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Special Column: Singapore Biennale 2008 What to expect this year?
The press conference for the Singapore Biennale had a few surprises in store. After what seemed like a long, mysterious silence, the press conference finally cleared some of the fog by announcing the plans for the year’s event, the artists, venues and key associated programs. As the affair wound to a close, most if not all the invitees were left wondering! However, judging from what was known at the point of writing, what you could expect, though, at the Biennale this year, would be a select but spectacular affair.
It would be select not only in the number of artists chosen but also in terms of the locations; this year there are three main venues, the Old City Hall, South Beach and Marina Bay, all of which are within walking distance of each other. They will feature 50 artists from 36 different countries. Though the direction of the Biennale this year is to move away from what was done in 2006, a key reason for the selectivity could also be the reduced budget. This year’s Biennale has a budget of $5.5M which is lower than that for the previous one, which had a budget close to $8M. In light of this and higher costs this year, such as increased hotel rates, the team would be working under some monetary constraints. Low Kee Hong, the General Manager for the Biennale, confirmed the budget for the year and added that it would be much tighter this time around.
All the same, the curatorial team has an ambitious project in mind. Out of the 50-odd artworks, almost half will be new works. Many of these are site-specific and a few will be commissioned. When asked about this approach, one of the curators Joselina Cruz explained that it was actually much better to work with commissions. “Works that are loaned out often require very stringent conditions and specifications, such as humidity and temperature control, that would be hard to attain in a disused building such as the South Beach”, she said. Quite a few works have been planned for open and outdoor spaces, as well as a couple, or more, that are basically public interventions. The scale of many of these works is still in the planning stages and is, of course, subject to funding limitations.
The realisation of this grand vision is challenging as it is, not to mention the difficulties of visibility with the Grand Prix simultaneously in action, and the physical congestion of Marina Bay. Joselina remarked that the team hoped that the artworks would work together with the landscape instead. Some such works would perhaps include those by artists Deborah Kelly and Fujiko Nakaya. Whether or not this endeavour is successful and the artworks do offer a critical opportunity to rethink and ‘wonder’, remains to be seen. There sure is a lot to look forward to.
Another key event that will be held in conjunction with the Biennale is the ‘Showcase Singapore’, a ‘premium boutique art fair’ that will open on the same day as the Biennale itself. The highly exclusive showcase will be featuring 23 top-notch galleries from various parts of Asia, Europe and America. The location would be the ground floor of the old City Hall. The announcement of the fair sparked off many questions at the press conference. Parvathi Nair, a Singapore-based artist and art-writer, remarked that the embedding of the fair within the Biennale was puzzling. It is, in fact, a little problematic to hold the event at the same venue as the Biennale exhibition. We briefly discussed the concerns with Low Kee Hong, who elaborated that there was a need to address the market situation. By injecting it within the scene of the Biennale, it would be possible to rally discussion about it. Also, the fair will include a number of Singaporean artists, and this would be good opportunity for them to be exposed to local and international collectors, dealers and galleries. In addition, a series of talks are being planned that would address issues of collecting art and would also be educational. More details would be revealed later, he confirmed.
Replying to the question about the lack of representation of Singaporean galleries, he remarked that the fair was hoping to bring cutting-edge artists from around the world. And that the local galleries had not reached the same level of sophistication yet. Of course, the very idea of the fair raised a variety of other questions: What kind of critical discussion, first of all, is this event going to give rise to? Will the talks cater to the interests of collectors alone or will they help shed light on issues like the enigmatic workings of the ‘art market’? What is the imperative to hold it alongside the Biennale; wouldn’t the Singapore Art Show be a more suitable choice for housing such a fair? These and more will probably be answered once the event takes shape and more details are revealed at a later point in time.
Yet another surprise: there will be a section of the Biennale this year devoted to kids! The Kids’ Biennale would be ‘an integrated programme’ consisting of in-school curriculum, art competitions, a mass participation platform and a section within the Biennale. More updates and discussions on the Biennale will appear in the coming issues. If you have specific questions, do drop us a line. Written by Usha M. Nathan Letter from Thailand Dear readers, April may be the hottest time of the year in this region, but it has also been the quietest time for art in Thailand as many galleries closed over the Songkran period. The Songkran festival celebrates the traditional New Year in Thailand, and many use the opportunity to travel to the provinces or just spend time with family at home. The Bangkok streets became miraculously uncongested between April 12 and 16, transforming the familiar urban topography into a surreal experience. Those who braved the streets had to reckon with being splashed with buckets of water and smeared with powder – all part of the festivities.
However, by the end of April it became business as usual. On April 24, the swanky 100Tonson Gallery opened its doors to a new show titled ‘Beyond…’, displaying mixed media works by avant-garde Thai artist Kamin Lertchaiprasert. He explores his trademark subject of religious themes through 24 new pieces. The exhibition will be on display until June 15, 2008.
At the other end of the spectrum, though by no means in terms of the quality of work on display, was the young and hip Conference of Birds Gallery, which presented 8 films by Vietnamese artist Tran T. Kim-Trang. The exhibition titled ‘The Complete Blindness Series 1992 – 2006’ presented a collection of videos by the artist investigating the issue of blindness and its metaphors. Tran T. Kim-Trang has exhibited internationally, including at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. The younger generation of Bangkok art lovers, in particular, always looks forward to the opportunity to see her work. The exhibition will be on show until May 15, 2008.
In May and June the Thai art calendar starts to regain its full momentum once again with ‘The Month of Photography’, which is organised by the Alliance Française and showcases a substantial body of work by several prominent Thai photographers. The Thailand Art & Design Guide will be there to cover all these events and more. We are reaching our one year anniversary with the upcoming issue and judging by the success of our first year – no doubt connected to the growing art scene in Thailand overall – we can optimistically look forward to celebrating many more! I hope you will have the opportunity to make the short hop over from Singapore sometime soon to explore the developments for yourself, and when you do, let us be your guide. Yours truly,
Andreas Klempin
Chief Editor, Thailand Art & Design Guide Works of Tatiana Alieva  The artist Tatiana Alieva with her painting. Tatiana’s paintings embrace the world with a joy that resembles that of a child, and yet her works embody a mature feminine grace. Lavender blooms of French landscapes, lithe forms of Flamenco dancers, the sunny seaside of Singapore, the rich variety of tropical flowers, and the stylised, brilliantly coloured butterflies are all subjects she explores in her works. “My paintings are always very colourful, because they are about things that attract me, and they show how I feel,” she says. Tatiana was born in Baku, Azerbaijan. But she has traveled and lived in many different countries, including Thailand and New Zealand, before finally coming to Singapore, which has now become her second home. It has been nearly 16 years since she first came here, she tells us. Enrolling in LaSalle, she went on to pursue her childhood interest in painting and drawing. She has also studied art from well known artists in Baku, and later on in Moscow during her stay there.
