9th Tropical Lab - Open Call

Event detail:  9th Tropical Lab, Singapore (23 July to 6 August 2015)

Introduction: LASALLE College of the Arts is pleased to announce the call for participation from student-artists for its ninth edition of Tropical Lab in Singapore. Tropical Lab is an international art camp for practicing student-artists. Renowned for its ability to connect emerging artists and explore contemporary issues in art, more than two hundred artists from all over the world and from major arts schools and institutions have gathered in Singapore annually to embark on a journey of exploration.

Aims: The aims of Tropical Lab are to expand the views of the participants; to exchange experiences; and to stimulate creative thinking through a collaborative approach. In addition, to create a positive environment that will stimulate and cultivate minds, imaginations, emotional (intuitive) consciousness and cultural sensibilities of the emerging generation of students of art.

LASALLE offers an environment for international student-artists to carry out research and advance their art practice in a short period. This will strengthen the value and potential of having a programme that is culturally relevant to a range of local, regional and international student-artists.

Through a series of creative workshops and other activities (presentations, seminars, dialogues, trips) organized around the theme, participants will have the opportunity to interact and learn from international and Singaporean artists and curators from the Faculty of Fine Arts at LASALLE and LASALLE’s Institute of Contemporary Art Singapore.

9th Tropical Lab 2015, Theme: Island

“There is no world. There are only islands.” Jacques Derrida

Islands are nature’s debris. Broken away from the whole since the beginning of human consciousness it has been a creation of nature’s wrath. Yet with human evolution, the idea of a relationship to the concept of an island as an imaginary to articulate the human condition resides most poignantly in John Donne’s oft-quoted opening line of his poem ‘No man is an island’.

Visualized often as a castaway, exotic, uninhibited, fearful, lonely, etc. it is a potent compression of a country, a nation. Islands are imagined, visuallised and romanticised in many ways but it is but an object and an objection in the vast seas.

Tropical Lab 9 draws together student-artists from all over the world, bringing them together to learn about Singapore and that of its neighbours. Singapore, an island that was founded as a free port, remains one of the busiest ports of trade and a site of negotiation for cultures, identifies and practices over the centuries. It represents islands of the twenty-first century who are integral and key to world-making.

Tropical Lab 9 invites participating student-artists to cross land and sea; cities and communities; ideas and ideologies to mediate and collaborate on multiple notions of histories, geographies, economies and aesthetic realms.  

Web link: https://tropicallabsingapore.wordpress.com/

Date & Duration: 23 July to 6 August 2015. Participants are required to be in full attendance during this two-week period.

Venue: LASALLE College of the Arts, 1 McNally Street, Singapore 187940. Participants will have a range of studios, galleries and workshop to work in.

Material: Research and art materials will be provided by LASALLE. Students will be given a SGD$200.00 allowance for all art materials. It is recommended for students to bring their own laptop.

Accommodation: All participants will reside at hotel within the vicinity of the College.

Participation Fee: SGD$450 for each participant

Method of Payment: The payment should be in the form of Singapore Dollar Demand Draft made out to LASALLE College of the Arts Limited. Indicate your name as well as the purpose of the payment: ‘TROPICAL LAB 9, Singapore’ at the back of the draft. Please send the draft to the address below, once you have confirmed your participation: Milenko Prvacki, Senior Fellow, Office of the President, LASALLE College of the Arts
 1 McNally Street, Singapore 187940

Exhibition: Tropical Lab 9 will conclude with an exhibition by the participants responding to the theme. Curated by Ms. Bala Starr, Director of Institute of Contemporary Art Singapore and held at ICAS Gallery’s, the exhibition will open on Tuesday, 5 August 2015.

Possible partial funding by FASS and application requirements: 

a) Student’s current GPA.

b) Student’s Portfolio – Web link/Online portfolio.

c) The desired Conference or Workshop’s Information and URL. If it is another type of event please explain.

d) Letter of intent corresponding to the event theme and purposes. (Students are expected to clearly explain why he/she would like to attend this event and how it will contribute to his/her ongoing development at SU/FASS)

e) Successful candidate are required to submit a report upon returning based on his/her experience after the participated event in 3 weeks period.

*** Please sent single email with your application package obtaining above information to: Alex Wong, alexw@sabanciuniv.edu, latest by June 1 (Monday) 12:00. No further application will be reviewed after this period. 

Your application will be evaluated by our research and grant committee based on above criteria and appropriateness.