| Cover picture: Hiromi Tango, Dr Emma Burrows and Dr Tilman Dingler, Wheel, 2021, at ArtScience Museum’s MENTAL: Colours of Wellbeing |

Asian Civilisations Museum – Russel Wong in Kyoto

Russel Wong in Kyoto was first shown alongside Life in Edo in 2021, and then it was extended into 2022! Additional photographs by Wong were added, keeping the focus on an inside look of geikos in Kyoto, but I also really liked the atmosphere of showing Kyoto in flowering season.

National Gallery Singapore – Chua Mia Tee: Directing the Real

I was able to visit this exhibition twice because it went on for about a year — early on in January and one more time on its last day! This is a solo exhibition dedicated to Singaporean artist Chua Mia Tee, and I enjoyed seeing his views of Singapore back in the old days…

Victoria Theatre and Concert Hall (shown on right of painting) is missing its crown at the top of its dome! I found this missing detail so funny, because I only learned a while back too about the building’s crown! Also my favourite work of architecture in Singapore.

Singapore Chinese Cultural Centre – Life is Sweet: Ang Ku Kueh Girl Exhibition

Found this a sweet exhibition and I loved these uplifting messages along with these cute Ang Ku Kueh Girl illustrations!

Han Sai Por’s Microorganisms Landscape

The use of the Jendela art space at the Esplanade for Han Sai Por’s mixed-media Microorganisms Landscape was pretty good! I also liked seeing a different side to Han’s work, who is well-known for her sculptures which are easily found across Singapore.

Hong Kong: Through the Looking Glass miniature exhibition《細看香港》

Take me back to Hong Kong!!! Here’s to me doing that in 2023!!! In the meantime, I loved seeing these miniatures of everyday Hong Kong scenes — and there were so many other people viewing this exhibition too!

200 TRUNKS, 200 VISIONARIES: THE EXHIBITION

In celebration of the 200th anniversary of Louis Vuitton’s birth, LV launched this exhibition that invited 200 artists, creatives, and some celebrities to reinterpret the classic LV trunk. Singapore was the second stop for this travelling exhibition, which is really cool! Loved the ideas and creativity that was abounding here.

National Museum of Singapore – OFF / ON: Everyday Technology that Changed our Lives, 1970s – 2000s

More throwbacks to an older Singapore, I really liked these room set-ups like the barber salon and the photographer’s studio!

i Light Singapore

i Light finally returned after its last showing in 2019! It was really nice walking around the Marina Bay area again at night to see all the lights.

My favourite from i Light this year was Firefly Field! They are electronically controlled but appear to sway naturally in the wind.

Botanic Gardens Gallop Extension

I finally visited the new(-ish) Gallop Extension at Botanic Gardens, and I definitely want to visit again! There are two black and white houses named Inverturret and Atbara, and you can explore their interiors, learn more about the colonial era architecture, and see exhibitions and highlights from the Singapore Botanic Gardens collection.

Asian Civilisations Museum – Batik Kita: Dressing in Port Cities

Popped by ACM again to see the exhibition Batik Kita, that featured batik in textiles in both its traditional and contemporary forms.

Malay Heritage Centre – Cerita

I visited the Malay Heritage Centre before it closed for renovation, and its last exhibition was Cerita (Stories). The highlight piece for me was this stunning painting by Raden Saleh!

Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum

Finally visited the Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum for the first time ever — after so long! It’s situated within the campus of National University of Singapore, and the museum exhibits are set across two stories. I thought it was really well done; it’s cool to see Singapore’s very own dinosaur exhibits, and I was also particularly taken by the molluscs section!

National Gallery Singapore – Wu Guanzhong: Travelling with the Master

I still think that the best Wu Guanzhong exhibition at National Gallery Singapore was Wu Guanzhong: Beauty Beyond Form in 2016. The latest showing Wu Guanzhong: Travelling with the Master was a little cobbled together, but it was still nice to see some really great works by Wu.

