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Photo exhibition on local rockers gets a second shout

SINGAPORE — Back in April, Little Ong, the creative director of fFurious and the curator for So Happy: 50 Years Of Singapore Rock, a photo exhibition featuring 100 images of local rock bands, was toying with the idea of taking the exhibition on the road after its initial run at The Substation.

SINGAPORE — Back in April, Little Ong, the creative director of fFurious and the curator for So Happy: 50 Years Of Singapore Rock, a photo exhibition featuring 100 images of local rock bands, was toying with the idea of taking the exhibition on the road after its initial run at The Substation.

Now, it seems he has found another willing partner to showcase these photographs: The libraries at the Nanyang Technological University (NTU).

“I had been exploring other venues to host the exhibition ... I was really happy that NTU wanted to host it. They agreed to put it up as part of their NTU Arts Appreciation Series, which is part of the Dorothy Cheung Memorial Fund,” said Ong. The NTU Arts Appreciation Series aims to inculcate attendance, participation and reflection on the arts as a life-long endeavour. The exhibition is also supported by the Singapore Memory Project, irememberSG Fund, Antalis SEA and The Substation.

He added that the exhibition was nicely timed because it coincided with the university’s new intake of students. “The new students would be just coming in, so that’s potentially thousands of people who can see it, in addition to the thousands already at the school ... that’s all one can ask for, right?”

Ong said the photographs on display would be the same as those previously shown at The Substation, although they would be presented differently. Instead of using duct tape to stick the photos on the walls, for example — a nod to the do-it-yourself nature of the Singapore music scene — the images will be put up on display boards. Also, due to space constraints, So Happy: 50 Years Of Singapore Rock will be exhibited at five libraries, with each library showcasing a different decade. The Humanities and Social Sciences Library, for example, will be featuring photos and write-ups about the 1960s, while the Library Outpost @ South Spine Learning Hub will shine the spotlight on bands from this decade.

“The content is the same, but the presentation will be different because we have to work with what (the NTU) has. There will still be the interactive video-panel at one of the libraries, and we’ll also exhibit some of the vinyls and artefacts from the original exhibition, although we are a little limited by the size of the libraries. We can’t put up the giant posters and all that — we can only put up a few of the vinyls,” he said, adding that about 30 per cent of the artefacts from the original exhibition will be at the NTU.

The question, of course, is who — apart from students — is Ong expecting to see at the exhibition? “I don’t know who will travel to NTU. I guess people from the west can go there — I mean, you have free entry to the libraries. But personally, I hope that people who missed out the one at the Substation will want to go and take a look.” Christopher Toh

 

So Happy: 50 Years Of Singapore Rock will run from Aug 3 to Sept 1 at the NTU libraries. They are the Humanities and Social Sciences Library (1960s), the Business Library (1970s/80s), the Communication & Information Library (1990s), the Art, Design & Media Library (2000s) and the Library Outpost @ South Spine Learning Hub (2010s). Opening hours are from 8.30am to 9.30pm (Mondays to Fridays).

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