHI SITE

Time: August 21 at 11:00am – October 31 at 7:00pm

www.aichitriennale.jp

At Aichi, Joo has created a stop-motion animation in a room at the Senni Kaikan building where the characters in the animation will interact with existing objects in the room. The narrative is a reflection upon the history of the Choja-machi area that was prominent for its textile wholesale industry. The area’s previous identity has diminished with changes in t…he cityscape. Joo has intended to present and preserve the past, with a resulting animation showing sculptural pieces that are made with photographs of street objects printed on fabric and a water monster inspired by the Kappa from Japanese mythology. Towards the end of the animation, everything seems to be eternally preserved in ice, ironically, by one of the symbols of modernity that is the air-conditioner.