National Gallery Singapore – Nothing is Forever: Rethinking Sculpture in Singapore

Running from 29 July 2022 to 5 February 2023

Haha, I couldn’t help myself! It doesn’t matter when one doesn’t ‘get’ the art, just pose with it and have fun…!

House of Dreams

I loved this display of Barbie dolls at House of Dreams hosted at the Ion Orchard art gallery space, it was so pink, bright and fabulous! Loved the vintage looks to the contemporary ones, with my favourites below!

Asian Civilisations Museum – ACM and Anima Mundi: Chinese Christian art from the Vatican Museums 

Currently showing

This exhibition of loans from the Anima Mundi (Soul of the World), Vatican Museums at ACM featuring Chinese Christian art seems to be getting little traction, but it’s a really nice display of works incorporated within ACM’s Christian art gallery! The works of Chinese Christian art makes for both a strange and interesting combination that I’ve never really encountered before.

ArtScience Museum – MENTAL: Colours of Wellbeing 

Running from 3 September 2022 – 26 February 2023

I thought that MENTAL was both fun and a little quirky! The exhibition’s take on mental health and wellbeing was not exactly what I was expecting (I thought I should come out of it feeling nice and cosy or something like that??), but there was a good variety of responses and artworks that related to the theme.

Even in Fear by Zhou definitely made me feel a little more anxious than I should have! The white balloon in the bright pink container keeps expanding and filling up the space until it looks like it’s going to explode — and then it deflates, and the cycle repeats again.

I thought this work Hello Human, Hello Machine was really fun because you could pick up the payphone and it connects you to someone and start a conversation! But, spoiler alert, I am convinced that the person on the line is pre-recorded……

In Mirror Ritual, you look into the mirror and the AI machine presents you with a poem based on the emotions on your face. I gave it my best neutral expression and this is what I got, which cracked me up!!

I thought this was the perfect note to end this post with. Thank you 2022, you’ve been a ride — and of course, one of my ultimate highlights of the year was visiting London, and I should do another highlight post of that! I hope the new year 2023 treats you well, and that you be kind on yourself too! Let’s see what it will bring…

The post Art of 2022 appeared first on Wording Art.

National Gallery Singapore

The art of 2021 began with National Gallery Singapore’s Light to Night festival, which is always pretty fun with their art installations! Just went to see some at 2022’s edition too.

Something New Must Turn Up: Six Singaporean Artists After 1965

I’ve seen Eng Tow’s Grains of Thought twice at Asian Civilisations Museum and now at its spot at Jewel Changi, and I found it fun to see these maquettes / models for the actual artwork in the exhibition Eng Tow – the sixth sense (part of Something New Must Turn Up), which were a lot smaller!

My favourite exhibition in Something New Must Turn Up was Jaafar Latiff: In the Time of Textile — really liked seeing these colourful, Futurist-looking, abstract pieces.

Antony Gormley – on view 6 August 2021 – 30 October 2022

My first encounter with Antony Gormley’s human figures was back in 2016, when ‘Event Horizon’ Hong Kong placed several of these standing men at the top of buildings and in the middle of the streets in Central — and I had fun posing with one of them! And this one has now fallen face-flat on the Gallery’s beautiful floors…

Kind of weird / funny to see this steel mass in the middle of such colonial architecture! A bit out of place or an interesting contrast?

Horizon Field Singapore on the rooftop of National Gallery Singapore looks fantastic (and different from so many angles), and it’s great to take photos with!

Nam June Paik: The Future is Now – 10 December 2021 – 27 March 2022

Nam June Paik is such a big name and an important artist, so I definitely had to check out this exhibition! It’s a travelling exhibition, and it’s making its last stop at National Gallery Singapore. I can’t say that I’m a huge fan of his work, but it’s a good exhibition to see nonetheless.

Also be sure not to miss these three works located in the basement of the Gallery — Sistine Chapel is probably the most seminal work of Paik’s.

Siapa Nama Kamu? Art in Singapore since the 19th Century

I’ve wandered through Siapa Nama Kamu? [What’s Your Name?] quite a number of times, and it’s always nice to see some refreshed works in this permanent exhibition. I just saw Wu Peng Seng’s photographs, and I really liked the ones with the ballerina: The Long Shadow and First Step.

