Catmasutra Street

I haven't written for a while and the first line that came into my head is that "there are no coincidences in this world", that's there's a reason for everything. When you start seeing the world in this manner, you're actually moving in a different plane, one filled with a little magic.



My sabbatical as a full-time artist seemed to have come full cycle on the opening day of my Imagine-Nation exhibition as it was also my first day of work in a design agency. I've been very busy since, transiting from an almost contemplative and meditative mode to a fast-paced work environment. Anyway, here are some pics from recent exhibitions - a little detour along "Catmasutra Street", which in time will start again (art, after all is my first love and my next exhibiton is in December)... Most importantly, my heartfelt thanks to all who have supported the Catmasutra series one way or another!

Haha On another detour, I recently rode over something on my bike, and my back wheel punctured in a matter of seconds. Normally I would curse and swear at my rotten luck, but I didn't. It happened because it was supposed to happen. That's it. Simple and sweet. And I went about all the inconveniences of looking for a tow truck and sending the bike for repairs and maintainance which costs a bomb as well. I have to take the MRT which is a foreign experience for me (haha) but perhaps it was better that I took the MRT for a couple of days. It doesn't matter. And the "accident" passed without any trace.

We leave traces all the time... traces are like seeds we plant; they may stay hidden for a while but when all the circumstances are favorable, they germinate and grow whether the outcome is positive or negative. When you start to see your own journeys and unexpected detours in this manner, you'll begin to notice things that you would not normally see...


This reminds me of the M. Night Shyamalan's "SIGNS" which I thought was a pretty decent movie (although people tend to thrash it when the movie concludes with a showing of aliens - similar to "AI" ). Graham Hess (the main protagonist) indicated that there are two groups of people, "People break down into two groups when they experience something lucky. Group number one sees it as more than luck, more than coincidence. They see it as a sign, evidence, that there is someone up there, watching out for them.


Group number two sees it as just pure luck. Just a happy turn of chance. I'm sure the people in Group number two are looking at those fourteen lights (UFO lights) in a very suspicious way. For them, the situation isn't fifty-fifty. Could be bad, could be good. But deep down, they feel that whatever happens, they're on their own. And that fills them with fear. Yeah, there are those people.But there's a whole lot of people in the Group number one. When they see those fourteen lights, they're looking at a miracle. And deep down, they feel that whatever's going to happen, there will be someone there to help them. And that fills them with hope.


See what you have to ask yourself is what kind of person are you? Are you the kind that sees signs, sees miracles? Or do you believe that people just get lucky? Or, look at the question this way: Is it possible that there are no coincidences? "

;)

Bird-wings

"...Your deepest presence is in every small contracting
and expanding...

...the two as beautifully balanced and coordinated
as birdwings."

"... Some nights stay up till dawn,
as the moon sometimes does for the sun.
be a full bucket pulled up the dark way
of a well, then lifted out into light..."

"...You knock at the door of reality,
shake your thought-wings, loosen
your shoulders,
and open."

~Rumi

The cycles never stop turning, do they?
But stop, and they stop.

;)

Catmasutra- Imagine your life...

Catmasutra, imagine-Nation

We live in a paradoxical country where everything, it seems is a contradiction in terms. I can list a thousand and one things that are contradictory of life in Singapore, and most of these things, have something to do with the government or "gahmen" as it is affectionately coined in Singlish. According to the Singlish-English dictionary in talkingcock.com, the term is "usually attributed to incensed taxi drivers offering unsolicited political opinions. Taxi driver: "The gahmen always charge for everything. Increase ERP, increase taxi rental, then go and cut CPF. Like that how can?")

Obedience School 101

With the gahmen so pervasive in our daily lives, through the various institutions (from the education system, the housing system, the transport system, the army, the media, the utilities...), that it's a wonder if we can really find ourselves. In most cases, we 're all so caught up in the Singaporean lifestyle - loosely defined as the need to do well academically so that we can find a good job, so as to achieve stability and prosperity so as to get married in order to own a subsidised HDB flat (which is getting smaller and without any balcony), so as to have children before the marriage breaks down, so as to have the comfort of children in old age, before passing on... In all matters that have political or economic value, the gahmen does well. In other areas, it does not do so well as there is no real insight, empathy, will or motivation.

