learning journey

first

1. Fifty Years of Singapore Design Exhibition

2. Giffest III: Imperfect

first outing!

On a sunny Wednesday, the entire Year 1 BADP cohort came to National Design Centre for the Giffest and FIfty Years of Singapore Design Exhibit. I didn't read up on the exhibits, so I had absolutely no clue what we went to see, but I was pleasantly surprised when I saw the Giffest exhibit (even though my class and I visited that one after the Fifty Years of Singapore Design exhibit).

Fifty Years of Singapore Design Exhibition

The exhibition chronicles the development of Singapore’s design scene from the early years in the 1960s into today’s vibrant industry.

The collection was refreshed in July 2019 and now presents 300 iconic, popular and pivotal designs that have shaped the industry, bringing together for the first time, design works gathered from the fields of Environmental Design, Fashion & Accessories, Product & Industrial Design and Visual Communications in a fifty-year span. Along with designed objects, the showcase includes the stories that reflect the movements, trends and values of each decade.

Fifty years is a compact time, but these are watershed years that have seen the design industry emerge into a creative powerhouse and a key driver of a nation’s innovation-based economy. Through the curatorial journey which included in-depth interviews and collaborations with designers, this exhibition is not merely a timeline of triumphs and milestones of Singapore’s design scene; but also a collection of personal accounts, a self-portrait of a nation’s creative sensibility and attitude set against a backdrop of changing aesthetic, and economic and socio-political climate.

With the refresh, community and pop-up showcase spaces have been introduced into the gallery. These new elements will provide a platform for communities and audiences to draw inspiration from the many seminal and fresh works featured in the very same space and co-create the programmes with us here at the National Design Centre.

Content aside, I absolutely adore the layout of the artworks. My inner illustrator/graphic designer was hollering for joy when I walked in to see this wall of historic designs. I'm a big fan of asymmetry and general unevenness, so this was a sight specifically for my eyes. Aside from the layout, I love the colours used. I'm also a sucker for a simple black and white design (they eat it up every time), and when combined with this layout, the exhibit as a whole brings me to my knees (in a good way).

Other than the layout of the exhibition as a whole, I also really like the actual designs that were exhibited, especially the bottom right one in this photo. As mentioned, I like asymmetry and black and white designs, so this poster checks all my boxes. The contrasted text popping out amass a background of greys are pleasing to my eyes and designer soul.

Giffest III: Imperfect

Exploring the theme of “imperfect” from both the lens of design and as a social issue, the exhibition invites visitors to discover the beauty and value of imperfection as an essential aspect of human creativity and expression. This year’s theme spotlights the prevalent social issue of perfectionism and its impact on society, challenging expectations and attitudes through more than 50 incredible animated artworks by local and international creatives.

GIFFEST III: IMPERFECT promises a blockbuster experience exhibiting the richness of GIFs as a creative medium that merges the worlds of animation, graphic design, film, and photography. The ground-breaking multimedia exhibition will feature giant projections and cutting-edge formats for an immersive experience catering to today’s technology-loving generation.

The festival’s exceptional collection of GIFs was curated from an open call on Instagram that saw extensive creative submissions to #GIFFESTSG. The latest edition presents diverse works and perspectives from around the world, including acclaimed creatives known for their unique approach to GIF art and emerging talents.

Over 50 emerging and professional artists from Singapore and overseas push the boundaries of the GIF, experimenting with various modern technologies. Presented by EYEYAH! The theme for this year is IMPERFECT, focusing on the beauty of imperfections and celebrating the unusual.

Who is EYEYAH?

Born in Singapore, EYEYAH! was created by Tanya Wilson and Steve Lawler, veterans of the creative industry. Over the last 20 years, the duo have worked with an impressive list of clients from around the world as well as a network of artists in both the commercial and cultural sectors. EYEYAH! uses creativity to inspire social change. By tackling hot topics such as internet addiction, healthy eating and environmental issues, with cutting edge artists and illustrators. EYEYAH! was awarded a President*s Design Award for ‘groundbreaking achievements in design.’

Reflection:

Picure of the BADP Y1 Fashion Domain!

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1. Andrew Gn: Fashioning Singapore and The World

2. In Conversation with Laura Miotto: Designing Exhibitions

Who is Andrew Gn?

With his mixed Chinese and Japanese ancestry, his upbringing in Singapore, his further education in England, Andrew Gn is a citizen of the world, which fully reflects in his creations.

After studying at Central Saint Martins in London and Domus Academy in Milan, Andrew Gn came to Paris to work as assistant to M. Emmanuel Ungaro. He then started his own house which has over the years grown into a full-fledged international label, available in the best stores around the world.

Since his early childhood Andrew Gn was immersed in the world of Art and Antiques. He is a collector at heart. This passion translates into many cultural and historical inspirations for his fashion designs. Chinese porcelain, Braque, Utopian Robots, there is no impossible dialog. East meets West, Klimt meets Tribal art and Baroque meets Sci-Fi. His collections are a journey through time and space, encapsulated in the most luxurious and exclusive materials.