The most striking aspect of Tatiana’s work is her use of colour and light. She explains how the colours and traditions of Asia affect and inspire her. Her stay in Thailand, she tells us, was an enriching experience as it was the first time she was living in an Asian city, one that proved to be very different from Europe. “Even a simple umbrella there was very colourful and would make me want to paint,” she exclaims. It is this sensitivity to colour, both in landscapes, and figure, life drawings, that arrests and conveys emotion in Tatiana’s works. Light also plays a big role in Tatiana’s works; in particular, this is seen in her renderings of the seaside scenes with vast expanses of the clear, tropical skies. According to the artist, she tries to portray the atmosphere around her. And, needless to say, the sun and the many hues of the city she lives in are not just a part of her work, but are ingrained in her sensibility and artistic language. Speaking of how she feels about her work wouldn’t change if she moved back to Moscow, Tatiana remarks, “I will still be painting Asia, because I feel it is inside of me now!” Tatiana is one of the artists' in residence at Gallery Nawei Pte Ltd.
Her solo exhibtion Colour Rendevouz will be on from 2nd May until 2nd June,
at Level 5, Vanda Ballroom, Marina Mandarin Hotel. Asian Intercultural Conference ‘08 Singapore will host the inaugural Asian Intercultural Conference 2008 from 28 May to 1 June in Emily Hill. Titled ‘Theatre Today: Seeking New Paradigms’, the conference is the first forum of its kind to provide a critical review of contemporary theatre and intercultural work in Asia. Organised by the Theatre Training and Research Programme (TTRP), in collaboration with the Theatre Studies Programme of the National University of Singapore (NUS), the Asian Intercultural Conference will give theatre practitioners and enthusiasts the rare opportunity of engaging with the master teachers of traditional Asian theatre forms like Noh, Beijing opera, Kutiyattam and Wayang Wong. Plus, some of the most respected scholars and practitioners of contemporary theatre from around the world will be featured as speakers, including Sardono W. Kusumo (Indonesia, Jakarta Institute of the Arts), Prof David Zinder (Israel, Tel Aviv University) and Prof Phillip B. Zarrilli (UK, University of Exeter).
The four-day conference aims to explore emerging paradigms in contemporary theatre by discussing how new ideas and new politics have transformed practices and shifted boundaries over the last two decades. It will serve as a platform for the exchange of ideas, through demonstrations, performances and showings, apart from conference papers and discussions, and will be informed primarily by the work and outcomes of TTRP.
The conference will have two keynote speakers – Stan Lai, Artistic Director of Taiwan’s Performance Workshop, and T. Sasitharan, Co-founder & Director of Singapore’s TTRP.
It is almost impossible not to recognise Stan Lai, the name that has pushed Chinese theatre into the limelight of the film industry and taken traditional Chinese theatre to another level altogether. He is widely recognised as the most influential playwright/theatre director in the Chinese world, and is also well known for his award winning films.
Just as Stan Lai has helped develop Chinese theatre in Taiwan, Singapore’s T. Sasitharan, a theatre veteran of over 30 years, has, together with the late Kuo Pao Kun, co-founded TTRP, a school that immerses its international group of actor-students in a unique training programme in contemporary theatre, based on a multicultural approach that incorporates traditional Asian theatre systems as well as contemporary methods.
“The gathering of the masters in traditional theatre forms with new up-and-coming theatre practitioners in this conference will enable in-depth discussion into issues of the evolving theatre scene,” said Sasitharan. He adds, “This is the first time that such a conference is being organised, and TTRP intends to make the Asian Intercultural Conference a bi-annual event.”
There are plans for a possible publication of the conference papers and critical reflections, in collaboration with the Theatre Studies Programme of NUS.
The Asian Intercultural Conference 2008 promises to be a groundbreaking event, with the participation of eminent delegates from Singapore and the region. For enquiries, please email aic2008@practice.org.sg or call TTRP at +65 6338 5133.
Cape of Good Hope Art Gallery The Beauty of Wan Nan  Summer. 60x73cm 2006
This exhibition, titled 'The Beauty of Wan Nan', features oil paintings by Fu Qiang, at the Cape of Good Hope Art Gallery. Professor Fu Qiang is a refined artist who works with the enduring medium of oil painting. He is also an art educator of considerable knowledge and understanding in the complex field. His artistic vocabulary possesses both depth and breadth. It is notable that he has developed an artistic conception which reflects his philosophy in the complex realm of artistic endeavour. As a painter, his forte is the art of realism characterised by modernity and forceful expressive brushwork. In his work, you might often find visual surprises. Professor Fu has an attachment to nature, responding to it emotionally. The hallmark of his artistry is his sophistication
Candid Complexities  Farhad Hussain. Acrylic on canvas. 58” x 58”.2008
Indigo Blue Art is proud to announce the launch of its new exhibition, Candid Complexities on May 8, 2008, featuring the works of two young Indian artists, Farhad Hussain and Vibha Galhotra.
The exhibition, Candid Complexities, explores the complexity of knowing and generating an expression within an individualistic syntax.
Both artists successfully document an under-lying “sinister-ism” of global city-life. Farhad‘s work explores the relation-ship between dwellers of the metropolis, whilst Vibha’s work mulls over the dwelling itself. Together they outline the new character of our global cities, focussing on identities of the individual, their relationships and inter-actions within the community, as well as the very identity of the city organism itself. Farhad captures the complexities of the single and whole relationship through a voyeuristic eye charged with neon colour, where he superimposes the idea of relationships within the cultural context of family, much like visual candy. On the other hand, Vibha candidly expresses it through her muted greys and blacks capturing the gloomy reality of the exploding cities at dawn and dusk. FARHAD HUSSAIN
A moment stolen from the happy neighbour, a scene of the satisfied family from across the road, Farhad’s canvases give the viewer an opportunity to become a voyeur. Stylistic intensification of the excitement of seen or imagined subject matter flows onto a momentous stop at the canvas. The much hidden questions about culture and its agonistic influence of the pretentious happy family face the onlooker, forcing him to question the smiling couples on the canvas.
Expression of Farhad’s reality through the process of the ‘comic’ starts with the imitation of the experienced or imagined. This translates into the ephemeral second of happiness and, with the neon colours, the satire starts. As the protagonist takes the stage, the surreally perfect surroundings, the actions and dynamics between the characters start narrating a parallel story. The unseen, the unobserved, the covered aspects of human nature in the cultural context, are added through an unreal perfection in the action of the actors. Finally it goes on to the evocation of a thought, about the dark, inaccessible part of human personality throwing the mind into a dream-like state, where the acceptance of the voyeur in all of us is not the negative but the normal. The ego is fed by the satisfaction of being normal and the alter ego by the knowledge of the dynamics beneath the smiles. VIBHA GALHOTRA
Vibha’s art is about “re-coding”, re-coding at many levels: between the artist and the artwork, where thought is de-coded into a representation, between the artwork and the material, where form is re-coded to sensory texture and perception, and finally of the “said” to the aesthete who observes the work, translating the entire process of re-coding syntax from the inception to the final formation.