Between Declarations and Dreams: Art of Southeast Asia since the 19th Century

Siapa Nama Kamu? is much smaller than Between Declarations and Dreams (3 galleries in the former and 14 galleries in the latter), and I only realised last year that I haven’t actually seen the whole of Between Declarations and Dreams properly before. So I took the afternoon to track down all the galleries and had a look at everything.

My favourites are still the works of Raden Saleh — Boschbrand is stunning, but I wish there was more explanation of the work. While we see these animals driven to the edge of the cliff due to a forest fire, I’m inclined to think that there is a deeper, or symbolic meaning to this image. In any case, here’s to a roaring Year of the Tiger…!

Gorgeous pieces giving me Turner-esque vibes.

National Museum of Singapore

Modern Colony: 1925–1935

I’m not sure how or why, but I can’t believe I’ve not seen these galleries in National Museum of Singapore on the second floor?! They trace the modern history of Singapore, and I really liked this one on the ‘Modern Colony’. It’s the Twenties vibes for me!

PSM50: Celebrating the Golden Jubilee of Singapore’s Preservation Journey

I stumbled across this exhibition presented by the Preservation of Sites and Monuments division of the National Heritage Board (to mark 50 years of preservation in Singapore), and there were these small artefacts and models of the 73 National Monuments of Singapore!

This cube was exhibited on a turning display, and the top has an image of a war memorial. Unfortunately, I forgot to record what this piece is about and what monument it’s displaying, but I took these photos of it as I was taken by what it says of the ‘Folly of War’.

Singapore History Gallery

This amazing portrait by John Singer Sargent is in the basement gallery of the National Museum of Singapore — the Singapore History Gallery — and I’m sure I’d seen it before years ago but didn’t know of Sargent at the time. I was part of a British Art class in the last semester, and my professor mentioned that there was a Sargent in the National Museum, so I had to track it down!! It’s huge, lush and the paintwork is gorgeous.

The Sargent painting is situated between two other portraits painted by John Edgar Williams (left) and William Orpen (right), but those are just not as impressive.

Kranji War Cemetery

As part of that aforementioned British Art class, we did a field trip to the Kranji War Cemetery, also known as the Kranji War Memorial. It’s part of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) that maintains cemeteries across the world, remembering the “men and women of the Commonwealth Forces who died in the First and Second World Wars”.

It was my first time at the Kranji War Cemetery, and it might seem a bit surprising that it is so beautifully maintained. I posted about this on my IG earlier, and my mixed feelings still remain the same. Seeing these individuals’ names and their families’ messages for them is both sad and humbling in a way.

Out and About

A cute display at Funan Mall of Lego displays of Singaporean / hawker food that I spotted back in May!

Another random, gorgeous Lego display of the Fullerton Hotel located at One Fullerton opposite that I saw in November!

I always like to glimpse at the window displays of fashion houses as sometimes, there are some really well-done and interesting displays! Hermès at Liat Towers frequently has these fun, quirky or just aesthetic window displays.

Burberry’s Olympia bag installation

This was just fun and random! The Burberry’s Olympia bag installation made its third appearance in Singapore’s Ion Orchard after floating down London’s River Thames (stunning!) and appearing in Dubai too.

KAWS:HOLIDAY

KAWS is just so popular now, and no matter what you think of the art or of the character, I think it’s good time to embrace it! Was quite surprised to see the crowds lining up to see KAWS:HOLIDAY at the Floating Platform, and I still like to keep my social distancing, so I zoomed in on the KAWS balloon (?) installation from afar on the Helix Bridge!

A good reminder to look up — some of Singapore’s architecture have these stunning ceilings that you might not notice on the daily, but it’s nice to take a moment to look up every once in a while.

Marina Bay Sands Hotel

Speaking of ceilings, the Marina Bay Sands Hotel has this absolutely stunning Gormley installation scattered across the ceiling right at the front entrance of Tower 1. The picture does not do it justice! Fun fact: the work is suspended across levels 5 and 12 of the atrium of Hotel Tower 1.

