Habit Forming

 www.artinformal.com

Grassbed #2 From the series self-portrait Ophelia
Tang Ling-Nah, 2004

Cities form habits and habits are formed in cities. Identifying who dictates human habits in terms of being a city-zen is a chicken-and-egg debate. Although it may be true that men created cities to their own like-ness (or to how they like it), men often transforms into a likeness (or being) that s/he see fit to become or continue to be a city-zen.

DOCS: Documents of Contemporary Slumbers
from the series The Great Levellers
Michael Lee & Bob Matthews, 2011

This Project Glocal satellite show at Art Informal challenges the curator, artists and audience to engage in a conversation that explores the many facets of city habits.  This is taking off from an agreement that habitation in the city breeds attitude, ethos, superstitions, choices, etc. that are engendered in city dwelling.

Dream
Tam Wai Ping, 2007

New and old works will be exhibited--new works will represent CITY people, infrastructure, objects and thoughts that are related to the suggested talking point, which is habit forming.  Old works of the same representation are considered to emphasize that glocal is not invented by the artists nor the curator to create a Project Glocal. It is to show that artists have been glocal all these years.  And this project is simply a venue to finally talk about it—glocal—a somewhat obvious but often ignored (if not actually dismissed) framework.

I dare say glocal

“In the cracks and fissures that are opened up in our contemporary fragmented ‘glocal’ cities, there already brews a potentially vibrant and hybrid amalgam of new urban experiments (...)”
                      –Erik Swyngedouw and Maria Kaika (2003) "The Making of 'Glocal' Urban Modernities: Exploring the Cracks in the Mirror"

Project Glocal is a project that aims to locate what Harvey calls cracks and fissures of contemporary fragmented glocal cities.  It is a cross cultural multi locale project that is focused on asking questions rather than presenting answers – Is there glocal in the arts?  What is glocal? How glocal are we? When global is as imagined as local, could glocal community be real? A line of questioning that is founded on the premises that: first, local and global as communities are imagined (ref. Anderson, 1983); second, that geographical boundaries and cultural boundaries are blurred through filters of cosmopolitanization of cities (NB: “not all cities are cosmopolitan”, ref. Flores lecture, 2009); and third, similarities, intersections and pseudo-homogeneity of cityscapes may be recorded and be used as indices of lived lives.

To articulate these questions, Project Glocal artists will work with themes that are commonly associated with the ‘discourse of city.’  The first theme is that of Central Business District, broadly defined as space, place or idea where we work or make things work.  The second theme is Hang-out.  Not just the place of rest and relaxation; it is expanded to the space, place, idea or occasion where we ‘let our hair down’ or where we show off.  The third theme is Traffic which covers any act or intent of mobility, our concept of space when we are mobile or how the city moves around us. The forth theme is Home. Like Hang-out it is not just a place, it is the concept, feeling or occasion where ‘we hang our umbrellas and walk barefoot.’  It is where we are most vulnerable because we feel the safest, entitled or enlightened.  The last theme, Side Street, is focused on the idea of secrets.  These are things, conditions, beliefs that we don’t or fail to show because we don’t realize or rather not acknowledge.

More than an exhibit, it should be reiterated that this is a conversation about city life in Bangkok, Manila, Singapore and HongKong.  The audience and the artists are encouraged to debate, argue, and reflect on the existence or absence of glocal as a social construct. The emphasis is on working together, in building relationships, in answering and posting more questions between people from different but related creative and social contexts.

Artists:

Anton del Castillo/ Black Baroque Committee/ Bundith Phunsombatlert/ Choon Lin Joo/ Esther Yip Lai Man/ Francis Yu/ Irma Lacorte/ Jaffa Lam/ Urich Lau/ Jason Wee/ Jittagarn Kaewtinkoy/ Kwok Hin Tang/ Ling Nah Tang/ Lukas Tam Wai Ping/ Luke Ching/ Mark Salvatus/ Michael Lee/ Mideo Cruz/ Mimi Tecson/ Preeyachanok Ketsuwan/ Riel Hilario/ Ruthairat Kumsrichan/ Siu-Kee Ho/SongMing Ang/ Thosapol Boriboon/ Vichaya Mukdamanee/ Wantanee Siripattananuntaku/ Warawut Tourawong/ Wesley Valenzuela

Curator:

Dayang Yraola dyraola@gmail.com

In partnership with:

www.sif.org.sg

Supported by:
Julius & Marian Cabalse
Jose Claudio Guerrero