Speakers' Corner

So along the way, we need lots of distraction just to get out of these constraints. Going for dream holidays, hoping to touch lottery, indulging in branded goods, shopping, ... just to lose ourselves. It's no wonder that we feel lost most of the time. We can't really know where we're going if we don't ask questions of ourselves and our path. What is the purpose of our life? If we can't answer that question, we're lost. If we think the question is superfluous, we're probably running around in circles on the tiny island of the "Lost" TV series, manipulated one way or another by "invisible" forces. Truth is, the gahmen don't owe us anything and we don't owe them anyway. This life is yours and yours only. We always have the freedom to choose; we can either choose our own life or let someone else or the gahmen or some system choose for you.

The Great Singapore Rush

Here're some relevant snippets taken from "Mr Wang Says so" blog, of a speech by Adrain Tan (a litigation lawyer at one of Singapore's leading law firms) for the graduating class of 2008, NTU convocation ceremony last week...

"You’ve probably been told the big lie that “Learning is a lifelong process” and that therefore you will continue studying and taking masters’ degrees and doctorates and professorships and so on. You know the sort of people who tell you that? Teachers. Don’t you think there is some measure of conflict of interest? They are in the business of learning, after all. Where would they be without you? They need you to be repeat customers.

The good news is that they’re wrong.

The bad news is that you don’t need further education because your entire life is over. It is gone. That may come as a shock to some of you. You’re in your teens or early twenties. People may tell you that you will live to be 70, 80, 90 years old. That is your life expectancy.

I love that term: life expectancy. We all understand the term to mean the average life span of a group of people. But I’m here to talk about a bigger idea, which is what you expect from your life.

You may be very happy to know that Singapore is currently ranked as the country with the third highest life expectancy. We are behind Andorra and Japan, and tied with San Marino. It seems quite clear why people in those countries, and ours, live so long. We share one thing in common: our football teams are all hopeless. There’s very little danger of any of our citizens having their pulses raised by watching us play in the World Cup. Spectators are more likely to be lulled into a gentle and restful nap.

Singaporeans have a life expectancy of 81.8 years. Singapore men live to an average of 79.21 years, while Singapore women live more than five years longer, probably to take into account the additional time they need to spend in the bathroom.

So here you are, in your twenties, thinking that you’ll have another 40 years to go. Four decades in which to live long and prosper.

Bad news. Read the papers. There are people dropping dead when they’re 50, 40, 30 years old. Or quite possibly just after finishing their convocation. They would be very disappointed that they didn’t meet their life expectancy.

I’m here to tell you this. Forget about your life expectancy.

After all, it’s calculated based on an average. And you never, ever want to expect being average.

Revisit those expectations. You might be looking forward to working, falling in love, marrying, raising a family. You are told that, as graduates, you should expect to find a job paying so much, where your hours are so much, where your responsibilities are so much.

That is what is expected of you. And if you live up to it, it will be an awful waste.

If you expect that, you will be limiting yourself. You will be living your life according to boundaries set by average people. I have nothing against average people. But no one should aspire to be them. And you don’t need years of education by the best minds in Singapore to prepare you to be average.


What you should prepare for is mess. Life’s a mess. You are not entitled to expect anything from it. Life is not fair. Everything does not balance out in the end. Life happens, and you have no control over it. Good and bad things happen to you day by day, hour by hour, moment by moment. Your degree is a poor armour against fate.

Don’t expect anything. Erase all life expectancies. Just live. Your life is over as of today. At this point in time, you have grown as tall as you will ever be, you are physically the fittest you will ever be in your entire life and you are probably looking the best that you will ever look. This is as good as it gets. It is all downhill from here. Or up. No one knows.

What does this mean for you? It is good that your life is over.

Since your life is over, you are free. Let me tell you the many wonderful things that you can do when you are free...

The most important is this: do not work."

Absolutely Shiok!

Before you head over to read his speech (which I encourage everyone to)... think about the last sentence. If you know what that means now and are practicing it, then you're already absolutely shioked or free. You already know your purpose in life. The next thing to do is to hold on to that purpose for dear life! It may change and morph and evolve, but it will be from the same source...

Happy National Day and May you find your own star...

