BOMB SCARE AT A LOCAL ART SHOW OPENING

The Straits Times, Prime News, November 7 2009
Reported by Tak San Chang

BOMB SCARE AT A LOCAL ART SHOW OPENING
A bag with bomb-like object found in the art gallery.

A bag containing a metal cylindrical object with timer was found in an undisclosed commercial art gallery located in the MICA Building. The black sling bag was found by the female staff of the gallery on 5 November 2009, at 6.05pm, just before the exhibition opening of a renowned local painter. The female gallery staff recounts her harrowing experience: “I was then really busy with the preparation of the opening as the Guest of Honour will be arriving soon. When I first noticed the bag, I thought it was left at the corner by the event photographer. Then I hear a loud ticking from the bag. When the photographer told me the bag wasn’t his I grew suspicious. I was reminded of the public message about ‘suspicious article’ I hear on the MRT everyday. But I could not believe I am the one to be caught in such a situation… some more not on MRT but in an art gallery. When I opened the bag and saw the bomb I screamed.”

According to the Investigating Officer, Staff Sergeant Tony Lim, the Arms and Explosives Unit has confirmed the object as a homemade analogue device that would not cause serious injuries or fatalities. Lim also highlighted “During the test, we found that huge quantity of black and gold enamel paints were contained in the shell with the other chemicals that would undergo explosive decomposition. It seems this amateurish device was made to splatter and splash paint in an explosive manner than to harm anyone.”

From an expired student ID card found in the bag, the police have identified Samuel Chen, Chinese Singaporean, aged 21, as the owner of the black sling bag. Graduated from Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts in 2008, Chen is believed to be closely involved with the Arterr Orist, a cell group of the clandestine organization known as Black Baroque Interventionists. An ex-member of the organization, Clement Liang Jielun, aged 21, is currently helping the authorities to track down Chen who has been missing since.

The other items inside the bag include a sketch pad and a note book; books such as The Possessed by Dostoevsky and The Anthology of Black Baroque Poetry and Prose; some coins and miscellaneous receipts; stationary such as pencil pen and penknife and a can of Breda beer. The small sketchpad of figurative drawings and notebook of hardly legibly writings, contain comments on local contemporary art with repeated vehement criticism of the convenience of video art and Abstract Expressionism, the major American art movement from the mid 20th century. “Whenever I go to an opening of seemingly avant-garde art, or see the Abstract Expressionist drippings on canvas that has been repeated again and again for the last 50 years, and the kind of crowd at the opening, I feel nauseous and need to throw up. I think the loan shark runners execute time based paint dripping on my neighbour’s door better, with more intensity.”

In the notebook, besides detail notes, gathered from the internet, on how to make an explosive device, and list of exhibitions to sabotage during the exhibition opening, and local artists he hates – a few names were struck off the list. Strangely, the exhibition where the bomb was found is a figurative painting exhibition of an ex-social realist painter from the Equator Art Society, and was not on his exhibition or hate list.