Mesmerizing Singaporean Art Show Turns Old Records Into Masterpieces
Singled Out isn’t just a testament to art; it is a testament to music, with the show’s 50 Singaporean artists all using unwanted vinyl records as their medium. If that’s not cool enough, all proceeds go to Singapore’s Thunder Rock School to fund outreach and education for aspiring young musicians.
Each artist picked one of their favorite tracks and created a signature piece to encapsulate it and their own experiences listening to it. They created custom jackets, sculptures and painted vinyl, and some even made their pieces from melted and broken records. The songs span all genres with an awesome range of classic artists and lesser-known greats—everyone from the Beatles and Michael Jackson to New Order and Sonic Youth, as well as DJs and producers like drum & bass king J Majik and IDM greats Future Sound of London.
A few of our favorites include:
Singing Slaves Partscaster by Theseus Chan, who embedded a record as a pick guard onto a custom-painted ’60s guitar for the song “Cross Road Blues” by Robert Johnson.
Disintegration by Andy Yang for the Cure’s “Lullaby,” featuring an otherworldly design painted on the surface of a record.
Space Oddity by the artist Bravo for David Bowie’s song of the same name. The piece emulates the record encased inside the NASA space probe Voyager 1, which even now floats through space, waiting to be found by extraterrestrial life.
We talked with Little Ong, who curated and organized the show along with his creative agency fFurious. He explained just how such an awesome idea came to life:
“Music has always been integral in my life. It provides a soundtrack to my daily existence and inspires the work that I create. I have been involved in the Singapore music scene as a photographer, designer and gig organizer since the ’90s and had been thinking of putting together an exhibition… It all started when I was given over 200 vinyl records of ’80s tea dance singles about two years ago. After picking out ones that I knew, I tried very hard to give the rest away, but no one wanted them. It dawned on me that these records could perhaps be put to better use.
I invited 50 Singapore artists and designers that I personally knew that music mattered in their lives. They were people who worked directly with music as musicians, producers and designers, or were big music fans that I would often bump into at gigs and music venues. The concept was that each artist would pick a song that made a positive impact on his or her life and create a piece of artwork from these unwanted vinyl records. On top of that, we decided to sell these converted records to benefit children through music education, an aspect that has somehow been neglected in Singapore.”
If you find yourself in Singapore, this is definitely something you don’t want to miss. Otherwise, for all of us lurkers on the net, browse the pieces below and check out interviews with a few of the artists themselves. And remember, if any of these pieces really strike your fancy, you will be helping kids in Singapore to connect to the world of music. So, bid away!