Seeing Dale Chihuly‘s The Setting Sun and The Moon in the Gardens by the Bay from high up on Marina Bay Sands Hotel’s rooftop!

Panoramic view from the window of the MBS Hotel room we were staying in — so, so incredible.

Breakfast in style — this staycation at the Marina Bay Sands Hotel was The Highlight of 2021, and I felt very lucky and blessed to be a plus one to my sister of City Girl, City Stories who was invited to view the exhibition Orchestral Manoeuvres at ArtScience Museum, which was also amazing!

Basically the Marina Bay Sands Hotel is a work of art, and they also have a lot of artworks displayed across its premises, which I’ll love to post about at a later time! Till then, best wishes for 2022 / the Year of the Tiger and let’s go forth and embrace where life takes us!

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I like to say that in my ‘previous life’, i.e. before I discovered art history, I used to play music, picking up varying instruments at different times in life with the piano, saxophone (school band days) and guitar. I don’t think I ever did get accustomed to the discipline that regular musical practice requires, or learned how to play music ‘for fun’ or for myself — but I would say that music and songs are still very present in my everyday!

So I was also pretty heartened to hear during the exhibition tour preview of the curator Adrian George’s own personal attachment to the themes of Orchestral Manoeuvres revolving around music and sound. This exhibition is curated by the ArtScience Museum to mark its 10th year anniversary (already!), and I loved hearing the stories behind each work and seeing the care and effort that was taken in putting this exhibition together.

I was a little hesitant to see an entire exhibition on sound, particularly in contemporary art — because I thought it might not be for me, too avant-garde perhaps?? — but this was really excellent! It’s a quiet, as in understated, exploration of sound and music in art without being overbearing or overly pretentious. It actually feels like a calming exhibition interspersed with works that produce sounds or music (it’s a sound exhibition, after all!), and other artworks that describe the music instead.

I like how the didactic for this work calls Rage Fluids a “self-portrait in sculpture and sound”. The noise that plays in this installation makes the foil in these curved panels vibrate, and it’s meant to be a reference to the artist Perry’s childhood and car culture.

This is a series of photographs showing the effects of sound, set at different frequencies (that determine pitch), and how they create different vibrations or patterns on the surface of milk! I’ve never been good at physics and so don’t really understand this, but apparently low-frequency sounds, i.e. low-pitch sounds, cause the most impact on milk and create the most elaborate patterns!

These two Resonance in Frames works are in fact moving artworks, because the mechanisms (probably the microcontrollers) periodically tap against the copper pipes to create sound. It’s like the machinery is making music on its own!

This installation is a series of six works that have been so well-placed together. The top two hanging in the air Forest-Sounds – Bird NO.3 and Insects Chirping – Chinese Medicine Box move up and down, while the tree branches of Bird Song flap up and down! There’s also chirping sounds emanating from this corner, that seems to sound more like bird chirping (preferred!) than insect chirping.

I keep seeing the promo posters for the exhibition showing Chair of Concentration and declaring this as “Not your Usual Headphones”, haha! The objects in this definitely give it a traditional Chinese feel, but counters usual expectations of what you’ll see.

I really liked this one! Kim writes a sort of musical score for the sounds of different activities, expressing it in terms of volume (meaning loudness) and frequency (meaning rate of occurrence). I keep feeling like I have to clarify my word usage, in case I make a pun or when words could be understood differently in terms of sound!

For a bit of background on musical notation, specifically dynamics (i.e. loudness in music), p stands for piano meaning ‘quiet’, pp stands for pianissimo meaning ‘very quiet’, f stands for forte meaning loud, and ff stands for fortissimo meaning very loud. Kim uses these dynamics in her works to illustrate her sounds — and another interesting note (excuse the pun) is that Kim was born deaf, and she combines such musical notations with American Sign Language in these works.

Don’t these three works just so well express the tune of COVID-19 lockdowns……

I like how Khan takes inspiration from Bach, Beethoven and Mozart, and re-interprets their musical scores by overlapping the pages on top of each other to create these blotted prints.