For the artist Vibha Galhotra, the city is the inspiration. Time, space and consciousness tell a story about the global city through her art. The city, an entity whose growth and change represents not only the physical manifestation of the global, but also the mindset of the generation that is remodelling the city to create a different definition for life. The ever growing city, the construction cranes & the building material now form the new landscape for the citizen. The permanent presence of the sound of material being hauled in and the sound of the drill are the new wake up calls for every morning. Her art questions whether all of it is chosen by us or given to us.
The art stands by itself, physically de-attached from her, mocking a system made up of signs and symbols, yet representing her stand in the society where she lives.
Candid Complexities - May 8 to June 8, 2008
Indigo Blue Art, 37 Kreta Ayer Road Singapore, www.indigoblueart.com Rock Music Goes Naked  Lamentation (for Uncle Song). George Chua. Multi-media performance. The Esplanade. 2006.
Sound artist George Chua strips down to help us discover his latest sound installation at The Substation, Teenage Ancient. Sound art, though not a new concept in Singapore, is still at the fringe of the average punter’s understanding of art. And little wonder – a random search on the internet yields Wikipedia’s rather sweeping definition that sound art includes “a diverse group of art practices that considers wide notions of sounds, listening and hearing as its predominant focus”, and an arts centre in Korea says “the definition of sound art has been constantly questioned ever since sound art has entered the realm of contemporary art; but, there is no agreed definition on this matter.” So, where does that leave a sound artist trying to gain greater awareness and understanding of his or her art?
Enter: George Chua, one of Singapore’s pre-eminent sound artists, who actually makes a living by practising his craft full time. When asked to define sound art, his cryptic answer is “beyond music and between categories”. George himself has a wide range of experiences to draw upon – he began his career as a performer in dance and theatre, working with the likes of Zai Kuning, spell#7 and Theatreworks, among others. For his music, he uses his laptop as his main composition and performance instrument, but also works with other electronic and ethnic instruments, and composes music for theatre and film besides having released an album under the pseudonym “My Third Ear”.
Notwithstanding his cryptic definition, George continues to create sound art. In his latest work, Teenage Ancient, George taps into the primal energy behind rock music, and strips away the embellishments that come with it that have nothing to do with the music at all – the performers with outlandish outfits and theatrics on stage, the off-stage shenanigans taking up tabloid column inches and the pressure to produce radio-friendly tunes that last no longer than four minutes. George channels his earliest memories of immersive listening experiences with My Bloody Valentine, Jesus and Mary Chain and Velvet Underground, and uses these recollections to find the “wall of noise” behind the melodies. It might seem that George is taking a minimalist approach to rock music but, in his mind, the wall of noise or drone is actually the secret history behind rock music, and is what Teenage Ancient is all about.
But how does one strip music bare? George pinpoints The Kingsmen’s “Louie Louie” which demonstrates how three chords can be repeated ad nauseam without sounding repetitive. Similarly, Question Mark & The Mysterians’ “96 Tears” features an organ lead consisting of cyclical notes that repeat over and over. It is examples like these that he draws on to create the minimalist, droning soundtrack that is Teenage Ancient. The work will be piped in from four speakers diffusing the sound from four different channels into the space of The Substation Gallery. George also hopes to exhibit an installation of vinyl records as part of the work.
For followers of George’s work, Teenage Ancient is set to be somewhat different from some of his previous work such as ControlRoomLiveUnit, which was performed live at the Esplanade Theatre Studio, and featured a real magician, espionage, murder and a Manic Street Preachers fan club. A live show is very different from a sound art installation, but Teenage Ancient may just prove to be no less intriguing. “It’s an immersive experience of sonic possibilities where listeners will encounter tonal colours and shapes within a wall of sound. It is not an experience for those with a short attention span; it’s more for the inner space cadet”, says George.
So turn on, tune in and space out, and discover the wondrous subtleties of rock music as you’ve possibly never heard them before. Teenage Ancient will be open to the public from 27th April to 7th May, at The Substation Gallery. Southeast Asian contemporary art: A collector’s perspective  Noon Nom. Pinaree Sanpitak. Organza, synthetic fiber
Interview with Iola Lenzi
The Singapore based French couple, Jean-Louis Morisot and his wife, curator and critic Iola Lenzi, have been collecting Southeast Asian contemporary art for more than a decade. Their collection contains some of the seminal socio-political, critical and conceptual artworks of artists such as Sutee Kunavichayanont, Arahmaiani, Natee Utarit, Heri Dono, Tang Da Wu, to name a few. They have also set up a private museum and residency space in France called the Lenzi-Morisot Foundation. We met with Iola Lenzi to find out more about this collection and discuss some of her ideas and visions. Is this the first time that anyone from the media has approached you regarding the work of the Foundation?
Yes, this is the first time. The foundation is pretty young though, about a year old.
So what is the foundation involved in?
We own a big space, Chateau de la Roche Jacquelin, a house in the French countryside, where we welcome artists for summer residencies. We do envisage broadening the project, i.e. having several people coming and using the space in the summer, such as art curators, and writers even.
As for the artists, they can do whatever they like. If they want to spend the summer networking with dealers around Europe, they can do that. They can do research on French culture or become aquatinted with French art and visit museums. Or, they can work on projects they fancy. We provide material and logistical support.
It is a very ‘free’ residency, in the sense of time; we invite artists to spend any length of time up to 3 months as part of the residency. The environment is designed to be a very open space both physically and also at an intellectual level.
Last year, the artist Tawatchai Puntusawasdi produced a single-installation sculpture during his stay there. Are you collecting and exhibiting contemporary art in the space?
One of the reasons we acquired this house was to set up a private museum of our Southeast Asian contemporary collection. We do exhibit the works from our collection and visitors are welcome to come and view it by appointment.
We like to think of ourselves as pioneers, in the sense that we try to acquire younger artists whom we believe in. It is based purely on our own understanding of Southeast Asian art. The collection is quite large, because the artists were very young and not so well-known at the time we began collecting their works, and their prices were very affordable then. Also, being a curator and writer, a lot of the time, artists invite me to write for catalogues. In lieu of the money payment, they give me a work. This is one of the ways in which the collection has grown over the years.
Some of the artists are now the pick of the industry. Natee Utarit is a good example, whose works we started collecting over a decade ago. But, for us, a collection is far more than just putting things on the wall. It is about documenting a very specific period of time. We have never sold anything in our collection and have acquired each work pretty much directly from the artist. How long have you been collecting?
Since we arrived in Singapore, which was in the spring of 1994. We started to explore the region at that time and loved what we saw. A lot of the non-commercial art, and non-mainstream art was full of the times and commented on what was going on. We found it was a lot more stimulating that European art which, in our view, has been vacuous for several decades. What interests you about Southeast Asian contemporary art?
We see Southeast Asia as a place that is evolving very rapidly now, and where many new ideas are coming into play in, both, society and politics. We see art as a manifestation of these ideas. For us, art is far beyond decorative; we do not collect aesthetic art, we collect ‘idea art’.