Often called “demi-couture”, Gn’s ready-to-wear designs bear the quality and essence of couture, with many elements done in-house – from designing fabrics, embroideries, buttons and trimmings. This holistic design process reveals the exceptional artistry and craftsmanship that define the House of Andrew Gn. Established in Paris 1995, the House of Andrew Gn has an impact that belies in its size as an independent label. It has been recognised internationally as one of Singapore's most successful fashion exports, producing refined, maximalist looks found in leading luxury stores and adorning powerful women in politics, high society, and the entertainment industry.

This retrospective exhibition presents the fashion journey of one of Singapore's most prolific designers and celebrates his major gift to the nation of over 160 works. Through five sections, it explores Andrew Gn's roots in Asia and the West and celebrates his distinctive aesthetics, craftsmanship, and global impact. The looks on display bridge dichotomies of East and West, tradition and modernity, the local and the global – reflecting Singapore's history as a cross-cultural, port city that celebrates diversity.

The full Andrew Gn experience begins at the Level 2 Foyer, which focuses on how influential women around the world have used his looks to shape their public visual identities. It continues in the Special Exhibitions Gallery and ends at the Contemporary Gallery on Level 1, which reveals the processes that go into designing and making these works. Together, they are a testament to an extraordinary Singaporean life, and demonstrate the museum's commitment to providing contemporary representations of Asia in fashion.

Andrew Gn's roots in Southeast Asia

Most of the works displayed here are from the 2003 Pan Asian Collection, a fashion voyage through Singapore and Southeast Asia that explored the region as a dynamic crossroads of cultures, where people, ideals, and fashion styles have converged for centuries

Mixing and matching

Mixing and matching fabrics and silhouettes is fundamental to Gn's practice. In adopting this approach, he draws inspiration from memories of his mother in sumptuous fabrics acaaquired buy his father during his travels in Asia. Hand-drawn batiks and Ikats from Indonesia and fine silks from Thailand were tailored into Chinese cheongsams, samfoos, and Western-style suites and dresses, reflecting the hybrid nature of fashion in Singapore.

Peranakan connections

"Peranakan" is a Malay word for the descendants of immigrants who came to Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia hundreds of years afo, who saw their own proud heritage blended with local Malay-Indonesian traditions to create a distinctive culture. Gn identifies strongly with the maximalist and detailed aesthetics of Peranakan art, and is particularly inspired by the sarong kebaya. His mother and Peranakan grandmother both wore versions of the ensemble, popular in the Malay-Indonesian world since the 17th century.

Encountering Asia

Andrew Gn's Asian-inspired works draw from a variety of sources, including art, fashion, literature, film, and his Singaporean roots. He draws from these sources directly and spontaneously choosing to blend aesthetic and material elements, rather than be limited by accurate reflections of a specific place or time. Echoing Singapore's history as a multicultural port city, the Asia encountered in his garments is predominantly a reinterpretation of Chinese, Malay-Indonesian, and Peranakan art and culture.

An Asian designer?

Though he has spent most of his career working in Paris, Gn is often included in narratives about Asian designers who have achieved global success. Along with Vivienne Tam, Philip Lim, and Derek Lam, he is associated with a generation that followed the first "Japanese wave" of Issey Miyake, Yohji Yamamoto, and Rei Kawakubo in the 1980s. His work reflects on instinctive appreciation of a broad range of Asian motifs – perhaps stemming from his connection to Singapore, where a cosmopolitan outlook means a wide range of styles are accepted and celebrated over an single national aesthetic.

Beauty in Gardens

Nature has multiple meanings for Gn, representing profound beauty, rest, and relaxation. As a child, his first sketch of a "national dress" was a ballgown with flowers that referenced Singapore as a garden city. Other early inspirations included a French encyclopaedia of plants – a gift from his father – and his mother's ikebana arrangements. One of his favourite spots in Singapore is the Botanic Gardens, now a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Floral collections

Several of Gn's collections unabashedly draw inspiration from flowers, variously imagining a Persian Garden, English Garden, and London's Chelsea Flower Show. On display here are Gn's floral fantasies, with his exuberant blooms often rendered naturalistically and vividly through a range of colours, materials, and techniques.

House codes

Butterflies and coral are the house codes (signature visual elements) of the label. Gn developed an affinity for coral from National Geographic documentaries about the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, and from growing up by the sea in Singapore. The butterfly comes from his love of Chinese art and the Eastern Jin (317-420) tale The Butterfly Lovers. In the tale, the butterfly symbolises love, beauty, and transient joy.

Envisioning the West

Andrew Gn's "Journey to the West" began when he was a child fascinated with his mother's collection of suits, and continued through visits to multi-label stores on Orchard Road – some of the earliest in Southeast Asia to import major European labels. He went on to study Western fashion and art history in London, New York, and Milan. His studies had a major impact on his taste and style, and references to different periods of Western art history appear in many of the looks displayed here.