I first saw Ang’s works in the restaged (is this a pun??) exhibition of Music For Everyone: Variations on a Theme last year at National Museum of Singapore, that was first shown at the Venice Biennale in 2019. I like how Ang’s patterned versions of Western-style five-line staves in musical notation are included here in Orchestral Manoeuvres too!

I was quite fascinated by this, as I mostly know Luigi Russolo for his Futurist paintings, but not for his music. I’ve also been fascinated with the Futurists since learning about them, because I find them so bold and nuts enough to hold on to their ambitions to envision the future of a modern city (when the movement formed in 1909), though keeping things purely on an artistic level and not actually acting on their radical ideals.

Anyway, most of Russolo’s musical compositions were destroyed during the Second World War, but music archeologists (this is a great term) have rediscovered the first seven bars of Il risveglio di una città (The Awakening of a City), as seen here!

Below the Russolo, there’s a display case showcasing some of John Cage’s compositions or musical instructions. And of course, there needs to be the inclusion of Cage’s seminal 4’33” of silence… and I love how there are ‘notes’ for this composition (such a pun).

This is a really interesting gathering of early scores from centuries past, and from cultures independent of the Western musical canon!

So I learned that a pianola is a self-playing piano, and this pianola can be turned on by pressing a giant red button at the back of it! 4’33” (Prepared Pianola for Roger Bannister) also references Cage’s 4’33”, but the duration here is in fact a reference to the British athletics sportsman Roger Bannister, who set a British record at the 1952 Olympics in Helsinki for the 1500m Men’s Final. There are a few accompanying posters (seen above in the cover picture) as part of this work, but I think the pianola — especially when it starts playing really loudly — steals the show!

I really like these pieces by Yoko Ono, which are so whimsical, introspective and playful at the same time.

I really like this one of Gillian Wearing dancing in a South London shopping mall — but there’s no music playing. Instead, she’s dancing to songs playing in her head. That whole music playing in my memory totally happens with me too, and then I’ll have to actually play the actual song! Also, I like how this video piece was presented on an old-school small SONY TV.

This is probably the most popular or significant work in the entire exhibition, which I think resonated with many people too. I just took a photo of the forty speakers, but ultimately the work is really about the forty-track recording of the choir singing A reworking of “Spem in Alium”. Each speaker plays a recording of each of the choir members singing their part, and you can choose to listen to each individually, or just take it all in right in the centre. I’ve heard that many people felt moved by the experience, but for me, I would say that it felt pretty epic, like I was right in the middle of a choir, listening to their singing amplified.

This interactive space was pretty fun! You can step on a pedal, and that will make these various ‘installations’ of household objects to start moving around in a circle, and the objects jangle and clink against each other to make music!

This video was taken in Stuttgart, Germany, where the artist Nevin Aladağ spent her childhood. It’s a compilation of actual musical instruments being placed or moved around different parts of the city, and how they can be ‘played by the city’!

I thought this shot of a balloon attached to a cornet (I think??) just screamed aesthetic!

This final work of the exhibition pays tribute to Drei Klavierstücke (“Three Piano Pieces”), Op. 11, that was written by the Austrian composer Arnold Schoenberg in 1909, but it’s also a tribute to the roles that cats play in our lives… It’s a compilation of various clips taken from YouTube videos featuring cats stepping on pianos, but all the notes culminate to perform the Op 11 piece! It’s both fun and random, and I also appreciate the love for cat videos (also so present in my life)!!

I also love the giant reproduction of the score on the wall next to the video screen, which are in fact the first few bars of Arnold Schoenberg’s Op. 11.

I would highly recommend a visit to this exhibition, which is different from the usual fare, but also so creative and thoughtful at the same time! It’s still showing for the first two days of the new year until 2 January 2022. Find out more at their exhibition link here.

I’m so glad I caught this exhibition, and it’s amazing to think that ArtScience Museum has already been around for 10 years in Singapore! ArtScience Museum still remains one of my favourite places to go to in Singapore, and it’s exciting to see what they will present next!