Also, in Southeast Asia, there is a plurality of vision because of the tendency of looking in and looking out at the same time, which arises from the fact that, here, there exist hybrids of many cultures. When you say contemporary art, what are referring to? There are many, oftentimes competing definitions of the term.
To us, ‘contemporary’ in Southeast Asian art is something personal to the artist and the context. For example, Vasan’s style is often expressionist and some aspects of his work go back to German Expressionism in the early 20th century. But, since what he is expressing is very much related to contemporary Thailand, I would call him a contemporary artist, even though on a purely formal level, his style is not always contemporary in the conventional sense. As an art collector and writer living and working in Singapore, what is your perception of Singaporean art?
I think we have to remember that Singapore is a very young country, and it is also much smaller compared to the other Southeast Asian countries. It is important to remember the contextual differences when comparing Singapore art with the art in the region. Right now a lot of young artists, especially performance artists, are doing exciting new things in Singapore. I see perfor-mance art in Singapore as strong and at the forefront of its genre in Southeast Asia.
Written by Usha M. Nathan A good chunk of the Lenzi-Morisot collection - an impressive array of works by as many as 22 artists - will be featured in the upcoming showcase Beasts, Breasts & Beauty, at the SG Private Banking Gallery at Alliance Française de Singapour. The show is open to the public between 6–29 May 2008
Giacometti’s Gaze 
Known for his unique vision of the human figure, Alberto Giacometti (1901 – 1966) has often been cited to redefine the boundaries of sculptural practice in European art history. Curator Michelle Ho gives an introduction of the artist and his ambition.
Born in 1901, Giacometti came from a family of artists. His father Giovanni Giacometti (1868-1933) had received considerable acclaim as a Post-Impressionist artist, and Giacometti’s brother Diego (1902-1985) was also an artist. The early years of Giacometti’s artistic practice saw him working on sculpture, drawing and painting simultaneously, and towards the 1930s, embarking on an experimental phase. These influences which included primitive art—African art was introduced to Paris in around 1907— were reflected in his early figurative works. The constructivist geometry of Cubism also had significant impact on Giacometti’s sculptures and drawings, where natural forms were applied with a methodological structure of geometric shapes. Notable sculptures, which he produced in Cubist style, were created in the period from 1925 to 1935 along with his other Surrealist compositions, the movement which he had been part of during the years of avant-garde experimentations. It was after his break with the Surrealist group, in around 1937, that Giacometti began on the journey of redefining his art. He became motivated by a paradigmatic shift in aesthetic representations to establish a new visual language that could grasp a greater sense of not just reality, but reality unfolding.
Giacometti’s representation of people and places began to reveal how human experiences were bound to time and its transience. Such spatio-temporal relations that govern lived experiences reveal that no sooner is an encounter witnessed; it becomes part of remembrance and forgetting. It is this Sisyphean task, in which Giacometti was committed to capture the conditions of ‘an encounter witnessed’, which continued to have an impact on the volume and scale of his sculptures. Large and small are relative values in Giacometti’s sculpture, signifying no more and no less than the positioning in space of perceived objects, which attain a significant appearance only at varying distances. In Giacometti’s terms, sculpture became qualified not by its reality, but its appeared reality.
Seeing is believing. For many, it is also believing within the course of living that accords, to a certain extent, a meaning for human existence. But beyond the observable realities of the everyday, lived experience also tells us that seeing is not quite believing. Optical and perceptual differences which colour our cognitive processes show that reality is never a resolute entity, much less a collective truism – one can, at most, be certain of one’s own reality at a given moment in time. The eyes fail to capture in entirety the reality of all appearance and phenomena, which the moods and moments of felt experiences beneath the seen, concur with. Does, then, the act of observing reality alter the reality that is being observed? What then, can the perceived or the imagined, tell us about the experience of things, and how do they reveal the relationship that our consciousness shares with our existence?
It is these questions, and the contradictions between realities as witnessed, experienced and represented, which prompted Alberto Giacometti through his entire career, as he worked prolifically on his drawings, paintings and sculptures to manifest the problematics of subject-object encounters in his art-making. In spite of the different stylistic approaches which have been documented in his work at various stages of his life, Giacometti was committed throughout his career to the single and specific endeavour – art that would illustrate the multifarious realities of life. Much more than this, he was driven by the quest to render an authentic reproduction of the act of seeing as subjected to spatio-temporal relations and subjective viewing. Borrowing the words of Reinold Hohl, the provocative power of Giacometti’s image of man in the 20th century of art lies in its message to mankind, “remind(ing) the spectator that he was once a subject.”
Seeing. Feeling. Being: Alberto Giacometti at the Singapore Art Museum will showcase drawings, sculptures and selected works from Giacometti’s Paris Sans Fin lithographs, alongside a selection of photographs of the artist at work by Ernst Scheidegger, eminent Swiss photographer and friend of Giacometti. The exhibition will be open from 1 May – 15 June 2008. Special Report Wired from Delhi  Mehr Javed (Pakistan) performing in Anant Art Gallery, New Delhi. 27 March 2008
Try if you can: imagine and juxtapose Steven Cohen, a white Jewish South African and extreme drag-queen alongside Da Modus!, a Swiss street theatre/dance ensemble performing in luminous green overalls and add Hassan Khan, an Egyptian situationist and digital sound and image artist. Then, sandwich them between an Indian stage actor and Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts (London) alumnus Rehan Engineer; Maya Krishna Rao, a veteran theatre and dance practitioner who utilises both Kathakali and stand-up comedy; and Sarnath Banerjee, an artist convert, former biochemistry major who now has a Masters in Image and Communication from Goldsmith’s College (London) and two graphic novels published by Penguin India under his belt. Welcome to Khoj LIVE 08, India’s first international performance art festival!
I am sure you would forgive me, and be quite empathetic if I say that in the beginning, I was quite skeptical of this curatorial re-mix of a performance art event. Having been the co-organiser and director of a similar event in Singapore (Future of Imagination 3 & 4) and also a ‘performer’, I decided that it was best to surrender my doubts and celebrate the fortune of being amongst the thirty-three artists invited to the festival. Besides, I was on page 52 of Khoj’s impressively designed festival booklet, situated as the lone ‘critic-in-residence’. In other words, I could post ‘official complaints’ later if I so desired. But what is a critic-in-residence, you ask? I was advised that my principal responsibility was to attend and observe as much (if not all) of the festival proceedings as I could (including several ad-hoc presentations, forums and symposiums) and to deliver an essay for a post-festival publication; mind you, I have never really been known as a writer.
