John Lennon & Yoko Ono by Annie Leibovitz

I found this picture when I was doing my weekend blog-trotting. Slightly disturbed by how wanton John Lennon looked, but this image intrigue me. Mostly because of the level of shamelessness and humanity in it. The crooked back, the total natural skinny nakedness (no pecs and tanned skin whatsoever), the sexual desire, it's all there. This Lennon/Ono Bed-in For Peace took place from May 26 to June 1, 1969 at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel in Montreal.

And then I read that the picture was taken by Annie Leibovitz.

Ah, it explains everything then.

The provocative composition, the natural beauty, the slight feeling disturbance, but most of all, the memorability. I keep tab on this particular photographer since I first saw her series of work for Disney a while ago. LOVE it!


Above is my favourite picture from the Disney series, it is called the Disney "Fantasea", featuring Julianne Moore as a mermaid, and Michael Phelps as the merman. No one can does it better than him, I suppose. :) And the picture is simply amaaziiinggg.. :)

Below is a couple of other pictures from the series. David Beckham as Prince Phillip, and Scarlett Johansson as Cinderella.

Beautiful!




Ah, and of course, the most interesting of it all, Annie's photograph of the Queen (of England).

art scene investigation : I Love You

On my way back from Merlion Park, I walked past the Esplanade, and I saw this particular installation.


The very first thing that caught my eye is the vibrant colors, obviously. And then my brain recognizes the shapes, which is Arabic. And if you read the text carefully, it says simply;


"I Love You"


And so I went in, to see what's this interesting installation is all about.

Turns out it's an installation by Arahmaiani, an Indonesian female artist of Javanese Muslim descent. Very much like myself, but without the 'artist' title :)

I've nothing much to say but I REALLY like this particular installation. It's visually attractive, and the idea behind the work is simply brilliant!




So what's the big idea?



Apparently Arahmaiani wants to dissolve the negative imagery constructed mostly by Western media that Muslim & Islam are a synonym to violence & terrorism. In reality, most Muslims do not tolerate any kind of violence (particularly in the name of religion or Allah); and most do not hate Westerners. The symbol that she took, is the Arabic script, or to be precise, the Malay variation of Arabic script, called Jawi; forming the phrase "I Love You".


Why I Love You?


Because it's a universal sentence which represents the Islamic teaching that the Artist's received from her parents and ancestors; which also represents the real face of Islam.

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some of the text above are taken from the installation's information sheet mixed with my own words. The exhibition will be at the Singapore's Esplanade Concourse, from May 15th to July 5th 2009.