ARE you familiar with the “This is a what?” parlour game? A group sits in a circle and the person who starts the game picks up any object (for example, a pen) and passes it on to the person to her right. The giver says, “This is a pen,” and the recipients says, “A what?” and the giver again explains, “A pen.”

This routine repeats two more times and then the recipient, exclaims, “Oh, a pen,” then passes on the pen to the next person to his right. At the same time, the original giver picks up a new object and passes it again to the person to his right. Pretty soon, the entire group in the circle is passing objects left and right.

The point of the game — and this lengthy introduction — is not only to test the player’s memory, but also to focus the spotlight on ordinary, everday objects: a pen, a key, a chair, a table…Which brings us to real point of this story: the art exhibit in Singapore by international artist Rene Robles, entitled The Art Of Making Visible.

Mr. Robles’s art is formally called “Assertionism,” but to put it everyday terms, it’s all about giving life to mundane objects found in everyday living, such as chairs and tables. “These are the neglected objects,” he told 88DB.com last Saturday — we were the first to see his new works in Singapore.

“These are things that we take for granted, and I want to paint them to make people aware of them, that they exist.”

In other words, like Andy Warhol (whose recent A Is For Andy exhibit we reviewed in this site as well), Mr. Robles is giving ordinary, everday, lifeless objects their 15 minutes of fame.

How noble!

Mr. Robles was born in the Philippine province of Batangas in 1950 and started exhibiting as a Fine Arts student at the University of Santo Tomas in the Philippines. He has won awards both in his home country and internationally and has had over 62 solo exhibitions in different parts of the world.

In the mid-90s, he founded “Assertionism” which he described as “art that has power to assert, transform & transcend.” Assertionism has followings in parts of Europe, America and Asia. His collectors, he says, include King Fadh of Saudi Arabia, King Bhumibol of Thailand, King Juan Carlos of Spain and Bill Clinton.

According to Momentous Arts, where Robles is holding his exhibit, the allure of his art “lies in his ability to transform a commonplace scene into a thing of beauty. He has demonstrated how mundane objects with no beauty like chairs, tables, fans and light bulbs can be transformed by a poetic spirit that employs colour harmoniously into part of a beautiful composition.” 

But is it worth investing on? The pieces he has in this exhibit cost between $3,400 amd $4,300. There are also limited edition prints for $500.

“His concept and the strong identity in his works matched by his skills and unconventional perspective of things are firmly stamped in his art,” says Momentous owner Allan Teo.

To see is to believe.

The Art Of Making Visible runs until 20 March
Momentous Arts
20, Lor Telok (off Boat Quay)
Singapore 049032
Telephone no. 6535 3961