Organised and curated by stalwarts of Khoj International Artists’ Association as part of their tenth year anniversary celebrations, Khoj LIVE 08 took place from 25 to 30 March 2008 at six different performance venues in the city of New Delhi. Along with performances that typically began in the evenings, there were also daily daytime presentations and discussions led by associates of LIVE Arts development agency from the UK. All these took place in nine different venues – the Khoj Studios, the National School of Drama, Jawaharlal Nehru University, commercial galleries Palette Art Gallery, Gallery Espace, Anant Art Centre and Vadehra Art Gallery, as well as diplomatic institutions - Alliance Francaise and Goethe-Institut, Max Mueller Bhavan. I have to mention here that I was utterly impressed with the support from the partner venues, in particular the commercial galleries. Three of these galleries emptied their walls and gave full-on logistical and hospitality support for the evenings when performances took place, for both artists and audience each time. Alliance Francaise and Goethe-Institut were no less gracious. The Alliance was turned into the official festival hub where you could easily find some of the festival artists hanging out, daily screenings of performance videos and information on day-to-day festival updates and proceedings. Meanwhile, Goethe-Institut took on the closing night’s revue.
Nikhil Chopra, a Mumbai-based artist who returned to India in 2005 after several years of studying and living in America, opened the festival at Khoj Studios. Performing from one of the ‘cubes’ at Khoj Studios, Nikhil was decked in an outfit prototypical of a respectable Victorian gentleman. As I climbed off what I suspected was either a table or a plinth for a better view over an unusually maddening crowd, Nikhil stormed out of the room with a large piece of folded brown paper tucked under his arm. I rushed and followed in his tracks, moving quickly outside Khoj Studios, onto the street and into slim winding alleys sandwiched by local residences. His rushed walk led us to an empty Mughal edifice, remnants of what used to be a mosque; its interiors were filled with pillars, dark and crypt-like, housing bats. Nikhil walked through it with urgency, stormed out once again, this time onto the side of a main road, eventually halting on the roof of another Mughal architectural relic. He unfolded and laid down the large piece of brown paper onto the roof floor; the paper, put together by masking tapes was about five metres long and two metres wide. He took off his suit and began drawing on the paper. After about an hour or so, the charcoal drawing, made in the background of the setting sun and the muezzin’s call for Maghrib prayers, was of a landscape, a panoramic view of the one we were at. I was told that we were actually standing on a retentive wall of a Mughal dam, below us to the left was the noisy and perilously busy road; next to it, a large sparkling ‘globalised’ shopping mall; to our right, gigantic trucks were driving in and out, filling earth and dust into what used to be the gorge and, further forward, a dwelling cluster, an old neighbourhood.
Nikhil left, still in performance mode, and so did I, heading back to the Khoj Studios. Arriving at the cramped street outside the studio, the mood was akin to that of a religious procession. Steven Cohen was in drag, walking against Nikhil’s direction into an adjacent Khoj studio building. J C Lanquentin, a French scenographic artist, whose artistic engagements find themselves frequently embedded within communities in the African continent, was jamming the street with an eager mob of incidental audience twenty metres away via an interactive, video based work on the issue of home and relocations. The police later disrupted J C’s work, as the amazing responses were apparently building hazards of various kinds.
Well, by now, you could probably begin to better imagine the rest of the days of the festival, because within this limited space, I (and the three hundred over audiences who witnessed each night of the festival) am resigned to leaving you hanging.
As an artist, curator and witness to several other, better-established Southeast Asian performance art festivals, the Khoj experience has left me ‘wired’! I dare say that Khoj LIVE 08 is a promise, and a premise from which performance art, although without a strong contemporary history in India, is about to change its face.
I shall leave you with an economic parable, which I think translates just as well for arts and culture. “At the birth of Christ, India made up a third of the global economy, China more than a quarter. History, it seems, is on China and India’s side. Their current rise is mainly just the return of the status quo.” 1
Written by Khairuddin Hori
All pictures © 2008, Khairuddin Hori 1 David Smith, The Return of History, The Dragon and the Elephant, China, India and the New World Order, London:Profile Books Ltd, 2007, p.
Art Around A Heartfelt Gift…  Andy’s Souvenir “In this work Andy's Venice Souvenir, I see a relationship of how we are domesticating, acclimatising, and transforming our pets to be part of the family. Sometimes we see our home as a shrine, or sometimes, the home is a temple that houses our beliefs, objects and traces of our travels and experiences. Andy's Souvenir is therefore a reflection of ourselves, like when we place photographs of dear ones, souvenirs of our travel, statues of worship, auspicious objects.” - Vincent Leow, Artist
This work is part of the series Andy’s Pranks that was commissioned for the Singapore Pavilion at the 52nd Venice Biennale, and for the exhibition at Xin Beijing Gallery in 2007. The man-dog composite figure is not new to the artist, Vincent Leow, as the image first appeared in his paintings in the early 1990s. However, it is the first time that it is realised as a sculpture, and when it was shown in Venice, the work was entitled Andy’s Wonderland.
Andy’s Souvenir came about when the artist was invited to participate in a group exhibition DomestiCITY, which featured 7 other Singapore artists. DomestiCITY was part of an international showing under the banner of City_Net Asia 2007, organised by the Seoul Museum of Art, Korea. In placing the sculpture onto a gondola structure, the artist created a new setting for the work to be seen within the exhibition’s context and to make reference to its inaugural presence in Venice. He has also touched on the complex relationships that we have with our pets. Keeping a pet is an activity that seems to have taken on an exponential growth with the rate of urbanisation. Singapore is not an exception. Borrowing from Lord Byron, the English Romantic poet, the quotation which was inscribed on the tombstone of his beloved dog, is what a pet owner can possibly see in their animals: "Beauty without vanity, strength without insolence, courage without ferocity, and all the virtues of man without his vices."
Tales beneath the façade The Art of Xiao Hong  Intellectual Youth 170x150cm , Oil on Canvas Confronting the works of Xiao Hong, it is hard to miss the painstaking detail that harks back to the craftsmanship of mural art. While the giant faces draw us in, it is their fragments of narratives that hold our attention. And it is not the ghostly faces but these little fragments that continue to haunt us. Born in Inner Mongolia in 1960, Xiao Hong received his training in oil painting art from the Inner Mongolia Normal University and realistic painting from the Luxun Academy of Art. Currently, the artist lives and works in Beijing and Hohhot. His most recent artworks, from the Intelligent Youth series, were showcased in the exhibition ‘Mask’ at Linda Gallery between the 8th and 23rd of March.
Xiao Hong has always worked with relatively large formats and detailed imagery. His style draws its influence from the Dunhuang literature and arts, which he confesses to having been attached to for more than ten years. His earliest works were inspired by the rural subjects of Dunhuang frescos. These frescos, found in the caves of Mogao Grottoes in Dunhuang City, are regarded as some of the finest examples of Buddhist art. The narratives tropes, such as living practices in rural China, Buddhist images, as well as the formal aspects of the Dunhuang frescos, continue to appear in Xiao Hong’s current works. This enduring influence is combined with images of contemporary men and women and their lifestyles, motifs of Chinese paper cutting, scenes of political protests, and more. All these are embedded in the translucent faces of Chinese youth. The versatile form and elements of mural art are hence appropriated and re-rendered for conveying the present day socio-cultural experience in China.
