When pondering art, we often picture it on usual suspects like canvases, walls, or in recent times, the virtual world. But here’s one homegrown project that chose a slightly out-of-the-norm medium: T-shirts.
Pools Project is a collaborative project between local illustrator John Fan and Konstrukt Labs, a silkscreen company as well as owner of Open Door Store, offering a platform for local creatives to express themselves and display their art through the medium of T-shirts. “Pools is a collaborative project between me (John) and Konstrukt Labs and also the various artists we approach for each series,” John introduces the project. “It is essentially an excuse for local creatives to create a T-shirt for themselves and to share it publicly,” he adds.
When asked what sparked off the idea for Pools, he answers, “After exploring personal work alone for a year, I felt that it was a bit slow and I just felt an urgency for more things to be created locally.” He also added that the selection of T-shirts as the designated medium was “low-hanging fruit”. “It is easy enough to turnover. There is a large consumer demographic and low commitment from the artists,” he explains.
How the project works is that John collaborates with selected artists for each launch to showcase their works through a distinctive collection of T-shirts. “The artists have full agency over their artwork. We only give advice on scale, colours and printing methods. We try to make the process as fuss-free as possible for all parties involved,” he says.
In the spirit of keepings things breezy, the curation of artists is also not a complicated process – most of them are friends and people that he has gotten to know online. “I try to make the selection as diverse as possible – experience, following, genre, ethnicity, age, etc. More importantly, they must be actively showing work. I find it a good bridge for me to approach and learn about new artists. My friends would attest that I like to talk about work,” he says.
The project’s aim is also purely light-hearted and was never started to be a money-making project. As the name implies, it is a playful spin-off from Singapore Pools, capturing the spirit of people being a part of something for the sheer enjoyment of it. “The name is a riff on Singapore Pools (haha). It's an activity space that all Singaporeans participate in for fun, and if there's a chance to make some money, great!” he says.
Pools Project is only one of the projects that John juggles. He also runs Jug, a climbing-focused merchandise project, with his friend Jacky, as well as his personal platform. “Running several projects at one go stemmed from wanting to move faster, but now I feel that I'm a bit caught up and have little time to myself. I guess it's a lot about time allocation and discipline – both of which I'm poor at but I try to improve as I go,” he says.
Check out his next event happening on December 30: a Tie Dye x Silkscreen workshop in collaboration with local dye label Fassbender and Mellon Collie.