;)

Catmasutra Art Exhibition - Imagine-Nation!

Catmasutra presents Imagine-Nation, another quirky and irreverent
painting show coming your way this August!
www.catmasutra.com

About the exhibition...

Singapore is considered one of the most efficient countries in the world. Just as this systematic efficiency has brought us success, it has also left an indelible imprint on our subconscious, where "truth" is seen and valued in terms of a prescribed path to success and happiness. This exhibition, "Imagine-Nation" asks us to look within instead, to listen to our own thoughts for a change, and plant these thoughts and consciously choose the path that we really want to take. Inherently, it attempts to expose our collective delusions about the"pre-programmed" nature of our life, and the prescribed notions on the best way to live...

Using the Catmasutra cats in social and surreal settings, this collection aims to provoke thoughts about our lives in our urbanized city in a quirky and irreverent way. References from popular and local culture are used and weaved as a counterpoint in each painting. The essence of the Catmasutra cats is based on their eyes-wide-shut, ear-to-ear grin, which translates to a deep-seated childhood innocence cum devil-may-care bravado, with a healthy dosage of self-belief and unpretentiousness... This serves as an anchor for all of Catmasutra paintings...

CATMASUTRA : IMAGINE-NATION

6th - 17th AUGUST 2008
@ FORTH GALLERY
69A pagoda street

Opening Hours:
Tuesday to Sunday 1130am to 7pm
Monday and public holidays by appt only

;)
More about the new paintings soon...

Viewing a cat

How would you view a cat? There are of course, cat lovers, and those who go all the way to help them, bringing injured cats to the vets, paying for their medical bills, feeding them, and finding ways to ensure their well-being. And these are the people who will do the same for other animals in similar plight, just that, the cats are the creatures that open their hearts to this path.


Then there are those who joke and laugh at these people and consider them trivial or overly-sympathetic to a non-issue (or pests) as remarked by Class 95 FM Morning Express Glenn Ong and the Flying Dutchman, that "stray cats should be sent to Peru to be eaten and stray cat feeders should be fined." Of course, they were only trying to get attention, to show how nonchalant they are, or to perpetuate their radio personalities. Whether they will eat the cats in Peru or not is another question. There are others who worry instead that their brand new cars would be scratched by the cats or that cats are filthy and will spread disease, etc. Then they are those who abuse the cats, torturing and killing them with imagination. Lastly, we have the "authorities", the AVA and the town councils who seem to be the slaves to people with lots to complain. The cats were culled during the SARS episode without contacting any animal groups, and they have traps for rent for anyone who wants to get rid of cats who might be scratching their brand new cars. (Cats don't really want to scratch metallic bodies. It's just not their thing or yours. Try scratching your car and see if you derive any kind of joy in it).


So how do you view a cat? Everybody looks out their own window. Everything external is everything internal. Everything has to be manifested as a thought first before it can become a speech, an action, or a feeling. If a certain thought is repeated and reinforced enough times, it becomes part of who you are. In short, the feelings and thoughts come automatically and "naturally" when a particular situation occurs - you are what you say, do or feel. For some, the egos are a too inflated, so it's easier to trivialize things. This makes them feel bigger and above all these "little" things. If for some reason, their ego or pride is taken away, they will struggle and this may be a good thing. For others, material things are more important than life. If you value your Mercedes Benz more than the lives of cats, it's equally true that you value material things more than your own life. If you lose your wealth, you will struggle terribly but you may learn more about life wahahaha! And for people who torture and kill cats, their lives are filled with fear (fear of life, of being a nobody, and have a very weak sense of self), and hence the irrepressible need to cover that fear with power, anger, hatred. If that fear is removed, then there will be nothing left to cover up.


Well, as for the cat lovers, there's nothing that we can take away from them. Their compassion and love are theirs to give away, and in that way, they receive much more. Sometimes, it seems easier to help cats or dogs as they are simple and pure, with no hidden agenda. If we can recognise that in them, then we have also recognised it in ourselves. People are always more complicated. Perhaps, when we have become strong enough, we can recognise this in other people and help them recognise it too. We are not that different.

At the end, we only receive what we give, good or bad.
In the act of interpreting the universe, we are creating the universe...

;)