The depictions of this experience may appear simplistic in its direct transcription of history: parts of it pasted onto the face or façade of the nation as it were. On the one hand, the random juxtaposition of various images renders any linear and progressive reading of history problematic but, on the other hand, the images are also without context; they are just floating fragments. It is more fruitful, perhaps, to see these fragments as marks on the psyche of a generation. These paintings are then to be seen as an artist’s attempt to grasp the contemporary social milieu.
This series also marks a stylistic shift in the work of Xiao Hong. With this series, the artist has moved away from grey tones, which were reminiscent of historical murals, and has begun to employ rich hues of pink, red, blue and green. These colours are not realistic but are, instead, evocative of a volatile, pulsating national climate in contemporary China. The artist had begun the series in the year 2003 and, gradually, the specificity of the face has vanished, to foreground the embedded narratives. The eyeballs have become whiter, non-expressive and the face has become more mono-chromatic, with lips, eyes, and eyebrows all painted in shades of the same colour. The façade is not important, the artist wishes to convey.
Written by Usha M. Nathan Pop – Spring Party ‘08 @ Singapore Art Museum  The courtyard of the Singapore Art Museum Much has been said about the nonchalant attitude of Singaporeans towards their national museums. It’s not hard to see why, as the mental image of a museum usually conjures up dreary artefacts and paintings on sterile halls, which in other words spell B-O-R-I-N-G. But if the Pop – Spring Party ’08 held last month was anything to go by, Singaporeans should put aside their reservations and get ready to visit the next exhibition held at a museum!
Presented by the Singapore Art Museum (SAM) and Zouk (yes, our world-renowned club!), Pop was held on 15 March 2008 in conjunction with the museum’s then ongoing exhibition Primary Colours: Feng Zhengjie, which showcased 27 works by the renowned Chinese contemporary artist. Feng has often been described as a trenchant observer of society who remains ambivalently fascinated by pop culture.
The party was targeted towards audiences in the 18 to 35 year age bracket, thus the unorthodox ‘tactic’. Audience development has always been a challenge for the various national museums in Singapore, and with current distractions like the movies, electronic gaming, clubbing and shopping, museum-going has often suffered, being perceived as the least attractive activity for one to consider.
When asked whether it was possible to convert non-museum going youths to museum-going ones, Julian Chua, Manager of Programmes at SAM said it is not an impossible task, “We need to market the profile of Museums to the heartlanders and to the youth, and make the museum a must-see and a must-go-to place (like the zoo). More importantly, we have to make it approachable for them and offer associated suitable public programmes for them to attend, thus offering various entry points into the exhibition contents.”
And, SAM certainly witnessed a turnout during the party! Over 3000 people passed through the gates to witness an eclectic mix of music, fashion and the arts. Renowned Zouk DJ Byden, dubbed one of the best house DJs in Asia, provided the beats and visual jockeying group, Achtung! Achtung! set the mood for the night. Also, Singapore’s very own Electrico rocked the house down with one of their energetic sets.
While enjoying the free beer sponsored by Asia Pacific Breweries (Archipelago) and nibbling on party food like candy floss, ice cream and sweets, the crowd also got acquainted with M-LAB, the first and only multi-label fashion store at The Central, showcasing their ONTOUR SS08 collections from the Netherlands.
Certainly it was an electrifying night, with SAM probably gaining many new ‘converts’. So don’t hesitate to drop by the national museums, for they just might offer more than the usual fare of artefacts and paintings!
Written by Syed Muhd Hafi Work/Live artspaces: Artist studios of Kelly Reedy & Marisa Keller 
On a leisurely Sunday afternoon I took a walk down Portsdown Road and over to Wessex Estate. The rumble of the city died as I walked further along the winding, narrow roads lined by some of the quaintest black and white apartments on the island. Many an actor, artist and teacher has found a home here. Kelly Reedy and Marisa Keller were two of the first artists to settle in Wessex. Today they are holding an open house for those interested to stop by, observe and perhaps, also partake of the delectable ambience. Stepping into the airy, sunlit studio of Marisa Keller, it was hard to believe that its limited confines had all the equipment that makes her entirely self-sufficient as a print maker.
She also conducts her courses in non-toxic printmaking and art, in the space. Showing her visitors around her small set-up, she explains how she had put together the exposure unit using a powerful light bulb and simple fixtures that connected the rubber blanket in the vaccum frame to a household vacuum cleaner. She also built herself a set-up for carrying out airbrush techniques in a basic wooden cabinet. Various print-making tools, a large format inkjet printer and an etching press completed the ensemble. This did not happen over-night, she adds as an explanation, a lot of these have been learnt along the way. This is now Marisa’s own little world, where she has the full freedom to create and express with a wide range of techniques and methods.
We begin by talking about her earliest encounters with art. While she graduated with a degree in painting, Marisa had always been interested in printmaking one way or another. She had taken her first etching course when she was16 years old! She finished her Masters in Fine Art more recently, with a focus on printmaking.
Over the years, Marisa has continually explored the broad theme of nature, which remains predominant in her work. Though in the initial years she was concentrating on water based environments- an indelible influence of her home country the Netherlands - increasingly the underpinnings of human-nature relationships begin to emerge as a thematic in her works. For instance, in her most recent solo-exhibition held at FOST Gallery last year, she presented a series of works on paper that explored the particular ways in which nature is transformed in this relationship. It begins as an ‘Oasis’-a pristine world and then comes ‘Rising Water’, proceeding to ‘Nightfall’ and, finally, ‘Dry Earth’. The narrative is hard to miss, as indicated in the titles of the works, but individually the images are resonant with beauty. The two images called ‘Rising Water’ are particularly telling and suggestive, yet muted.
This theme will be more direct and outspoken in her newer works, she assures us. “I am looking to express something about landscapes in a more political way.” Personally, she takes it as a challenge to create something that is aesthetically pleasing but one that still has ‘a dark undertone’ beneath. Speaking of this growing inclination to work with landscapes beyond observation, Marisa tells us that though she sees herself as a landscape artist, in a sort of Dutch tradition, she has gradually begun working with more and more layered images. But does the intended message come across in a fleeting glance? “I am a firm believer in the fact that art touches everyone at different levels. There is always something left behind, a mark.” she replies.
I wish Marisa luck with her upcoming show, which is still in discussion as of now, and proceed to Kelly’s studio located in the very next block; both the artists will be coming together to do a group exhibition in 2009, along with another artist, Julia Roberts, who also has a studio in Wessex. It was interesting to note how both Marisa and Kelly had each individually imbibed part of the local context into their art. While Marisa’s works embrace the tropical landscapes and their unique attributes, Kelly’s work engages with symbolism, ritual and myth in Asian cultures.
