TRANSMISSION: Kaleidoscope from Betaphats on Vimeo.

Featured in Culturepush.com

http://culturepush.com/2012/04/02/transmission-kaleidoscope-kimberly-ong-x-sun-lee-siew-loo/

“When looking into the kaleidoscope, it looks like a pathway, with another place in the end so colorful and intriguing, our imaginary utopia. Yet no matter how pretty, it is unreachable.”

“The Escape”, a collaboration between Kimberly Ong and Sun Lee Siew Loo depicts just that. With Sun Lee’s expertise in creating beautiful art using ink and pen, and Kimberly’s manga style illustrations, the piece shows a girl who is tied, unfree. Being in the midst of all these very beautiful patterns, yet unable to do anything about it. The contrast of being so close, yet unable to reach. Her greatest wish, is that she would escape, and plunge into the beauty which was around her all the while. The final artwork shows the image in pure line art simplicity, focusing on the complicated patterns created by the mirroring concept of a kaleidoscope.

Throughout the journey of making the artwork, Sun Lee not only acted as a collaborator, but also as a mentor for Kimberly, guiding her and sharing her experience and her way of thinking. After going through a few sketches and ideas, it all comes down to “simple is better”. This line art of a girl was the first step towards creating the artwork.

Apprentice Kimberly Ong is a graphic design student at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts. Her interest in drawing started at a young age, inspired by Japanese anime. I am still learning as an illustrator, currently exploring the area of digital painting. I find the world of the unreal, such as fantasies and fairy tales, very intriguing and I often use them as a theme in my illustrations. My dream is to work as a concept artist, especially for computer games and movies.”

Collaborating Artist Sun Lee Siew Loo is a graphic artist, illustrator and photographer. She started illustration early 2009, using unique pen and ink drawing techniques. She draws inspiration from evolution, space, patterns, animals, humans and nature. Sun is passionate about typographical illustrations and her art has been featured on our site, RojakSite, RYZ, Shirtlog, tkyo, kult magazine and more. She is also one of the 9 Fountains Founding 15 – Singapore’s premier on-line t-shirt store and design community. In April 2010, Sun created the winning shoe design for the RYZ footwear contest. As part of the TKyo community, Sun has created an iPhone artwork in support of the relief efforts for the Japan earthquake.

The collab will be part of the Transmission: Kaleidoscope exhibition which opens 11 May at 188-8 Tanjong Katong Road.