The real kite-runner

Kids, you might like this, but it costs more than your usual kite.

Read on...

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HIGH ART
Forget canvasses, artist Von Tjong uses kites

Mayo Martin
mayo@mediacorp.com.sg

FOR artist Von Tjong, things are, quite literally, looking up. In her first solo exhibition, the 36-year-old creative director of The Arts House is eschewing traditional canvas paintings hung on gallery walls in favour of a more high-flying medium — kites.

Absolute Van Gogh, which starts next Thursday, will feature around 20 paintings done on huge Japanese kites, which will be hung from the ceiling.

The idea came after she was invited by the Singapore Kite Association to create a piece for last February’s Singapore Kite Festival, held in Punggol Park. The result was a piece inspired by Vincent Van Gogh’s Sunflowers series on a Rokkaku kite, which traditionally is painted with the faces of samurai.

“It’s an amazing feeling seeing your painting in the sky. It was like a flying canvas and the sky was my own gallery,” said Tjong.

For the art works on display, Tjong is similarly inspired by the artistic styles of Van Gogh as well as of 20th century Chinese artists Zhang Hongtu and Wu Guanzhong, who are both known to apply Chinese ink painting aesthetics to interpret Western-style paintings and vice versa.

“Wu can use Chinese ink to simplify Western paintings and Zhang can use the styles of Van Gogh and still paint a shan shui (traditional Chinese landscape paintings).”

It’s a challenge that she’s taking up, too, applying Chinese ink techniques to recreate her favourite Van Gogh painting.

“(Sunflowers) was the first painting that attracted me to his work. He had to love something that much to play around and apply the different shades of yellow in one painting. His use of the impasto technique is also very different from (traditional Chinese ink paintings) where you play with the ‘less is more’ concept.”

Tjong revealed that kites were a more expensive material to work with: Each piece costs around $180 compared to $15 for a small canvas.

But it’s not the first time she’s been working on unusual materials. She’s created works on boxes — shoe, gift and mooncake ones — and also makes teddy bears.

Initially a hobby, it became serious when she was commissioned to create a Peranakan series for the Sentosa Shop in 2007.

Seeing her art flying in the sky in an open field is an experience she wants viewers to feel as well. “I can’t transport the sky and field into the gallery premises, but maybe I’ll put fake grass patches on the floor,” she said.

Absolute Van Gogh runs until April 23 at the Arts House Gallery, 1 Old Parliament Lane.

From TODAY, Plus
Thursday, 02-April-2009

The real kite-runner

Kids, you might like this, but it costs more than your usual kite.

Read on...

----

HIGH ART
Forget canvasses, artist Von Tjong uses kites

Mayo Martin
mayo@mediacorp.com.sg

FOR artist Von Tjong, things are, quite literally, looking up. In her first solo exhibition, the 36-year-old creative director of The Arts House is eschewing traditional canvas paintings hung on gallery walls in favour of a more high-flying medium — kites.

Absolute Van Gogh, which starts next Thursday, will feature around 20 paintings done on huge Japanese kites, which will be hung from the ceiling.

The idea came after she was invited by the Singapore Kite Association to create a piece for last February’s Singapore Kite Festival, held in Punggol Park. The result was a piece inspired by Vincent Van Gogh’s Sunflowers series on a Rokkaku kite, which traditionally is painted with the faces of samurai.

“It’s an amazing feeling seeing your painting in the sky. It was like a flying canvas and the sky was my own gallery,” said Tjong.

For the art works on display, Tjong is similarly inspired by the artistic styles of Van Gogh as well as of 20th century Chinese artists Zhang Hongtu and Wu Guanzhong, who are both known to apply Chinese ink painting aesthetics to interpret Western-style paintings and vice versa.

“Wu can use Chinese ink to simplify Western paintings and Zhang can use the styles of Van Gogh and still paint a shan shui (traditional Chinese landscape paintings).”

