Latest / 987 The Shock Circuit / INTERVIEW: JAHAN LOH

Transcript

INTERVIEW: JAHAN LOH · 987 The Shock Circuit

• 0:03
  Speaker 1: We are live on TikTok right now because something truly
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: exciting has kicked off just yesterday officially. If you're over
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: at Marina Bay Sands, you would have seen maybe say
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: a crowd and a spaceport looking area. Just so you know,
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: it was done in collaboration with our friend Lewis Hamilton.
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: Our friend, but you met him. You met him and
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: one of our very own, always a proud moment whenever
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: a Singaporean makes the headlines on news overseas. We have
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: him in the studio. Please give it up for celebrated
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: contemporary artist Jayhan Low in the studio.
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: Morning. Morning.
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: Are you awake yet? Are you good? He's chill. He's
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: like taking in all the energy and all the love. Hey, Jen,
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: I mean yesterday must have been a huge day for you.
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: We saw so much coverage on like all your different platforms, magazines,
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: you know, social media platforms and all that also.
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: Um, how was it like when you first got the
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: news that this collaboration was going to happen? Was it
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: like surreal for you? I
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: was thinking it's a it's real.
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: You couldn't tell. But do you actually follow Formula One
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: as well?
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I do.
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: Oh, and I'm guessing you're a Hamilton fan.
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: Did you get to, I mean, it's OK if you
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: can't say it live on air. Did you get to
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: speak with him at all or his team
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: or his team, you know, to him because we're in
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: different time zones and you know, he's flying around all
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: the time.
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, true.
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: So, you know, it was a crazy process.
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: OK. And it went on for how long? How many months?
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: We started actually in June. So we confirmed all the
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: details in June. So to put everything up, I think
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: even his team works at F1.
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: Super,
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: super speed, yeah, I mean something that maybe we Singaporeans
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: can be quite used to like how fast we work
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: and how fast we do things, but, OK, before we
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: touch more on the +44 collaboration.
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: As a contemporary artist here in Singapore and for people
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: who might not be familiar with your journey, do you
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: wanna walk us through how all this began for you
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: because I'm looking at your page and it mentions Lasalle,
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: it mentions a scholarship. Do you wanna walk us through
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: the whole journey?
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: Um, I think I always liked drawing since I was
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: a kid. So even in kindergarten, I was scribbling on
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: the walls.
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: So pretty much like, you know, uh, I'm turning 50
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: this year, choosing a career in art. I can't tell
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: so much younger. Thank you. But yeah, but choosing art
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: was a a a very different path compared to all
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: my friends. So, you know, I gave up my mainstream
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: education and I dropped out pretty much to pursue art.
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: Everyone thought I was mad. So in order to keep
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: it going, I had to look for a scholarship to,
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: you know, to just push it forward, but
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: You know, my life is constantly, you know, unstable, so
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: I broke my bond and I moved to Taiwan for
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: 10 years.
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: So, you know, there I did a lot of fun
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: stuff like, you know, music video, ah, CD covers back then. And,
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: you know, my calling was to art, so I had
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: an agency there. So at night, I started painting and,
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: you know, I did 2 years without any real occupation
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: I guess painting.
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: Hm.
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: Do you think that the whole perception of art and
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: pursuing it as a career has changed a lot, like
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: now in this day and age? Because I think even
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: when Joakim and I back then when we, for example,
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: when I chose to go to poly, it was still
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: considered like unconventional to pursue media, you know.
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: Do you think it has changed over the years?
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: I
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: think it's changed a lot. Our art scene is very
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: supportive now and I see a lot of like young talents,
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: you know, like coming up from Singapore. And everyone is actually,
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: you know, going beyond our shores and basically expanding overseas.
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: So it's really nice to look at.
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: I was gonna say one of the other visual artists
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: that I know of who's probably around our age, Sonia,
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: Tobi Ato. Oh, shout out to him. So let's go
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: to the +44 collaboration. Where did you draw all the
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: inspiration from and how many sleepless nights before you decided, OK,
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: this is the one I'm going to send to his team,
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: and they approved it.
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: Uh, I've always been a huge sci-fi fan and I
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: always thought that F1 is very related to sci-fi. So
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: anyone who could fly a rocket ship or spaceship would
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: be an F1 driver like Lewis. So, you know, I
