In an issue that celebrates the best of the best, BAZAAR invited five Singapore-based artists to pay homage to the Old Masters in their own contemporary style. From ICON De Martell Cordon Bleu Photography Award winner Sarah Choo Jing, who turned to photography and paint to put her own spin on the Mona Lisa, to Affordable Art Fair artist Billy Ma’s reinvention of Botticelli’s The Birth of Venus with Asian-style sun and clouds, each artist worked with a different medium to reinterpret a classic for today’s digital age. Here, they tell Claire Turrell about their work
In an issue that celebrates the best of the best, BAZAAR invited five Singapore-based artists to pay homage to the Old Masters in their own contemporary style. From ICON De Martell Cordon Bleu Photography Award winner Sarah Choo Jing, who turned to photography and paint to put her own spin on the Mona Lisa, to Affordable Art Fair artist Billy Ma’s reinvention of Botticelli’s The Birth of Venus with Asian-style sun and clouds, each artist worked with a different medium to reinterpret a classic for today’s digital age. Here, they tell Claire Turrell about their work
THE RAVAGES OF TIME
By Mojoko
Inspiration: Le Chapeau de Paille by Peter Paul Rubens
“Celebrating the details of the Old Masters, this Mojoko remix highlights the beautiful textures and finishes that get neglected with time, while interweaving the destructive nature of modern culture and the corruption of memory that force our heritage and tradition to be lost into disappearing fragments.”
REASIANSANCE
By Billy Ma
Inspiration: The Birth of Venus by Sandro Botticelli
“Botticelli’s The Birth of Venus is an icon of the Italian Renaissance. With all the turmoil and downward spiral of current day Western society, it seems that Asia is poised to rise and come into a ReASIANsance of its own.”
“I had selected this lady in the red dress as my inspiration. But what I took from the piece was the tone and the highlights on the fabric. I didn’t want to just render a copy of Rembrandt, but show an original which was inspired by his strokes and main colour palette. Applying mixed media allows me to play with the foundation set by the Old Masters.”
PHANTOM LIMBS
By Sarah Choo Jing
Inspiration: Mona Lisa by Leonardo Da Vinci
“The portrait of Mona Lisa, otherwise known as Lisa del Giocondo, is a familiar masterpiece by Leonardo Da Vinci. In this case, I have chosen to manipulate both mediums of photography and painting to create an atmospheric illusion through the portrait presented. A pun on the title ‘La Gioconda’, meaning ‘the jovial one’, an intensity of emotion is portrayed through highlighting enigmatic features of the late sitter; namely her subtly modelled face and pair of crossed arms.”