It’s a challenge that she’s taking up, too, applying Chinese ink techniques to recreate her favourite Van Gogh painting.

“(Sunflowers) was the first painting that attracted me to his work. He had to love something that much to play around and apply the different shades of yellow in one painting. His use of the impasto technique is also very different from (traditional Chinese ink paintings) where you play with the ‘less is more’ concept.”

Tjong revealed that kites were a more expensive material to work with: Each piece costs around $180 compared to $15 for a small canvas.

But it’s not the first time she’s been working on unusual materials. She’s created works on boxes — shoe, gift and mooncake ones — and also makes teddy bears.

Initially a hobby, it became serious when she was commissioned to create a Peranakan series for the Sentosa Shop in 2007.

Seeing her art flying in the sky in an open field is an experience she wants viewers to feel as well. “I can’t transport the sky and field into the gallery premises, but maybe I’ll put fake grass patches on the floor,” she said.

Absolute Van Gogh runs until April 23 at the Arts House Gallery, 1 Old Parliament Lane.

From TODAY, Plus
Thursday, 02-April-2009

Hospitality and support services still in demand

Were you retrenched, and still looking for a job? Why not try being in the service and hospitality sector?

Find out more from below news...

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Labour report
Hot spots for jobs

Leong Wee Keat
weekeat@mediacorp.com.sg

TAKING care of guests and diners is not exactly the kind of job to get Singaporeans reaching for their resumes, but the hotel and restaurant sector looks set to be one of the bright spots for recruitment in the downturn.

And this goes for professionals, managers, executives and technicians (PMETs) as well — the category of workers for whom recruitment dropped the most between October and December last year.

Hiring for hotels and restaurants was the highest among 11 sectors during the last three months of last year, according to a Ministry of Manpower (MOM) report.

The sector’s turnover rate was also the highest, with a resignation rate of 3.9 per cent, although turnover slowed down to 3.3 per cent in the last quarter.

Restaurant Association of Singapore president Ang Kiam Meng said restaurant employers are keen to hire in good and bad times, as they always face a lack of manpower. “I think people are getting into this industry out of no choice ... When times are good, (most) change to a higher pay or a job with better working conditions,” he told 938Live.

Another bright spot for job seekers: Administrative and support services. Recruitment for this sector — which includes employment activities, travel agencies and human resources — stood at 4.7 per cent last year. In a human resources update this week, recruitment agency Robert Walters said the sector “has seen an increase in the number of contract or project related positions”.

“Prior to the financial downturn, a majority of these positions were converted to permanent. However, this has become less common in view of current market conditions,” the report noted.

Robert Walters added that government ministries and statutory boards — which have seen a brain-drain of HR professionals to the private sector over the last two years — are seeing “a surge in job applications as candidates seek a more stable environment”.

The MOM report, Labour Turnover Time Series, which tracks recruitment and resignation over the last seven years, also shows fewer workers being hired. Recruitment in the final quarter last year fell to rates not seen since the days of Sars in 2003.

Human Resource and staffing solutions company Adecco noted that the Singapore job seeker is now “prepared to go that extra length to find the right position”.

“The half-hearted job seeker is something from the past,” said Adecco Southeast Asia regional director Lynne Ng. “The Singapore job seeker of today is focused, well researched and most definitely investing in their future. They understand the current job market situation and for the most part are aware of the work options open to them.”

From TODAY, News
Thursday, 02-April-2009

Hospitality and support services still in demand

Were you retrenched, and still looking for a job? Why not try being in the service and hospitality sector?

Find out more from below news...

-----

Labour report
Hot spots for jobs

Leong Wee Keat
weekeat@mediacorp.com.sg

TAKING care of guests and diners is not exactly the kind of job to get Singaporeans reaching for their resumes, but the hotel and restaurant sector looks set to be one of the bright spots for recruitment in the downturn.

And this goes for professionals, managers, executives and technicians (PMETs) as well — the category of workers for whom recruitment dropped the most between October and December last year.

