Embracing Connections

What’s New at Tanglin

Embracing Connections

As Tanglin approaches its centennial in 2025, it’s embarking on the Centennial Arts Project - an ambitious arts project to celebrate its hundredth anniversary in Singapore. The first artwork commission, which will be installed in the Atrium of Tanglin’s new Centenary Building, is The Brain by Singaporean sculptor Victor Tan. We chatted with him to find out more.

The Brain is the first of a series of commissions of visual and performance artworks to take place over the next decade. The theme will be focused on Respect, Responsibility, and Purpose - Tanglin’s core values that are relevant for both future and past generations. Awarded artists like Victor, who are selected for the Centennial Arts Project, will commit to including students in the artistic process of creating a significant work that’s aligned with the theme, context, location.

Take the Year 12 students who visited Victor’s studio at Telok Kurau Studios for example. They were given the opportunity to learn about sculpture making, understand the process of making a public sculpture and the various stages of the creation. Elaine, one of the student visitors, said, “Victor told us to create a sphere without looking at anyone else’s and without being taught anything about how to make it. I coiled the wire around in a very random way and tried to form the shape of a ball. In the end, we turned around and looked at everyone else’s spheres and I saw that they had all done it in a very different way. It was very interesting to see that we all thought differently and had different methods of getting to the desired result.”

Rajata, another student visitor, couldn’t have agreed more. He explained, “I learned that as an artist, you have to express yourself clearly and be different from everyone else. As an artist, you have to find your own meaning behind your artwork. Before Victor found his voice in wires, he was doing ceramics. When he realised that no one else was doing wires, he decided to stick with it and became one of the best local sculptors in Singapore.”

Rob Le Grice, Head of Art & Design, said, “Victor is an artist with a presence, and he has a way of talking about art. His artwork is so intertwined with his personality and that is the message we want to share with our students. [Art] is about finding who you are and your voice, then letting that turn into something. It’s really inspirational.”

Why did Tanglin decide to embark on such an ambitious art project with Victor?

“We’ve built up this relationship with Victor over the years,” Rob explained, “and it’s progressed to a point where we understand each other. Now it’s all about getting our students to understand Victor and vice versa, and really making sure the connection is tight. These days, a lot of students make connections with artwork through their phones and the Internet. I always worry that they are not seeing the artwork in its true entirety, and we rarely get a chance to meet the artist. Meeting Victor brings all the key learning points together and it’s a great way to build a good relationship.”

Making connections with Victor is just part of the reason why Tanglin decided to install The Brain in the heart of the Centenary Building. Rob said, “it’s not just a brain, it’s about connections and people coming together. People come and go at Tanglin, but it’s important to know that the lovely connections we make in school are just as vital outside. We hope to continue building these relationships. We’ve been separated from families and friends at times, and we are hoping that over the next few years, we can bring those relationships back again with the help of art as well as Victor and other artists we connect with.”

Who is Victor Tan?

Victor is known in the local arts community for his unusual and persistent use of wire. His work explores existential ideas about humanity, the isolation of human emotions in the moment, and through the passage of time. The practising sculptor told » 15

us that he eventually chose the wire as his medium of choice because it reminded him of the pencil lines he used to draw before he became visually impaired. Victor explained, “wire is like a pen or a pencil to me and the air is like paper. Every line of this wire is like a drawing I draw in the air.”

What got him into art?

Victor’s artistic journey began when he was just a child. He told us, “I always liked art when I was a kid but I just never thought that I’d be doing it as a career. I like to draw quietly in my own time and space, and not show anyone. I went on to study architectural technology in Singapore Polytechnic but halfway through, I started to experience visual issues. I had to stop what I was doing, but then one day I overheard a blind person say he was going to do painting over the weekend. I was like ‘wow, he can do painting and that’s what I always wanted to do’, so I decided to join them and that was it. I never looked back. During the art workshop, there were artists and they advised me that I should go to art school after seeing what I did. That’s how it all started.”

Why did he pick the human brain as the inspiration for his sculpture?

The brain and nervous system possess a unique intricate pattern of 86 billion neurons that relay information through a complex electrochemical process and make connections that affect the way we think, learn, move, and behave. When children develop life skills such as empathy, creativity, self-control and problemsolving, they are in fact nurturing the brain circuits that are involved in much of what makes us human.

Victor elaborated, “the whole idea of branches and their extensions is about possibility. The connections bring about possibilities. The school system is about developing one’s brain and the brain is complicated. It’s not just about the curriculum; it’s dynamic, it’s about relationships, it’s about you, it’s about the environment, and it fits Tanglin very well. Tanglin is very receptive to new ideas and thoughts. It’s not just about the curriculum alone, it’s about the holistic development of the child.”

Which part of the creative process excites him the most?

According to Victor, creativity has to be a holistic process. He said, “you don’t say you like one part and not the others. To me, the whole creative process is interesting from beginning to the middle and to the end. If I come up with an idea but I don’t make it, it’s not fun. If I want to make something but I don’t have an idea, I can’t do it either. Vision is important in the process of making. You can be a dreamer and don’t do anything but with vision, you can execute it.”

How does he define success as an artist?

For many people, being successful means making a lot of money or standing high up on the career ladder. But for Victor, success is very subjective. He explained, “it depends on what you want; why do you want to be successful in life? Do you want to be busy working for someone? I think working for someone is fine but if you are so busy that you don’t enjoy it, you feel very angry about it. If you are unhappy about it and dread going to work every day, then to me, no matter how rich or high up the ladder you are, you may want to think twice about it. For me, success is when you feel love for what you’re doing from the heart, and you thank God that you got a chance to do what you are doing. That, to me, is success. ■ Wise words indeed, Victor! We are truly inspired by your work and can’t wait to see the finished sculpture in the Centenary Building soon. In the meantime, if you want to find out more about this project or make a gift, please contact Cecilia Handel, Director of Development, at foundation@tts.edu.sg. Want to find out more about Victor’s work? Then visit his website at victortanweetar.com.