Breaking News
ITE Celebrates Organisational Excellence

Corporate Happenings
Our Distinguished Visitors

Overwhelming Response for New Nitec Courses

ITE Receives National Recognition for Excellent H.E.A.L.T.H. Programmes

Star Staff
…Her Zest for Learning

These Caring Lecturers Make the Difference

Our Graduates and Students
Shaping Space, Designing Dreams

Medal Dreams Come True…in Manila

ITE-Industry Partnership
Seeing Double

New Centre of Technology for Students to Learn Latest Automation
Know-How

College News
Eminent Neurosurgeon Meets ITE Nursing Students

Fine Floorball Talents of ITE

ITE College West (Dover Campus) Sweeps Top Prizes in Environmental Competition

All for Caring for the Elderly

‘Made in ITE’ TV Commercial

ITE Student Outrivals Asia-Pacific Entrants and Wins NTU Scholarship

by Mohd Jailani Nathan

At the age of five, he was already proudly showing off his brilliant Batman sketches to his kindergarten teachers. During his teens, his artistic flair landed him numerous awards, and he had the whole school gawking at his award-winning posters. Now, at 24, he became the toast of the nation when his creative designs surpassed entries from Asia-Pacific countries, and received affirmation from globally- acknowledged creative experts at the Creative Youth Exchange Competition held recently at Gallery Hotel.

Meet gifted artist Mohd Anwar Rafiee, a first-year Digital Media Design student of ITE College Central (Bedok Campus), who has never enrolled in any art institutions nor received formal training in the field. “My aptitude and never-ending love for art are reasons behind my proficiency, and have taken me to places where my limits are challenged. Digital Media at ITE is a natural course. I want to be challenged by a different medium having seen my creations taking shape on paper all this while,” Anwar beamed.

It was the right move for this former Madrasah (Muslim religious school) student. And for the ITE lecturers who nominated Anwar for the Creative Youth Exchange (CYX) Competition upon discovering his distinct talent, it was the right choice. Anwar breezed through with his creative submission and secured one of the placings in the competition finals.

Transforming Walls, Traversing Conventions
For six days last November, Anwar and 16 finalists from Australia, New Zealand, Thailand, Indonesia and Vietnam channeled their artistic energies into three-dimensional canvases – the guest rooms of Gallery Hotel. Guided by the theme 5 Walls::Defying Definitions, competitors had to breathe modern and unconventional insights into walls and empty spaces. Anwar recalled: “For this solo effort, I chose to have my room focusing on the human sensory organs with several gigantic characters painted on the walls. The fact that the competition coincided with the first day of Hari Raya did not make this maiden attempt any easier.”

But that did not stop him from coming up with an ingenious and vibrant room. Come on in and you would be met by a flaming red ‘tongue” that seemed to roll out of the wall. That was the bed if you must know! Formed around it was a headrest made of foam that was shaped to look like an upper lip. Anwar’s magical touch also transformed a window into a ‘radio set’, and the television in the corner, a ‘camera’. Careful scrutiny threw up more surprises - a wall clock doubled up as the character’s ‘wrist watch’ and a bedside table had been fashioned to become one of the character’s ‘ear rings’.

Singaporean Dreaming and His Ultimate Singaporean Dream
Anwar’s solo efforts so impressed the judges, they unanimously voted him into the next round - a team event. Here, the challenge heightened as competitors raced against time to transform a suite into a room that Singaporeans could proudly call their own. “Paired with fellow Singaporean Roy Pang, we thought up of possible icons that would best represent Singapore. We gave the suite a white theme, and had one of its walls adorned with a giant mural of a Singapore girl whose long flowing white robe was dotted with local icons and made to drape across the bed and floor. We called it Singaporean Dreaming. There’s a dream in each and every one of us,” enthused Anwar, who split the $10,000 cash prize with Roy.

While the extra cash did beef up his bank account a little, it was the $24,000 worth of scholarship offered by Nanyang Technological University’s School of Art, Design and Media, that was something to shout about. Excitedly, Anwar said: “Now THAT is my ultimate dream. It’s going to open new doors for me. But first, I have to work on getting a Diploma.”

Commented Mr Johnny Lau, Creative Director, Gallery Hotel: “Our youths have the unexplored and almost raw energy to come up with something different. From the hotel’s point of view, fresh and novel ideas are important to create a compelling experience for the guests. My take is that Anwar is the more creative one, and he has proven that for ITE students, there is really nothing beyond their reach.”

CYX was co-organised by The Gallery Hotel, Ministry of Information, Communications and the Arts and the Creative Industries of Singapore.