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Beyond Imagination
Event Design
The Challenge
Create an event to expand members of the public's appreciation of body art.
The Outcome
"Beyond Imagination," a three-day art carnival that gives art students and body art professionals the opportunity to showcase their works of body art to the public in Singapore.
My role
Project Lead; Graphic Designer
Why the
campaign
is born
The level of freedom of expression in Singapore has enabled body art to grow, as more are willing to accept it, leading to body art enhancing the appeal of the arts to the public. Higher level of appreciation for the local art scene has been a social goal for the Singapore's government for many years.
At the time my team initiated our project, Future of Imagination (FOI) was the only significant event known among body art professionals in Singapore. FOI had been held annually for nine consecutive years. It showcased works in the performance art genre by renowned international and local artists, as well as organizing seminars and workshops for body art professionals to share their views and opinions with each other.
Whilst this event was open to the public, only practicing artists were invited to the event because there was little publicity of the event to the general population of Singapore. As many experts in the field of body art attended this event, the limited publicity of FOI robbed the opportunity of the public to gain exposure to such a wealth of information about body art.
This resulted in the development of the art scene only being amongst artists and not including the general public.
What the
campaign
entails
“Beyond Imagination” is a three-day art carnival that gives art students and body art professionals the chance to showcase their works to the public at different booths and on big stage.
The carnival set up consists of various booths for artworks display, as well as for other activities that promote better interaction between artists and the public. The main components of “Beyond Imagination” are a wooden pathway and paintable rooftops of the booths, allowing visitors at the carnival to collectively form "The Big Artwork" which can be seen aerially.
Before entering the carnival, visitors can choose to take off their shoes and step into big containers of paints of different colours. As they walk along the paths between the booths, their footprints will be imprinted on the prepared paths. These paths will form parts of "The Big Artwork."
There will also be a piece of white canvas layered over the wooden roof of each booth. An uncompleted artwork is printed on the canvas for the visitors to finish by using the body art medium showcased in that particular booth. Visitors can doodle or write their comments if they do not want to draw. Participants can access the roofs of the booths with the help of carnival ushers and designated staircases.
There is a stage located in the center of the carnival venue for body art professionals to showcase their talents during the carnival. The stage design is circular, surrounded by the booths and the wooden pathway, allowing the artists' performances to be visible from any location around the carnival.
The first three booths will be venues of interactive activities for different genres of body art such as temporary art brush tattoos, projection art, henna tattoos and body painting. The carnival map is as follows:
Paintable wooden path
1. Temp. air brush tattoos +
Projection art
2. Henna tattoos
3. Body painting
4. Food and drinks
5. Exhibition
6. Stage
On the carnival finale, the public will be able to watch a video showing "The Big Artwork" gradually forming. This artwork includes the wooden path along the booths, designs of the roofs as well as hands-on body art designs that visitors made.
The carnival will be held at Cathay Green as it is located at the center of Singapore Art District. It provides enough space to occupy booths and a stage as well as to form "The Big Artwork."
Evaluation
From my team's survey of the public, 55% of our survey respondents are keen on participating in art carnivals.
We also listed the key features of “Beyond Imagination” and got opinions from members of the public on these features. Except for dialogue sessions with artists, all other key activities are appealing to the general public. Hence,
"Beyond Imagination" has activities that cater to the interest of the visitors, helping them freely express themselves with various forms of body art.
One of the key limitations of "Beyond Imagination" is the carnival being a one-off event (or an event that can only happen as much as once a year). Hence, to improve the frequency of public exposure to body art, I propose the Body Art Sharing Series (BASS), happening once every two months. Each BASS event lasts for two days at different gallery cafes across Singapore. These cafes will run their usual business during the two days. The interior decoration of these cafes will be changed according to a given theme using a space projectors to save labor and allow a variety of digital art wallpapers to work their magic.
The monthly theme can be “Lights”, “Colors”, etc. Body artworks related to the theme will be exhibited at these cafes. These artworks can be photographs, paintings or videos (displayed inside the cafés) or interactive public installations (displayed outside the cafes). Performance art professionals will be invited to perform on stage.
Space projector
Interior decoration of Elffin & Elffin Gallery Cafe (Top Left: Original; Right: With space projector).
Body artist (Yuzuru Maeda) performs live on stage at Artistry Café (Bottom).
The unique feature of BASS is that artists will explain their artistic statements and techniques after performing. The audience will be invited to try out these techniques on stage. Thus, more members of the public will appreciate body art as they are involved in these hands-on challenges.
There will also be a station at each café that features henna, temporary tattoos or body painting. Similar to the booths at "Beyond Imagination" carnival, at these stations, visitors can create their own body artworks under the artists' guidance. Hence, the wide spectrum of BASS' activities will allow participants to experience and enjoy different forms of body art just like how "Beyond Imagination" will. The ambience of the cafes are aesthetically changed to attract the attention of the public. This creates extra profit for the cafes to further support artists' future endeavors.
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