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The opening space shows a preclude of what’s to come, with a display of cheongsams and Shanghai-nese advertisements and posters.

The above two exhibits are examples of women’s dress from the late Qing dynasty, featuring traditional floral motifs. I also found the “boys-at-play” motif and the embroidered scene of literati gatherings in each of the respective pieces quite unexpected and very interesting!

We now come to the Republican period in China (1912–1949). After the 1911 Revolution, Chinese women’s dress changed to embrace a new “liberalisation” of fashion. According to the exhibition didactic, women wore more fitted and tailored styles that were influenced by Western dressing.

The print of this blue blouse is apparently influenced by the Art Deco movement of the 1920s! I’m a huge fan of Art Deco, by the way!

The term “civilised new outfits” references the changes in China post-1911 Revolution, when women wore a simple outfit of a blouse and skirt. These outfits were less “fussy”, didn’t have the elaborate patterns and motifs of yore, and offered more mobility. Women in Singapore also picked up on the style as a fashion trend, embodying the image of “modern women” in this period.

I was so amazed to see the woman riding a horse in the studio photograph on the right! On closer look now, I realise it’s a fake horse prop, but it’s still so cool to see how fun and relaxed these women looked, unlike in typical stiff studio photographs.

That’s the old National Gallery (former Supreme Court)! I love the woman’s outfit and the fact that she’s driving!

These studio photographs were my favourite part of the exhibition. The fashions show a nice mix of Chinese and Western styles popular in the 1920s era, but what struck me the most was the way these women were just having fun! Look at those relaxed poses and hand gestures — it feels so modern somehow.

The ren-front refers to the Chinese character 人 (ren), meaning people, person, etc., as it resembles the two strokes of the character by extending diagonally across both sides of the cheongsam.

These cheongsams from the 1950s and 1960s were supposedly worn to work — how fashion-forward!

The term samfoo is Cantonese, literally to mean shirt and pants, and were usually worn as casual wear or as simple work wear. This sleeveless samfoo puts a modern spin on it — and honestly, I love the print of this!

I found one more exhibit on the second storey of the Sun Yat Sen Nanyang Memorial Hall, where their permanent galleries are located. This example of a two-piece qi pao ma jia with a robe and vest was apparently one of the earliest forms of cheongsam.

There was one more cheongsam right at the entrance of the Sun Yat Sen Nanyang Memorial Hall, and it’s yet another beautiful piece.

To end off here, I wanted to say that this exhibition also finally cleared up my confusion about the history / etymology of the qipao / cheongsam! One of the exhibition panels describes “the awakening of women’s gender consciousness”, when some women in the early 20th century protested via dress (!) by wearing men’s clothes like the changpao (long robe).

And that’s how the qipao (manchu robe) came about, when fitted versions of the changpao, made for women instead, became popular among Chinese women in the 1930s. In Singapore, the Cantonese term cheongsam (long shirt or dress) is more commonly used to refer to this form of dress. And there we have it!

The post The Modern Woman | 20th Century Singapore and China appeared first on Wording Art.

| Cover picture: Cao Fei, 浮槎 Fú Chá, 2020 |

Singapore Flyer – Whimsical Reality

2020 started with a trip to the Singapore Flyer to see the exhibition ‘Whimsical Reality’ featuring watercolour works by Ah Guo Illustration 阿果绘本. I’ve been following Ah Guo’s work for quite a long time, and I love his childlike, light-hearted illustrations of various Singapore scenes!

National Gallery Singapore – Chua Soo Bin: Truths & Legends

Spent a day out visiting National Gallery Singapore and went to see the understated exhibition of Chua Soo Bin’s portrait photography. I especially liked these photos of Wu Guanzhong sketching in the streets of London, Bangkok’s floating markets and at Singapore’s Bird Park (this should be Jurong Bird Park surely!) Click here to also see my review of the exhibition ‘Wu Guanzhong: Beauty Beyond Form’ at National Gallery Singapore from 2016.