Hiring for hotels and restaurants was the highest among 11 sectors during the last three months of last year, according to a Ministry of Manpower (MOM) report.

The sector’s turnover rate was also the highest, with a resignation rate of 3.9 per cent, although turnover slowed down to 3.3 per cent in the last quarter.

Restaurant Association of Singapore president Ang Kiam Meng said restaurant employers are keen to hire in good and bad times, as they always face a lack of manpower. “I think people are getting into this industry out of no choice ... When times are good, (most) change to a higher pay or a job with better working conditions,” he told 938Live.

Another bright spot for job seekers: Administrative and support services. Recruitment for this sector — which includes employment activities, travel agencies and human resources — stood at 4.7 per cent last year. In a human resources update this week, recruitment agency Robert Walters said the sector “has seen an increase in the number of contract or project related positions”.

“Prior to the financial downturn, a majority of these positions were converted to permanent. However, this has become less common in view of current market conditions,” the report noted.

Robert Walters added that government ministries and statutory boards — which have seen a brain-drain of HR professionals to the private sector over the last two years — are seeing “a surge in job applications as candidates seek a more stable environment”.

The MOM report, Labour Turnover Time Series, which tracks recruitment and resignation over the last seven years, also shows fewer workers being hired. Recruitment in the final quarter last year fell to rates not seen since the days of Sars in 2003.

Human Resource and staffing solutions company Adecco noted that the Singapore job seeker is now “prepared to go that extra length to find the right position”.

“The half-hearted job seeker is something from the past,” said Adecco Southeast Asia regional director Lynne Ng. “The Singapore job seeker of today is focused, well researched and most definitely investing in their future. They understand the current job market situation and for the most part are aware of the work options open to them.”

From TODAY, News
Thursday, 02-April-2009

Exampted from Chinese, excelling in Maths

At the start of the year, my eldest daughter moved up to Primary 6. As if nothing else is important, her teachers, not to mention us parents, are already focusing and worrying about the very important activity at the end of the year - PSLE.

And with that, her Chinese teacher urged her to tell us to apply for her exemption from Chinese mother tongue. This we have done one time when she was still in P4, and it was rejected - approval in principle withheld pending offering of a different foreign language.

So from that time on, we already thought of enrolling her to take up French language.

Time dragged on, until she went up to P6, and that is when we only arranged for everything. We filled up the application for exemption form another time, and sent it to the school's admin office. And her registration for French class only happened later, so we again got a rejection from the Ministry, with the same status: approval pending offering of a different foreign language.

Well, we already sent in a copy of the French class registration form, and we called up the school's admin office to check if they have received the copy, and there were some miscommunication and misunderstanding in the process, but things were ironed out.

Cutting all the long twists and turns, we got the approval from the Ministry, and now, our eldest child is religiously attending her French class every Tuesday evening. And the very thing that I told her is that, now with Chinese class out of the way, there is no more reason, and no excuse, why she should not excel in Science, Maths and English. Previously, the dip in her grades is due to her performance in Chinese language. It was understandable, since we are a non-Chinese family, and no near relatives or friends are Chinese.

Also this year, I let my kids go, three of them, all of them. I don't sit with them anymore when they do their homeworks. I deemed that it is already time for my daughters to stand on their own feet. Well, actually, IT IS for my eldest daughter, and the younger two were receiving the treatment earlier in their life. But as "ta jie" learns to be on her own, she is also able to guide and mentor her younger sisters. A bonus for the two!

What's more, with Chinese out of her mind and thoughts, she has time to concentrate on the other subjects, focusing on what really matters, at the same time, not letting her French language learning slip. They were 'threatened' of being kicked out of the French language center if they don't do well. I know, it was a bluff, but we inculcate in her mind that she has to do equally well, as she will still continue her French language studies come secondary school.

And now, we did observe one thing: she is doing well, even better.

Way to go, Ate!