I am writing this entry in my hotel room at Copenhagen, Denmark.
My “secret project” (which is not so secret anymore if you subscribed to my Twitter updates) has been taking such a toll on me that my head has expanded into the size of China. As the deadline to my project looms closer, I foresee many more sleepless nights and restless weekends ahead.
This workaholic streak in me is gonna continue at least for the next few months. But before I resume this marathon rush to the finishing line, I decided to take a week’s break away from the office, just to clear my head and keep myself happy by doing something I enjoy.
And there are not many things I enjoy more than travel, culture, arts, and beer. Put them all together, and we’ve got Tiger Translate.
This is one of the most unique arts events I have ever witnessed.
To put it simply, it’s an initiative by Tiger Beer where they bring in a bunch of young upstart Asian artists into an angmoh country, lock them up inside a room, call in a bunch of more established Western artists to join them, then give them an empty canvas to draw on and see what kinda funky stuff they come up with.
It is East-meets-West cultural exchange done artistically live, often times with creative, wild and unpredictable results.
Last year during the event in London, they painted the classic black London cab into a kickass Tiger machine.
More recently, they begun selling limited edition Tiger Beer bottles that come with special artistically-designed packaging, and these are all done by talents they discovered through Tiger Translate.
The theme for this year is ‘Change’. Five emerging artists from Asia they’re flying over include illustrators from Singapore and Mongolia, a multimedia designer from Thailand, a cartoonist from China, and a graphic designer also from Mongolia.
Together, they will be collaborating with Denmark’s top professional artists in illustration, graffiti arts and photography.
Denmark is a great location for this because it is home to some of the most creative and artistically-gifted people in the world. One of Copenhagen’s favourite sons wrote that famous childhood fairy story that was eventually picked up by Disney and made into a movie – The Little Mermaid.
Who knows what’s gonna happen, when you put a bit of Asian in Copenhagen?
Let’s hope they come up with better artwork than this.
Weather in Copenhagen: Perfect.