Yeller Zine November Issue

My new found hobby is writing articles for the art magazine of University of Edinburgh Art Society. So here's the one from November. And some amazing pictures from edinburghlook.wordpress.com

Art for the old

How many times have you walked down South Clerk Street and saw old pensioners wandering around with walking sticks and wheelchairs. This may sound a bit of a cliché, but without them, there would be no peace and prosperity as we know it today. Yet what we are seeing in our society today is that after they retire, they become an unproductive unit in the economy and their value in society becomes obsolete.

There are many services by the government and charitable services which provide the elderly with the essentials needed for a comfortable life after retirement. I am not suggesting that these efforts are not of importance. These are noble acts by charitable people. But perhaps we could extend our hands further by engaging them with what we think should be the furthest from them – Art.

What immediately comes into mind when I think about accessible art spaces around Edinburgh is the graffiti wall which connects Potterow to South College Street. Being educated in the East. I was taught to behave properly in public places and never to draw anything on walls, not to mention spray cans of paint on a big scale. Graffiti art seemed to me a form of vandalism, as a space for young rebels to voice their anguish against the rules and guidelines of society. It was a wall for the forgotten, for the marginalized and for the minority. A graffiti wall seemed to create chaos and disorder and reflect the government’s inability to keep things in order.


What about old pensioners and graffiti? What would an elderly who have lived through the perils of famine and war think of the society we are living in today? How would he represent his views through graffiti? How would he perceive graffiti as an art form? Can graffiti create a dialogue between the rebellious youth and the respectful old?

Just when I was thinking that I was probably stretching a bit too far to have old pensioners work on the graffiti walls at the corner of Potterow, I came across this news of an elder man doing, you guessed it right, graffiti art!

Juanjaime Lam

P.S. Enjoy old pensioners enjoy fencing!!

Music in the streets, Obama wanted to be an architect and addiction

1) Since around the age of 19, I started to abandon any portable music devices. The reason being: I find the sounds in the streets create a mood that fits the streets more so than any other music that I possess. And as a foreigner studying abroad, it is easier for me to understand and sync in with the rest of the crowd by observing and eavesdropping.

And so I was in line queueing up in Baguette express (a more authentic healthy alternative choice to Subway) and overhead two students talking.
The girl asked, "So what do you study?"
The guy replied, "Architecture, and you?"
The girl replied, "Anthropology."

And that made me into thinking how similar the two disciplines actually are. At least for me, Architecture is the study of urban rituals and create a building to accommodate such rituals. Anthropology is the study of rural and urban rituals and understand social trends through such rituals.

To me urban rituals are performances with us being either the audience or performer (which are non-exclusive), they are also performances which gives us joy and a sense of togetherness with those around us.

This then lead me to think of what urban rituals are to us city dwellers.
- friday night clubbing (it always puzzles me when people think that staying at home on a friday night means you don't have friends)
- drinking
- movies
- shopping
- public holidays
- work from 9-5, given you like the work

Perhaps I'm not such a bad kid after all, when I go out drinking and clubbing, because I am merely performing an urban ritual to fit in with the norm.

2) I came across this article that mentions Obama's 50 facts you might not know article. Sorry I'm a big fan of him, the last time I turned a big fan of any politican was when Clinton patted the shoulders of then Israel Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian Chairman Yasser Arafat. Here's a nice picture of the love between the three great men.
Anyways, I found out that Obama's alternative choice of occupation to being a politican was being an architect! So I told a friend of mine and she asked me this question.

"What's the difference between an architect and a politican?"
I responded, "They both lie."
And she said "they both have projections for a future."

It would be interesting to see what Obama would've created if he was an architect.

3) If you had to choose one thing that was the most addictive thing on earth, what would it be? I gave an answer that probably has to do with the current mood I am in. But still it was close enough. The 'official' answer is here.
Oh yeah, my answer is the word above and beyond Arafat's head, slightly to the right. Still don't get it?

Love.

Enough said...

Got this interesting cartoon from the Economist.

... very fortunate for me my parents are still able to support my lavish life style, so I have not yet gone mad and can still wonder how Africa is doing.