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: incorporated a lot of stuff like fire, like the galaxy,
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: and basically did a theme around it like my ongoing, ah, ah,
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: topic about the spacemen and using clouds and fumes from F1,
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: creating a pattern and a camouflage.
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: Hm. So for those people who have just discovered the
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: whole concept of Spaceman, how else would you describe it
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: to them?
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: Um, I think a lot of my classmates call me
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: because I was always in class. Yeah, so it's my
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: alter ego for a long time and eventually I thought
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: like the spaceman represents all of us, you know, we
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: are moving from, uh, you know, our current culture to
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: different cultures when we travel.
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: And, you know, again, like I believe that in the future,
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: everyone will be a spaceman just like everyone flies now.
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: So maybe, you know, we'll meet each other for lunch
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: on the moon, so we'll all be traveling intergalactic style.
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: You
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: see the smile on his face when he's lunch on
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: the sight. We're still with Jayhan Low here in the studio. Yeah,
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: so all this to celebrate the +44 Marina Spaceport.
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: It's available from now till 11th of October at the shops,
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: and it's just opposite Yardburn Southern Table and Bar. But OK, disclaimer, yeah,
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: we're saying this, but there's no promise Hamilton will be
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: there himself. OK? I don't think so. Don't show up
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: like he is here. No, no, no, no such thing
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: unless he announces it or something like that or something special. But,
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: but Jayhan, being one of the first, or rather even
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: the first Southeast Asian artist to be able to do this,
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: how do you think that puts us on the map,
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: you know, I think it's a big year for Singapore.
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: Anything that you want to say?
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think I'm I'm happy like Singapore's up there
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: with New York, Tokyo, London, Paris. So, you know, we're
• 6:04
  Speaker 2: a destination that people like to come. Yeah.
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: And what do you think about Singapore,
• 6:11
  Speaker 2: in
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: your opinion?
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: I think we're coming of age and, you know, I think, uh, music, arts, movies,
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: like you said, we're we're getting there.
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: Yeah,
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: right? Yeah. Can I ask what is your favorite piece
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: from the capsule collection? If you had to recommend us
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: to get one.
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: I, you know, I'm torn because I like, like how
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: a lot of the, the merchandise was translated from the design.
• 6:34
  Speaker 2: So his team did a great job and I think
• 6:36
  Speaker 2: Lewis was pretty much, you know, looking through everything and
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: everything has to pass through his,
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: of
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: course.
• 6:46
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think, yeah, so I would say maybe like
• 6:49
  Speaker 2: the I I like uh Dry fit, so all the
• 6:52
  Speaker 2: jerseys are pretty cool, especially for our climate.
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: Yeah, honestly, I think we are gonna love it. OK,
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: so another question is whether he can answer this question. Uh,
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: you know how every time whenever the Formula One drivers
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: appear in the paddock they'll be wearing their own fits
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: before they change the team's official jerseys, right? Louis be
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: wearing the capsule collection by any chance? Can you answer?
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: I don't know
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: yet. I hope so.
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: Maybe he will incorporate it because he likes to like
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: put together. I'm looking at the hoodies and and the material.
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: Our bro will be perspiring, but I'm very sure you
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: look very good because it's Lewis Hamilton. Yeah, 100%. OK,
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: so what's what's on for you after this, after this
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: collaboration and everything? Anything else that you can say that
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: you're working on or you have your eyes set
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: on?
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: I'm having a show in Taipei in December and then
• 7:42
  Speaker 2: preparing for next year.
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: Hm. And I believe that we can also take a
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: peek behind the process of how you develop this over
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: at the exhibit,
• 7:51
  Speaker 2: right? Oh, there's an exhibition that's happening this week. It's
• 7:56
  Speaker 2: like behind the scenes, like, you know, how everything was
• 7:59
  Speaker 2: done building up to the collection.
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: And
• 8:02
  Speaker 2: where can we catch that? At Tanjong Pagar District Park. Nice.
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: And if people want to follow you on social media
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: or follow your journey, you want to give us your
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: social handle, even though he and social media. Yeah, but
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: you know what, the talent that he has deserves to
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: be celebrated. So please tell us about your social. Get
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: a team, yeah.
• 8:19
  Speaker 2: My social, I use Instagram. I have a TikTok account,
• 8:23
  Speaker 2: so Little Red Book, but I'm not very active on that.
• 8:26
  Speaker 2: No
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: worries about it. Time to
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: engage someone to do it.
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: OK, thank you so much for being here with us.
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: Is there anything else you want to share with, you know,
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: your supporters or people that just discovered you before we
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: let you go?
• 8:38
  Speaker 2: I grew up with 8 987.
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: Wow. 987. I mean that are probably the in the
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: industry right now if you ask me. They might still
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: be around. We're still here. Yeah. Thank you so much
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: for joining us.