From 26 July to 7 August 2012, LASALLE College of the Artsʼ sixth edition in its Tropical Lab series will receive twenty-seven Masters candidates from the worldʼs leading arts colleges like UKʼs Royal Academy of Arts, USAʼs Columbia University and California Institute of the Arts, Lucerne School of Art and Design, Nagoya University of Arts and Sciences, Chinaʼs Central Academy of Fine Art and others. LASALLE will send two candidates from its MA(Fine Arts) programme.
Tropical Lab is a practice-led programme developed by Mr Milenko Prvacki, Senior Fellow at LASALLE and has been attracting aspiring artists from around the world since its inception in 2006. The concept is to bring together a group of artists from different cultural backgrounds, to build on their art experience through cultural immersion tours, workshops and seminars, and meeting arts leaders from Singapore.
“Whatʼs different this year is that Tropical Lab will be multi-disciplinary,” explains Mr Prvacki. “Previously, we invited only Fine Arts practitioners; this time we will have video artists, filmmakers, installation artists, who will collaborate with our students from dance, design etc.”
The theme this year is Land. The subject of land has always been an area of exploration within artistic practices throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. The participants will be exploring and discussing various urban issues surrounding the use of land - through activities such as an underground MRT station tunnel tour, a visit to sustainable farms, and even a boat ride to explore Pulau Ubin.
In addition, Part of the experiential methodology of Tropical Lab is to challenge participants to be able to conceptualise and create an artwork based on the theme, within the two-week period. There will be an exhibition of the artworks, curated by Dr Charles Merewether, Director of the Institute of Contemporary Arts Singapore.
The Tropical Lab Exhibition will be open for public viewing from 8 to 15 August 2012, from 10am to 6pm, Tuesday to Sunday (except 12pm to 1pm) at Praxis Space, Project Space, Earl Lu Gallery and Brother Joseph McNally Gallery of LASALLE College of the Arts, 1 McNally Street.
Participating artists:
Connor McIntyre - University of Plymouth, UK
Daniel Dallabrida - California College of the Arts, USA
Elizabeth Sampson - RMIT Australia, Australia
Ika Yulianti - Indonesia Institute of the Arts, Yogyakarta, Indonesia
Jying Tan - LASALLE College of the Arts, Singapore
Erika Norris - LASALLE College of the Arts, Singapore
Kassia Ko - RMIT Hong Kong, HK
Muhammad Akbar - Bandung Institute of Technology, Indonesia
Sina Wittayawiroj - Silpakorn University, Thailand
Valerija Zabret - University of Nova Gorica, Slovenia
Billy Ward - Camberwell College of Arts, University of the Arts London, UK
Kim Thornton - Camberwell College of Arts, University of the Arts London, UK
HUAXIYU - Central Academy of Fine Art, Beijing, China
ZHU PEI HONG - Central Academy of Fine Art, Beijing, China
Hili Greenfeld - Bezalel University of Art, Jerusalem, Israel
Adi Brande - Bezalel University of Art, Jerusalem, Israel
Kaho SUGIYAMA - Nagoya University of Arts and Sciences, Japan
Wakita Ayumi - Nagoya University of Arts and Sciences, Japan
Tina Tomovic - Lucerne School of Art and Design, Switzerland
Natalie Madani - Lucerne School of Art and Design, Switzerland
Lydia Kieth - Winchester School of Art, University of Southampton, UK
Sam Raines - Winchester School of Art, University of Southampton, UK
James Yakimicki - Columbia University, USA
Molly Lowe - Columbia University, USA
Minha Park - California Institute of the Arts, USA
Emily Shanahan - California Institute of the Arts, USA
Alice Theobald - Royal Academy of Arts, UK
