[20 Jan 2013] OpenHouse at MBFC [Part 2] - MBFC

When the tour started, the guide introduced himself as Phillip and gave us some background on the events. He also said that the tour will last 2 hours and we would be covering different areas in the Raffles area culminating with a visit to the DeutscheBank trading floor. I was glad we got Phillip as a guide because he was very informative and took pains to explain everything clearly to us, even about the Custom House (I posted about the Oyster Bar there before).

We saw 4 of the 12 exhibits/performances at MBFC itself. Just walking out of the makeshift waiting room (which was a function room), we saw Mintio's photograph exhibit capturing all the colors and shapes that local shopping malls and office buildings make against the Singapore nightscape in a sort of giant film-roll.

Phillip looks for a Shelf Help buch... just kidding

Then we took a lift to the cafeteria area where we saw studioKALEIDO’s “Shelf Help”. It pokes fun at our love of self-help by having a hilarious display of self-help books which all have blank pages within.The Pièce de résistance is all on the book cover. You laugh at the title and then you turn to the back and laugh some more. My favorite is naturally "How to Accept That This Shit is As Good As It Gets" because its advice captured my favorite catchphrase... "Suck it up..." I wanted to buy that book. Seriously.

Book Cover of My Life

Inside the Book

My Life Philosophy captured in the book. Couldn't be better described than "Tiny Plasticine Penis"

I loved the display so much that it was the single artwork that got the most fotos from me. Enjoy the next few fantastic "Shelf Help" books.

Important life skill I should learn

Another one I should learn...suffice to say, I am better at cutting them.

WTF is an armchair general?

Moving on, we walked to the windows where we saw Joy Ho drawing onto her display with the Marina Bay Sands as her backdrop.  As the rest were happily clicking away, I eyeballed the strangely large number of cleaning aunties and even an uncle hovering nearby on a non-working Sunday. Weird, then I too became super involved in trying to capture Joy's artwork against the city backdrop nicely when the cleaner aunties and uncle suddenly broke into dance to "Bengawan Solo".

Joy Ho drawing away

Das me?

Their cheerfulness and enthusiasm were definitely heartening, and we cheered them appreciatively. The idea is that usually most people would be busy going about their lunch and work and ignoring these (really working there) cleaners who fade into the background while clearing dirty dishes and wiping down tables. 

"I am going to kill the cockroach with this dishcloth!!!"

"我要代表月亮惩罚你" Sailor Moon style

"I caught a fish this big"