SINGAPORE – Home-grown art and design collective Phunk is set to give a new look to of their most notable works, Control Chaos, which depicts images of heaven and hell.
Created not long after the 9/11 terror attacks and the Severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars) outbreak, the 2003 silkscreen print on corrugated board was done for a New York gallery exhibition, the group’s first overseas solo show.
In the light of developments like the Hong Kong protests and the Covid-19 outbreak, Phunk plans to roll out an updated version of the work this year. “We find that Control Chaos is relevant even today. We created it in 2003 but in 2020, it seems we are exeriencing that same chaos,” said member Alvin Tan, 46.
He was speaking to The Straits Times on the sidelines of an exhibition at the National Design Centre to mark the 25th anniversary of the collective started in 1994 by Mr Tan and his three friends – Jackson Tan, Melvin Chee and William Chan – from Lasalle College of the Arts.
While Phunk is today one of the most recognisable names in the local graphic design scene, it has had its share of struggles.
“We were kids who loved Levi’s jeans and Nike shoes. But there were no opportunities for us to work for brands like that in Singapore,” Mr Jackson Tan, 46, said.
Members said how they used to e-mail international companies and mail them their designs by post.
To liven up Singapore’s graphic design scene, they also started local creative ventures like Singapore’s first design publication, Trigger Magazine, which was launched in 1998 and ran until 2003.
“What we didn’t have, we created our own,” Mr Chan, 47, said.
One opportunity led to another.
“When we were doing a show for Diesel Gallery in Tokyo, the managers for The Rolling Stones saw our works and invited us to design a series of merchandise for them,” Mr Jackson Tan fondly recalled.
Today, Phunk’s body of work boasts collaborations with household names like Coca-Cola and Rolls Royce. They also collaborated with childhood favourites Levi’s in 2008 and Nike in 2010.
For the exhibition, members took segments of their earlier prints and pieced them together into a mural plastered across the exhibit walls. This work chronicles the group’s career highlights since its inception in 1994, from big-name collaborations to their own solo creations.
On display too are their works such as a monochromatic installation titled Love Bomb. The sculpture, an atomic bomb labelled with the Chinese character for love, signifies the duality of human creativity and destruction, while conveying the group’s belief that love is the most powerful force.
On the group’s evolution, Mr Jackson Tan said: “In our teens, we were like sponges, absorbing everything vivid and visual in the world. When we grew older, we started looking inward, and that’s when we began to build our own visual universe.”
To young aspiring artists, Mr Chan says: “It sounds cliched but don’t think too much and just do it.”
VIEW IT
What: Control Chaos: 25 Years of Phunk
Where: National Design Centre
When: Feb 14 to March 20, 9 am to 9pm
info@phunkstud
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