Random Message for a Stranger is a Very Small Exhibition initiative to share inspiring messages through unique postcard designs that are randomly placed in different parts of Singapore for people to pick-up.
The original Random Message for a Stranger project started in 2017 by Wei, one of the founders of Very Small Exhibition, as a way to share inspiring messages to the general public with hand-written calligraphic letterings. https://mothership.sg/2017/10/sporean-randomly-leaves-handwritten-calligraphy-notes-all-around-spore-for-strangers/
The first series of Random Message for a Stranger postcards were created by the three founders of Very Small Exhibition, and were distributed in August 2021.
Random Message for a Stranger 2
To celebrate the season of love and sharing, Very Small Exhibition is collaborating with 7 artists of different disciplines, to each design an original postcard. Each unique postcard carries a wordless message that the respective artist wants to express. Most of the postcard designs are accompanied with AR filter effects to enhance the experience in receiving the messages.
These postcards will be placed all around Singapore, one postcard a day, throughout the month of December 2021. Each of them will be affixed with a postage stamp. Those who manage to get one can take this opportunity to show their appreciation for a friend or family with their own hand-written message on it and mail them.
POSTCARDS
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All printed matter is guided and supported by oolors.com, an online print platform where individuality + creativity becomes the reality.
ARTISTS
Very Small Exhibition is happy to have collaborated with 7 individuals, and craft out messages with their unique artistic practices.
Amelia Lee
Amelia is someone who loves exploring new horizons – she simply can’t sit still and do nothing! Be it walking randomly for hours or trying out a new art medium, she’s always looking for interesting experiences. Her latest project is a small handmade business @moonrisemusings that lives on Instagram, which is a manifestation of her whimsical ideas in the shape of delightful earrings.
The beauty of life is that it’s unpredictable, just like the weather. The skies may be sunny, gloomy, or both in one day! Similarly, we may or may not be on the right side of Lady Luck, but what’s important is that we never lose hope. The Wishing Earrings are here to remind us that things may or may not turn out the way we want them to, but it’s all okay. So wish away, and may the odds be in your favour!
The Analog Girl
What started out as a lo-fi bedroom project using portable synthesizers and cassette tape recorders has since evolved into some kind of dreamlike technicolour pop universe - one in which Singaporean electronic avant-pop musician The Analog Girl creates and performs using a myriad of illuminating instruments including the Tenori-On, Monome and Percussa AudioCubes.
Named by TIME magazine as one of 5 Music Acts To Watch in 2008, The Analog Girl has had audiences plugged into her sound at a spectrum of venues and festivals worldwide including Nick Knightʼs SHOWstudio Revue in London, Worldtronics Festival at the Haus der Kulturen der Welt in Berlin, and Superdeluxe in Tokyo.
She has also composed soundscapes for buildings, spaces and exhibitions, including ALICE@Mediapolis in Singapore, and MSCTY x Sculpture in the City for Jake Elwes’ A.I. video installation Latent Space in London.
To spread positive vibes and to remind everyone, when in times of trouble, to try going back to Mother Nature for the answers.
Jeffrey Ang
Jeffrey is the founder of Artefakts, an artist’s studio where he teaches linocut printmaking and paper marbling workshops. Paper marbling dates to 15th century and is also known as ‘Ebru’, meaning cloud art in Turkish. He has been actively experimenting with various marbling techniques and mediums such as fabric, candles, wood, plastic, glass, etc.
Jeffrey hopes to revive the ‘slow’ culture where people take time to appreciate and embrace the beauty of hand-made goods and to rekindle their interest in artisanal craft. An avid urban sketcher, Jeffrey enjoys exploring and documenting lesser known parts of Singapore with his pen and ink sketches.
Marbling is a traditional art form where paint droplets are floated on a thick size and abstract patterns are drawn with stylus or stick, and by combing or swirling. The creation process is calming and mesmerizing – the free flow and organic nature of marbling often seems unpredictable and random. Similarly, life too, may be unpredictable and random at times. Instead of fighting it, stay calm and savor the moment. Learn to let go and let it lead us, often to a better and unexpected place!
Joan Lim
I’m Joan. I paint. I feel.
Make beauty with the scars, we must.
Kew Lin
Kew Lin is a Singaporean writer-director with the attitude of a contrarian and an obsession for absurdity. He has recently co-written British feature film Love Possibly, which is available on Amazon Prime, Paramount+ and Apple TV+.
His latest STOREYS x IMDA supported short film Uncle Goose Waits For A Phone Call starred local Teochew veteran Chen Shucheng and was screened at SeaShorts, Jogja-NETPAC Asian Film Festival and the BAFTA-qualifying Aesthetica Short Film Festival.
Outside of narrative filmmaking, Kew is passionate about the Chinese language and culture. Fluent in Mandarin, he has travelled to China to make ethnographic documentaries. His credits as visual effects artist include Interstellar, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation, Bridge of Spies, Spectre and The Hunger Games series.
Kew Lin is currently developing his debut feature film.
“Sometimes a man wants to be stupid if it lets him do a thing his cleverness forbids.”
—John Steinbeck, East of Eden
Isidro Ramirez
Isidro Ramirez is a Spanish photographer who, after 20 years spent living, working and studying in the UK, is now based in Singapore. Alongside developing his practice as a contemporary urban photographer, Ramirez now also lectures in the BA(Hons) Design Communication program at LASALLE College of the Arts in Singapore. Ramirez’s works have been exhibited widely in major cities across Europe and the USA, including Barcelona, Bogota, Vienna, Berlin, New York and Los Angeles.
www.lensculture.com/isidro-ramirez
Singapore – Insula
2021–ongoing
Since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, for almost 2 years now, international travel has been globally disrupted and border crossing restrictions implemented. This has been hard on everybody but specially on those who live and work in other countries away from families and homes. Insula aims to explores the concepts of boundaries and adaptation in Singapore by photographing its geographical land borders.
Because Singapore is a small nation state island, all the images in this project include a portion of the sea in then. Insula was started as a well-timed response to exploring the geographical limits of this small island where almost 6 million people coexist, and the reactions and strategies Singapore’s residents have been compelled to fashion to cope during these unsettling times.
Isidro Ramirez, November 2021
Jingqing Goh
Jing Qing is a graphic designer with an interest in Chinese typography, culture and language.
She is always intrigued by how people communicate, and how that shapes and shifts cultures and language. She deeply resonates with how typography enables languages to build connections and communities.
She started delving into typography through Chinese type in 2015. Pursuing this interest has not only improved her proficiency in the Chinese language, but also helped to rediscover her Chinese roots. She hopes that her work would show a different perspective of this beautiful language.
ANEW:HOPE
May this artwork remind you that no matter how heavy and hard some days are, or how much you have been carrying on your shoulders, there is still more ahead for you — in hope, comfort and dreams.