Transmission: LAB, which is described as ‘an experimental laboratory’ and an ‘incubatory platform’, is the brainchild of PHUNK, one of Singapore’s most successful hybrid collectives.

This year, the theme of choice is ‘Kaleidoscope’ and the programme has been deliberately structured to encourage collaborative projects between the lab’s apprentices and artists from outside the programme.

In an exhibition held from now till 9 June 2012, ‘Kaleidoscope’ will explore the notion of change in a world of constant flux.

The Escape

When peering into a kaleidoscope, we see a pathway to a place at the end that is so colourful and intriguing, it’s our imagined utopia. Yet no matter how pretty, it’s unreachable. ‘The Escape’ is a depiction of such a place. A girl is bound and so close, yet unable to get to the beauty of the patterns that surround her. 

By Kimberly Ong in collaboration with artist Sun Lee Siew Loo
 

Lost Objects

A kaleidoscope deconstructs the everyday, creating new perspectives of the otherwise mundane and familiar. With reference to the concept of deconstruction, ‘Lost Objects’ recreates the medicinal claypot by deconstructing the functionalities and visuals related to this object, and re-representing it in a new way through simplified graphics and experimental glazing techniques.

By Soh Jin Ping in collaboration with artist Chua Soo Kim
 

Simulacra

As a kaleidoscope simultaneously fragments and unifies, Simulacra pieces together shards of memory (real, fabricated and blended) to create a representation of the original.

The work centres around the notion of the subjective and shifting nature of memories. Playing on layered and re-appropriated narratives, the installation takes form in photographic slides that are screened on multiple, layered drawn transcriptions of the original photographs. The final result is a series of unclear imagery that the artists feel are perhaps a more accurate representation of memory.

By Izyanti Asa’ari in collaboration with artist Wu Jun Han

To image: The Dream Seeker by Joyce Lee in collaboration with Michael Ng

There are 10 projects on show at Transmission: LAB 2012. The exhibition is held from now till 9 June 2012 at PHUNK, 188-8 Tanjong Katong Road.

Visit Transmission: LAB for more details and work in progress images.