After strolling through the spacious studio where Kelly often holds art classes for children and adults, we proceed to look through her artworks produced over ten years of living in Singapore. She goes through them chronologically, delicately picking out her early collages and prints, many of which have been created on unique handmade papers. She tells us that handmade paper immediately caught her eye when she moved to Asia. The first of her encounters was at a local wet market where she found bundles of Taoist ceremonial paper. These gold and silver-leafed papers appear in her works from then on for close to a decade. Over time, other types of papers from Nepal, China, India and Japan found their way into her work as well. The discovery of hand-made paper also led her to dig into some of the Asian philosophies, religious rituals and symbolisms, folk art practices in these places. The gods and goddesses of Taoism, Hinduism, and Buddhism, aide memoire prayer papers from India, even Chinese folk narratives, and patterns in folk arts such as paper-cutting, block prints from Pakistan, India and Nepal, all appear in her busy collages. These she proceeded to inject with personal meaning by incorporating the poems of T.S. Eliot and Kabir, as well as iconographic images from European Medieval and Renaissance art. The results are rich tapestries that bring you close to ritual traditions and world myths in a personal, affecting manner.
This preoccupation with cultural symbolism is not new to Kelly. She recalls her fascination with the ‘stylized flattened image’ packed with meanings as it appears in Byzantine art, back when she first began to study art in the USA. This interest was further developed when she continued her studies in Paris immediately after completing her Bachelors. Her own work from the time reflects a strong use of colour and a subject matter that was infused with images inspired by the art of the Middle Ages. She has returned to some of these inspirations in her more recent works that combine imagery derived from her stay in Europe and Asia and her own life experiences. Of late, she has been working with the concept of ‘the three graces’. Once again, these symbols become personalised, resonating with meaning and significance that is distinctly individual. The future direction of her work is a personal quest she tells us. While she reflects on her past and present, her work will continue to move in the direction of her personal journey.
Written by Usha M. Nathan
Of Photography II By Chris Yap & Usha Nathan
Collecting photography - Part 2
Investing and supporting the art
Most people who buy photographs of young artists take it as a way of encouraging and supporting their work, and aiding their development. But few would realise that the same also applies for older, more established artists as well. Don’t forget that it usually takes 6 to 10 years before a photographer becomes relatively established, and even after that, some photographers actually find it harder to fund their now more intensive works. This is probably why we see many photographers turn to commercial work after just a few years. And, as history could possibly prove, there are not many commercial photographers who eventually become fine art photographers; the needs and demands of the two are just fundamentally different. The current ironic twist is that more and more big ad campaigns are seeking out Fine Art Photographers to shoot for them, and are increasingly looking for more interesting and creative views to represent their products. Personally, Chris does not see this trend carrying on for a long time, as true artists could get detached from their own vision and would eventually go back to what they do best. But, having said that, this is a good way for Fine Art Photographers to make some money and, at the same time, exercise their creativity. Interestingly, it is only in the United States that this has happened in a big way, no where else is this phenomenon so widespread. Examples would be John Clang for Hermes and Levis, Stephen Shore for Bottega Veneta, among others. Perhaps, this phenomenon has also become a marketing tool for the ad campaigns themselves? Commercial works of this sort seem similar to commissions given to an artist, but are not quite the same. Some commercial work, like the ones stated above, allow the photographers to still keep to their vision, many times with the art-director bending over backwards to ensure that it is an easy process. But, conversely, there are cases where photographers are treated as technicians hired to accomplish an image. Commissions allow the photographers to accomplish their work with their own unique vision. It is another way of helping the photographers whom you are interested in. A relatively obscure practice within photography in Singapore, commissioning is useful, nevertheless, in allowing creative freedom and personal expression through photography. Chris, who has done several commission works as well as given out commissions to young photographers, feels that there is a need for people to start recognizing talent, and also to give photographers the space to realise their vision. Most of the time, people will be surprised at what can come out of these. To top it all, the commissioned work would be unique to the collector and could eventually prove to be an invaluable asset. A discussion on collecting photography would be incomplete without considering a key aspect, which is the investment potential of the work. Chris believes that while collecting younger photographers, it is good to know how inclined they are to continue in the profession. It is also useful to gather information about their next projects, and their practice in general. This would help you ascertain if the artist’s works would become more ‘valuable’ in the coming years. In general, collecting for investment requires paying special attention to the reputation of the work- it is always more useful to buy well-known prints of established photographers; all the works of these photographers are not likely to appreciate to the same extent. Works that frequently appear in photography books, historic or otherwise, such as ‘A sudden gust of wind’ by Jeff Wall, are likely to gain value faster than others. The condition of the work is also crucial and, as a rule, one should stay away from restored prints, unless the works are of great importance and you have no other option but to restore them. It is also useful to inspect the provenance of the image or print, by approaching the gallery owner or the studio from whom you are purchasing the image, since even though good quality mediums are used, it is usually the handling of these mediums themselves that make the most difference. In general, it is advisable to collect a photograph which is a low volume limited edition. Another key consideration would be the quality of the print itself. This is important, to ensure that the photograph retains its colour fidelity to the original in the years to come. Reading art market journals, periodicals and news is a good way of acquainting oneself with the photography market. How much should a collector pay for a picture? Yes, the all-important question, and a tough one to answer. In all of Chris’ years of experience here and overseas, he finds it particularly disturbing when an image sold in western countries commands almost 3 to 4 times what it’s worth in most parts of Asia. This could be due to a difference in the value that different societies place on art, or how marketing strategies work in different regions, or it could be a myriad of other reasons. For those just thinking of starting a collection, Chris provides some very rough guidelines, all based on a 11” x 14” print size. Well executed, beautiful shots would produce a good price, of around $200 to $350, but pictures which are created from well thought out concepts would be priced higher, at about $400 to $800. Pictures which are more difficult to execute, both technically and conceptually, would fetch a price of about $800 to $1000, whereas a high quality print with meticulously rendered detail, framing and presentation may cost $1600 and above. Of course, the figures will fluctuate with the size of the print, the reputation of the photographer -not just how famous they are, but also their history for producing quality works and who else collects their works- and other factors. And then there are also vintage prints and prints which have become historical objects. Sometimes, these can go into millions of dollars, though you can get prints of famous photographers made from the negatives, printed years later by the family or his studio. These would come at a much lower price as compared to vintage prints. Collecting photography for artistic, investment or other purposes, like all practices, can only be honed by dedication and a passionate involvement in the craft, over a period of time. And the collection then gains a distinctive imprint of the collector’s sensibility.
This column is a collaboration between the editor, Usha Nathan and the renowned Singaporean fine art photographer and Master Printmaker Chris Yap. Chris’s works have been shown widely across Asia including the internationally acclaimed Chobi Mela, Angkor photography festival, Singapore Biennale 2006 and the and the upcoming Month of Photography, Tokyo, Japan. He also conducts talks around Asia Pacific, teaches photography at several educational and corporate institutions, and is also the adjunct lecturer at Nanyang Technological University, School of Art, Design and Media. The ‘Other’ Spaces (4) Alternative Arts Venues  Exhibition space at La Libreria By now Bugis Street Market has garnered quite a reputation, not only amongst the locals, but also tourists, as a place for cheap finds. Clothing, souvenirs and even food stalls dot the entire stretch, making it a must-visit place, in the tradition of Kuala Lumpur’s famed Petaling Street and Bangkok’s ‘endless’ Chatuchak Market. Naturally, the atmosphere can be quite chaotic and the labyrinth of crammed lanes might make visitors dizzy after one shopping bag too many.