National Gallery Singapore – Light to Night Festival: Invisible Cities

The Light to Night festival was also happening in January, and as always, it delivered a fun lineup of light installations and art skin projections. I also found it hilarious that one of Twardzik-Ching Chor Leng’s Five Stones was propped up above the bus stop outside Victoria Theatre and Concert Hall!

I’m not sure why this was here, but this setup of LINE’s Brown in a Merlion costume at Funan mall was so cute!!

Singapore Chinese Cultural Centre – Huat Huat Land

A display of giant pineapples, mahjong tiles and murals on the rooftop of Singapore Chinese Cultural Centre for Chinese New Year! Huat Ah!

Singapore Chinese Cultural Centre – SINGAPO人

SINGAPO人 is a permanent exhibition at SCCC that looks to discover Chinese Singapore culture. I really enjoyed visiting this and playing with all the interactive sections. There’s this game of ‘Would You Rather’, for example have Coffee or Tea, Eat Out or Eat at Home (as seen above) and after making your choice, it shows the poll percentage for each option!

Peeking into a small hole in a display to see a camera staring back at me!

Had to capture this drip tile from the old Nanyang University’s Administrative Building — especially as I’m studying at Nanyang Technological University now!

CB Summer

And then we hit pause — circuit breaker began in early April, classes went online, and it took a lot of effort to continue to study / work from home.

Over these few months, I also started to tune into art online (here are some of my recommendations!). Although there were also sadly a slew of exhibition cancellations, like the i Light festival, the Picasso and Matisse exhibition at National Gallery Singapore and the ‘Angelica Kauffman’ exhibition in London’s Royal Academy of Arts…

I’m currently researching Kauffman’s self-portraits and so I’d made travel plans to visit London and to see this exhibition — all cancelled! Ah well, so I made do with buying the exhibition catalogue. Here’s an image of Kauffman’s Self-Portrait with Stylus from the catalogue (excuse the colouring!), which is my favourite of all of her self-portraits! It belongs in a private collection so I really hope to have a chance to see it in an exhibition in future…

Asian Civilisations Museum – Fashion and Textiles Gallery

Ventured back out to see exhibitions again in August, and it felt like a grand affair! Dressed up again to view the new Fashion and Textiles, as well as Jewellery, galleries at Asian Civilisations Museum. The galleries will have a rotating display, and the Fashion and Textiles gallery currently features Chinese dress from the Qing (imperial wear) and modern periods (cheongsams). I thought the Fashion and Textiles gallery was surprisingly small!

National Museum of Singapore – Music For Everyone: Variations on a Theme

This solo exhibition of Song-Ming Ang’s work was first presented in the Singapore Pavilion of 2019’s Venice Biennale and had a re-showing at National Museum of Singapore. The title Music for Everyone ‘references a series of concerts organised by the then Singapore’s Ministry of Culture from 1971 to 1985’, and the exhibition overall also looks at music education in Singapore, like all those recorder music classes (so not for me)…

I especially liked Ang’s Manifesto for Bad Music, as I got quite into twentieth-century art manifestoes in class last semester!

Singapore Art Museum – Time Passes

Since Singapore Art Museum is currently under renovation, their exhibition ‘Time Passes’ is currently held at National Gallery Singapore. I thought the highlight work was Ashley Yeo’s intricate work of paper, which she makes using 3D printing.

In the gallery next door, ‘An Exercise of Meaning in a Glitch Season’ is also showing at National Gallery Singapore. Both exhibitions are part of ‘Proposals for Novel Ways of Being’, a series of exhibitions and programmes made in response to COVID-19. Both exhibitions run until 21 February 2021.

Esplanade Tunnel – Combing for Ice and Jade

This is a solo exhibition of Kurt Tong’s work as part of the 7th Singapore International Photography Festival (SIPF). ‘Combing for Ice and Jade’ tells the life story of Tong’s nanny (or majie) who became a ‘Comb Sister’ — ‘a community of women in Southern China who took a vow of chastity’ and left their hometowns to work and be financially independent. I liked the quiet, understated way of showing her life through various photographs, but I especially liked the video at the beginning of exhibition in which Tong discusses this seven-year project.

