Ceramic Art: In Between

Jakarta Contemporary Ceramic Biennale #1

By Syed Muhd Hafiz

The proclamation could not be more pronounced. More than just jumping on the Biennale bandwagon, there seems to be a genuine effort on the JCCB curators’ part to forward a specific dialogue. A discourse that has continued to perplex the contemporary art world: the presence of ceramics in contemporary art.

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Berita Harian II

The Surreal, The Contemporeal, The Cosmoreal

By Syed Muhd Hafiz

It was indeed a ‘curious’ event - an exhibition sharing the vernacular Malay press’s namesake. The audience could not be faulted if they were half-hoping to see the artists assembled, displaying batik works among other things that which were ‘supposed’ to hint of a certain ‘Malay-ness’. To add to the confusion, the exhibition opened with a symposium (within the white cube space, no less) featuring a mix of academics and artists talking on Malay Newspapers: Shifting Functions and Representations. Before most were even able to digest the whole scope of the exhibition, questions and comments were flying back and forth. Attendance was a full house. The stage was set for a long evening.

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Inventory

New Art from Southeast Asia

Till 25 Apr, Osage Gallery

Inventory: New Art from Southeast Asia will present recent works by eight of the region’s most significant artists, taking stock of the state of art production in the region.

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Masquerade

Works by Shiew Eng

By Usha Nathan

24 Apr - 22 May, Mulan Gallery

Shiew Eng’s paintings are composite images, nothing about them is incidental which is also why they impinge on the mind and refuse to exhaust themselves in a casual glance.

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Taking Charge of Change

At The Substation

By Chris Ong

After twenty years of being Singapore's first independent multi-disciplinary arts centre, The Substation is ready for a change, and the man in charge of the change is its recently appointed Artistic Director, Noor Effendy Ibrahim. Chris Ong talks with Effendy about his personal concerns regarding his leadership role and his upcoming plans for this pioneering arts centre.

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Extrapolation!

with artist Kelly Reedy

By Kelly Reedy

William Wegman (b.1943) is an American artist who is internationally known for his amusing photographs of his pet Weimaraner dogs. Originally he studied to be a painter, but over the years he began to make a lot of work using photography, video and mixed media collage. He often brings a sense of humor and even strangeness to his subjects, prompting his viewers to do a double take when looking at his creations!

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Creating Changes

Imagery and the unconscious mind

By Emylia Safian

In perhaps one of his most significant seminal works, Sigmund Freud (1856 - 1939) paved the way for us to see dreaming as the royal road to access our unconscious mind. Those unwanted emotions and wishes we conveniently brush away or repress because they are just too unbearable for our ego, do not just dissolve away. Our psychic life churns them into dreams, and the manifest content of our dreams is disguised and represented through symbols. 

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