Phunk Studio
Encyclopedia
Phunk Studio is a Singapore
-based contemporary art
and design
collective formed by four Singaporean
artists/designers: Alvin Tan, Melvin Chee, Jackson Tan, and William Chan.
Described as "The Champion of Singapore's Graphic Scene", Phunk began its life in 1994 when its members were fellow design students at LASALLE College of the Arts.
They have propagated a visual signature that seamlessly blends and reinterprets their diverse influences, such as traditional Chinese mythology
, craft, philosophy, and folklore, Hong Kong wuxia
, Japanese manga
and otaku
subculture
, Western popular culture
, art, and design movements, into a singular creative thought that reflects their multi-cultural identity, background, and environment. The concept of universality
in the age of modern globalization
is a constant theme in their works.
They constantly challenge the conventional notion and definition of the artist and the commercial design studio
by blurring the boundaries between both, mixing neo-pop
art ideology with postmodernist design sensibilities. Their cross-disciplinary approach is best described as "an aesthetic collective consciousness" focused on experimenting with new approaches to visual expressions. Their expansive scope of projects spans across art, design, publishing, fashion, music, film, and interactive media.
Phunk has collaborated and worked with international brands such as Nike, Nokia
, MTV
, Daimler Chrysler, Comme des Garçons
, Levi's
, and Tiger Beer. Their works are featured in many international publications and awarded in various design award shows. One of their artworks, titled Electricity, was cited in the book Graphic Design, A New History as "Instances of truly global graphic design." They were awarded "Designer of the Year" in 2007 at the Singapore President's Design Award, the nation's highest accolade, for their significant achievements and contributions to design.
They have exhibited and lectured extensively around the world. They represented Singapore at the Gwangju Biennale
2005 and the London Design Festival
2006. The Singapore History Museum hosted their 10-year retrospective exhibition, A Decade of Decadence, in 2005.
Singapore
Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...
-based contemporary art
Contemporary art
Contemporary art can be defined variously as art produced at this present point in time or art produced since World War II. The definition of the word contemporary would support the first view, but museums of contemporary art commonly define their collections as consisting of art produced...
and design
Design
Design as a noun informally refers to a plan or convention for the construction of an object or a system while “to design” refers to making this plan...
collective formed by four Singaporean
Singapore
Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...
artists/designers: Alvin Tan, Melvin Chee, Jackson Tan, and William Chan.
Described as "The Champion of Singapore's Graphic Scene", Phunk began its life in 1994 when its members were fellow design students at LASALLE College of the Arts.
Chinese mythology
Chinese mythology is a collection of cultural history, folktales, and religions that have been passed down in oral or written tradition. These include creation myths and legends and myths concerning the founding of Chinese culture and the Chinese state...
, craft, philosophy, and folklore, Hong Kong wuxia
Wuxia
Wuxia is a broad genre of Chinese fiction concerning the adventures of martial artists. Although wuxia is traditionally a form of literature, its popularity has caused it to spread to diverse art forms like Chinese opera, manhua , films, television series, and video games...
, Japanese manga
Manga
Manga is the Japanese word for "comics" and consists of comics and print cartoons . In the West, the term "manga" has been appropriated to refer specifically to comics created in Japan, or by Japanese authors, in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 19th...
and otaku
Otaku
is a Japanese term used to refer to people with obsessive interests, particularly anime, manga or video games.- Etymology :Otaku is derived from a Japanese term for another's house or family , which is also used as an honorific second-person pronoun...
subculture
Subculture
In sociology, anthropology and cultural studies, a subculture is a group of people with a culture which differentiates them from the larger culture to which they belong.- Definition :...
, Western popular culture
Popular culture
Popular culture is the totality of ideas, perspectives, attitudes, memes, images and other phenomena that are deemed preferred per an informal consensus within the mainstream of a given culture, especially Western culture of the early to mid 20th century and the emerging global mainstream of the...
, art, and design movements, into a singular creative thought that reflects their multi-cultural identity, background, and environment. The concept of universality
Universality (philosophy)
In philosophy, universalism is a doctrine or school claiming universal facts can be discovered and is therefore understood as being in opposition to relativism. In certain religions, universality is the quality ascribed to an entity whose existence is consistent throughout the universe...
in the age of modern globalization
Globalization
Globalization refers to the increasingly global relationships of culture, people and economic activity. Most often, it refers to economics: the global distribution of the production of goods and services, through reduction of barriers to international trade such as tariffs, export fees, and import...
is a constant theme in their works.
They constantly challenge the conventional notion and definition of the artist and the commercial design studio
Design studio
A Design Studio or Drawing Office is a workplace for Designers and Artisans engaged in conceiving, designing and developing new products or objects...
by blurring the boundaries between both, mixing neo-pop
Neo-pop
Neo-pop is a postmodern art movement of the 1980s. The term refers to artists influenced by pop art, such as Jeff Koons and Sam Havadtoy in the USA. In the 2000s the work of Takashi Murakami in Japan and in 2009 the Arts project Nicolas Lepaulmier in French has also been described as neo-pop...
art ideology with postmodernist design sensibilities. Their cross-disciplinary approach is best described as "an aesthetic collective consciousness" focused on experimenting with new approaches to visual expressions. Their expansive scope of projects spans across art, design, publishing, fashion, music, film, and interactive media.
Phunk has collaborated and worked with international brands such as Nike, Nokia
Nokia
Nokia Corporation is a Finnish multinational communications corporation that is headquartered in Keilaniemi, Espoo, a city neighbouring Finland's capital Helsinki...
, MTV
MTV
MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....
, Daimler Chrysler, Comme des Garçons
Comme des Garçons
Comme des Garçons, written コム・デ・ギャルソン in Japanese and French for "Like Boys," is a Japanese fashion label headed by Rei Kawakubo, who owns the company with her husband Adrian Joffe....
, Levi's
Levi Strauss & Co.
Levi Strauss & Co. is a privately held American clothing company known worldwide for its Levi's brand of denim jeans. It was founded in 1853 when Levi Strauss came from Buttenheim, Franconia, to San Francisco, California to open a west coast branch of his brothers' New York dry goods business...
, and Tiger Beer. Their works are featured in many international publications and awarded in various design award shows. One of their artworks, titled Electricity, was cited in the book Graphic Design, A New History as "Instances of truly global graphic design." They were awarded "Designer of the Year" in 2007 at the Singapore President's Design Award, the nation's highest accolade, for their significant achievements and contributions to design.
They have exhibited and lectured extensively around the world. They represented Singapore at the Gwangju Biennale
Gwangju Biennale
The Gwangju Biennale, which started in September 1995 in the city of Gwangju in the South Jeolla province of South Korea, was Asia's first contemporary art biennale. The purpose of Gwangju Biennale is globalization of art and it respect diversity rather than uniformity...
2005 and the London Design Festival
London Design Festival
The London Design Festival was established in 2003 as an annual event to celebrate and promote London as the creative capital of the world and gateway to the UK’s world class creative industries. The Festival acts as a platform for a large and diverse range of partner organisations drawn from...
2006. The Singapore History Museum hosted their 10-year retrospective exhibition, A Decade of Decadence, in 2005.