A Parisian designer?

Crossing conventional boundaries, Gn has been variously described as a Parisian, Asian, and Singaporean designer. But it in in Paris that he lives and works, and where he made his earliest breakthroughs. In 1995, he was the first Singaporean to show at Paris Fashion Week, and his brand has had a consistent presence there ever since, Acknowledging Parisian couturiers like Emanuel Ungoro and Yves Saint Laurent as role models, Gn's works evoke Paris situated at the intersection of art and tase, modernity and tradition, luxury and distinction.

Late Morden Europe and America

The late 19th and 20th century was a time of great social upheaval, brought about by rapid industrialisation, urbanisation, and two world wars. Art and design practices changed profoundly, and new concepts of beauty and aesthetics emerged which embraced abstraction and symbolism over realistic representation.

On display here are Andrew Gn's responses to various art movements of the period. Two beaded dresses evoke the impressionists, in particular their radical use of brush strokes and attention to the play of light. Art Nouveau and the works of Gustav Klimt appear in swirls, long lines and strong patterns. Other looks capture the clean lines and geometric designs of Art Deco, and cubism's use of a flattened plane with multiple perspectives. The works in this section speak to Gn's interest in art history and his desire to make wearable art.

Counterculture and Fashion

The 1960s and 1970s saw the emergence of counterculture in America and Europe . This was an exciting time for creative expression and diversity, with youths influencing the latest fashion styles alongside established designers. At the same time, more women were embarking on careers and lives outside the home, and adopted trousers and mini skirts as symbols of equality and freedom. The looks on display in this section were informed by Gn's exposure to these trends as a child in Singapore, which was heavily influenced by Western popular culture and ready-to-wear fashion.

Hippy Chic

The hippy movements of the 1960s was associated with a rejection of authority and commercialism. It gave rise to an eclectic fashion style that embraced influences from nature, psychedelia, Pop Art, and non-Western cultures. Flowing dresses, flared pants, natural fabrics, and colourful prints from Gn's Spring-Summer 2011 collection innovatively blend these influences with the styles of British designers like Ossie Clark. Impeccably tailored, the final "Haute-Bohemian" effect is decisively Gn.

European Baroque

The baroque period in the 17th and 18th century saw France emerge as a leader in fashion and luxury, exporting goods and spreading trends across Europe. Gn's approach to representing the baroque draws on visual inspiration from the "historic fantasyland" of one of his homes in Paris. Built in 1785, it is decorated with period ceramics, furniture, tapestries, and portraiture, sourced from European auction houses, galleries, and flea markets. These eclectic interiors are reflected in works of exuberant colour and intricate ornamentation.

Rococo Fashion

Madame de Pompadour, the Rococo style icon, tastemaker, and influential mistress of Louis XV, is an important muse for Gn. He has reinterpreted her style in several works, which capture the Rococo period's pastel shades and elaborate floral designs in an updated and wearable format. He has also translated French menswear of the period, including colourful embroidered jackets and pantaloons into contemporary, feminine versions.

In Conversation with Laura Miotto: Designing Exhibitions

Who is Laura Miotto?

Laura Miotto is an award winning exhibition designer and educator. She is also a Associate Professor at the School of Art, Design and Media (ADM) at Nanyang Technological University, and co-chair of the MA programme in Museum Studies and Curatorial Practices at ADM. She is also Design Director of GSM Project in Singapore, an international firm specialised in exhibition design originating from Montréal, Canada. With 20 years of experience, in the field of design both as a creative director and an architectural designer Miotto has worked on the creation of a multitude of permanent and temporary exhibitions. Her focus is on heritage interpretation and design strategies that involve the sensorial experience in the context of museums, thematic galleries and public spaces.

Laura's research interests span the areas of:
• Theories, methods and design processes used in exhibitions design and spatial narratives in the context of museums and public places.
• Understanding Exhibition Design historically and in relation to the new socioeconomic realities of Singapore and other modern Asian societies.

Among her projects, the Living Galleries at the National Museum of Singapore received the Design Exchange Award in Canada in 2007 and Quest for Immortality: The World of Ancient Egypt was Design of the Year 2010 in Singapore (President Design Award).
In addition to her role at ADM she is Design Director of GSM Project in Singapore, an international firm specialised in exhibition design originated in Montréal, Canada.

Recent exhibition projects include:
Trees of Life. Knowledge in Materials, NTU CCA, Singapore (2018)
Incomplete Urbanism: Attempts of Critical Spatial Practice, NTU CCA, Singapore (2016)
Port Cities: Multicultural Emporiums of Asia, 1500-1900, Asian Civilization Museum, Singapore (2016)
Artist and Empire, National Gallery Singapore (2016)
Treasures of the World from the British Museum, National Museum of Singapore (2015/16)
History Gallery, National Museum of Singapore (2015)
Natural History Museum, Lee Kong Chian, Singapore (2015)
Indian Heritage Centre, Singapore (2015)