Tucked at the end of this street, towards Fu Lou Shou Complex, is La Libreria at 64A Queen Street. Meaning ‘the library’ in Italian, it is much more than just a library!
It was started by Eriko Hirashima whose cheerful presence belies her fierce commitment to promoting ‘Book Art’ in Singapore. What exactly is ‘Book Art’?, one might ask. Till today there is no concrete definition, and Eriko, a book artist herself, prefers to adopt an ‘inclusive’ approach rather than harp on what qualifies as Book Art and what does not.
Although artists have been known to produce and publish books for centuries, the artists’ book is primarily a 20th century art form. More than just texts and illustrations, artists’ books are unique, more often than not, one-offs or available in very limited editions. Artists from various fields, such as fine arts, fashion, design, photography, crafts, literature, films, and others are known to have engaged in the Book Arts.
Borne out of the non-existence of a Book Arts community in Singapore, Eriko started La Libreria in 2004 by herself. Admittedly, the Book Arts community is small, not only in Singapore but also in countries like the USA and UK, where Eriko furthered her studies in this art form.
However, this humble space has hosted no less than 10 exhibitions since it first started, and the small Book Arts community is steadily growing. Eriko mentioned that she had even received books to sell by book artists from as far away as Brazil!
Besides the shelves of artists’ books for sale, La Libreria also has a cosy ambience to hold exhibitions and for artists to interact with their peers. Exhibitions are also a way for those not familiar with the art form to come down and find out more about this timeless medium.
With communication and new forms of media playing a key role in the contemporary arts scene, having a dose of the quaint basics might sometimes provide a newer perspective on art and its ever-changing notions.
So do pop by at the fascinating La Libreria after your shopping spree at the Bugis Street Market. Besides providing the perfect antidote for those aching feet and humid local weather, be prepared to be enticed by the unique books. You might even want to add one or two to your shopping list! La Libreria is located at 64A Queen Street, Bugis Village, Singapore 188543 Tel: +65 6337 1346. More info and opening hours can be obtained from www.lalibreria.com.sg or email info@lalibreria.com.sg. Written by Syed Muhd Hafi Design Scene Singapore Space to Reflect  Singapore 1:1 Island, URA atrium (Photo: Nick Charnley) This month I finally found a bit of time to actually schedule some visits to exhibitions. Thanks to the FARM website (mentioned in last month’s column), which does a fairly reasonable job of listing what’s on, I was able to make a list of several exhibitions that sounded interesting.
First on the list was Singapore 1:1 Island, an exhibition held in the ground floor atrium of the URA (Urban Redevelopment Authority) building from November last year to April of this. Curated by Dr Wong Yunn Chii, Head of the Department of Architecture at the National University of Singapore, the exhibition set out to highlight the country’s ‘architectural and urban design uniqueness through a selection of architectural projects completed island-wide, outside of the city centre, over the past four decades.’ The exhibition was a follow up to Singapore 1:1 City held at the same venue in 2005, which chartered only the central area. As the name implies, Singapore 1:1 Island extended this to the island as a whole.
The 1:1 in the title refers to the idea of Singapore as a ‘1:1 scale, life-sized gallery of architecture and urban design’. This is an intriguing concept in itself and I was left pondering quite what the implications of that might be. What captivated me most about the show was not so much what Singapore is now but, rather, what it is becoming. Detailed plans and models of new developments, in particular Marina Bay, show just how different the place is going to look in a very short span of time, when these are completed. I left feeling happy to have caught a glimpse of the future but slightly disturbed at the sense of urgency to get there.
Another exhibition, which seemed particularly relevant in this context, opened in March at Sculpture Square. Organised by German architects (Behnisch Architekten) and engineers (Transsolar ClimateEngineering), in conjunction with the Institute for Cultural Relations in Stuggart, Ecology.Design.Synergy was concerned with how architects and energy consultants can work together towards creating ‘sustainable’ architecture. The overuse of the concept of ‘sustainability’ was under scrutiny here, and the exhibition’s central aim was to free the term from its ‘largely quantitative significance’ and reflect, instead, on its ‘multifaceted aspects’.
The strategy for tackling this was an exhibition split into six zones – temperature, air, sound, light, material and human scale. Each section started out by listing a number of facts entitled ‘Bio-physical basics’, some of which were commonplace and others more obscure. An understanding and consideration of these facts, presumably, was meant to act as starting points for thinking about creating architecture that is more sensitive to the environment. Seen along side the URA exhibition I speculated on how much consideration for ecological issues has gone into the new developments springing up across Singapore. The speed at which things have been moving on this front, especially in the last couple of years, makes one wonder.
Staying on the theme of architecture, I finally managed to pay a visit to Tan Kay Ngee architects at Duxton Hill. The practice won a President’s Design Award last November for the Page One Bookstore at Vivo City. As it turns out, they have something of a reputation in this field, having designed a total of nine bookstores in Japan and S.E. Asia for Page One and Kinokuniya. The setup at Duxton Hill comprises a gallery on the ground floor, office on the second and meeting/lounge/living space on the top. The gallery holds regular photographic exhibitions; on the night I visited, there was an opening for a show by Shannon Castleman, an American artist currently based in Singapore. Adjacent to the gallery is a garden, which Kay Ngee lovingly designed and tends to. Having an insight into the workings of a successful Singaporean architect’s mind through a visit to the office is, perhaps, more helpful at this stage for understanding the scene than talking about individual projects - though I do intend to do that in the future, especially where Page One is concerned.
Finally, on a slightly more modest scale, I was in Basheer Graphic Books the other day at Bras Basah and stumbled across the small gallery hidden away at the far end of the shop. In itself, Basheer Graphic Books (BGB), on the surface at least, feels like the perfect specialist bookshop. Stacked floor to ceiling with books on every conceivable topic related to design it’s a place where one can truly become immersed. Unfortunately, many of the books are wrapped in cellophane so it’s only possible to imagine what might be inside based on the title and cover design, but perhaps that’s part of the enchantment. The gallery is a small and potentially interesting addition to the bookstore. Apparently it’s been open for about 9 months and, at the time of my visit, was showing a Japanese artist who was present in the space but spoke little English and had no information for me to take away. This aside, the gallery at least afforded some space for quiet reflection - a wel-come addition to any city.
Nick Charnley is a British artist and educator based in Singapore. He is also joint creative director of Little Red Dots, a Singapore based design agency he co-founded in November 2004 with American artist Nathaniel Walters. Little Red Dots’ website can be found at www.little-red-dots.com |
