Api Api Dreams
About The Project / Api Api’s Dreams is a collective artwork inspired by the environs of Pasir Ris, Sungei Api Api and the town residents’ love of nature. What would happen if Sungei Api Api could dream and what would she dream of?
Residents can look forward to the artists’ reimagining of nature projected on the façade of the heartland mall. Experience the sights and sounds of Pasir Ris in this piece as sound recordings taken on an evening walk along Sungei Api Api are woven into original compositions by music artists to accompany the projection.
Artists
“The growth of nature and civilisation coexisting together in this loop of surreal landscape to form a painting-esque moving image. Taking from the airyness and lightness of the atmostphere, stillness from Sungei Api Api and the liveliness of the neighbourhood. The elements were rendered in different camera lens and stitch together to form the piece.”
— Only Huan
“This is Api Api’s fragmented, whimsical dream –– inspired by how quickly nature strives to reclaim its place amidst our spaces when left to its own devices. By processing images of life and growth through digital forms of atrophy, the work explores the delicate balance between nature and urbanity.”
— Marc Gabriel Loh
“Framing nature as a breathing, fluid energy and humanity as an entity of order and structure, my composition attempts to cast the two systems in coalescence, forming a symbiotic relationship in which neither can exist without the other. My work sees a synthesis of the “traditional” (orchestral-based instruments), the “modern” (electronic instruments and production techniques), as well as an exploration of the voice - the spirit of humanity to form a surreal, wondrous soundscape.”
— Claude Glass
“A child of both humanity and nature, Api api dreams of a transient civilisation, the inevitable triumph of nature, then the faint memory of what was. A mosaic of choral swells, industrial beats, vocal glitches, and a soft solitary piano, the composition constructs a phantasmagorical narrative around Api Api’s dissonance.”
— Anise
Arts in Your Neighbourhood (AYN), an initiative by the National Arts Council, brings enriching arts experiences right to your doorstep every March and November. Enjoy immersive and engaging arts programmes by established artists and arts groups held at various spaces across the island.
From 11 - 28 March, AYN will be heading to Pasir Ris with exciting virtual performances, pop-up arts experiences, and visual arts installations, inspired by the history and people of the neighbourhood
ACTIVITY
Create and bring home your very own artistic album art inspired by nature and elements from the Api Api’s Dreams artwork.
Learn more about the behind the scene process of making an album art or book cover with the use of collage and various found materials. Collage is an artistic technique that is first used in the early 20th century. Images and ephemera are collected and carefully assembled into new compositions.
This free arts workshop will focus on collaging techniques and include insights and tips from fine artist Marc Gabriel Loh on how he create album art for musicians and his process in making Api Api’s Dreams. We will also be sharing some elements of the artwork for you to re-interpret in your very own art piece.