‘Combing for Ice and Jade’ is ongoing till 10 Jan 2021.

National Gallery Singapore – Georgette Chen: At Home in the World

The long awaited Georgette Chen retrospective is here! I enjoyed visiting this exhibition, and I will post about it in more detail in a separate post. In the meantime, I wanted to highlight this photograph of Chen painting Lotus Symphony en plein air (outdoors) in her friend’s garden full of lotuses. It’s nice to see a glimpse of the process and the final result situated next to the other.

‘Georgette Chen: At Home in the World’ is running for a long time until 26 September 2021.

ArtScience Museum – Margins: drawing pictures of home 

‘Margins: drawing pictures of home’ is also included in SIPF this year, and it’s a small exhibition featuring works by 15 contemporary photographers centred around Singapore as home.

My sister reminded me that we first saw this work in Hong Kong’s PMQ as part of detour 2015! While there were 1600 photographs there, the 12 photographs included here depicting the daily food choices for those living at the poverty line in different Asian countries still remains as poignant.

I liked the light humour of Hu’s People Mountain People Sea, a literal translation of 人山人海, which means a huge crowd in Chinese. Hu juxtaposes scenes of Singapore with ‘cutouts’ of the Old Master Q comic character, and I thought it was pretty fun!

My favourite from ‘Margins’ is Soh’s photographs of the last SS24 train to depart from Tanjong Pagar Railway Station (see my photos of the station at this link) before the railway line was officially removed.

‘Margins: drawing pictures of home’ is showing until 28 February 2021.

Gardens by the Bay: Christmas Wonderland’s Walk of Lights

Ending off 2020 with some festive cheer! I wanted to do another re-visit of Christmas Wonderland since this year’s Walk of Lights featured some new light attractions that have not been shown before! Loved all the lights and as always, the luminarie light installations (made all the way from Italy) are so gorgeous and impressive! Here’s to a brilliant 2021!

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2018 has been my full year back in Singapore since moving back, and at first, I thought there was less happenings in art here. After a while, things have picked up, but there have been many exhibitions and events that I didn’t choose to post in detail on this blog – lack of time is always a major reason for my lack of updates! So, I thought it would be nice to look back at all of the art exhibitions and events I went to this year!

Asian Civilisations Museum – Permanent Galleries

I started off 2018 with a visit to ACM to see their permanent galleries. I really loved seeing Tang Shipwreck with all of those painted bowls and those acorn-shaped game pieces (for gambling)!

ACM has just opened their new Christian and Islamic art galleries this month, so that’s something I’m definitely going to check out in 2019.

ArtScience Museum – Treasures of the Natural World

I went to see both ‘Treasures of the Natural World’ and ‘Art from the Streets’ at ArtScience Museum on the same day (double exhibition tickets are so worth it!). ArtScience Museum continues to be my favourite museum in Singapore as they have the best exhibitions.

I was surprised to find out that I really enjoyed seeing exhibits of preserved stuffed animals that look so life-like! All of the exhibits were on loan from Natural History Museum in London, which of course, I’m now planning to visit when I get myself to London!

National Museum of Singapore – The More We Get Together: Singapore’s Playgrounds 1930 – 2030

Peranakan Museum – Amek Gambar: Peranakans and Photography

There was then ‘The More We Get Together: Singapore’s Playgrounds 1930 – 2030’ at National Museum of Singapore, a simple exhibition talking about styles and models of playgrounds in Singapore. Basically, Singapore wins at urban planning, I have to say!

I also revisited Peranakan Museum for the first time in probably 10 years to see ‘Amek Gambar: Peranakans and Photography’. Sticking to the museum’s specialised theme of Peranakan culture, the Amek Gambar – meaning to take pictures – exhibition shows a range of black and white photographs of Peranakans and old cameras. The exhibition is on till February 3rd, 2019.

National Gallery Singapore – Rirkrit Tiravanija

I always visit National Gallery Singapore for exhibitions or events or just to bum at their Gallery & Co cafe. My first visit of the year was to see the new site-specific commissioned work of Rirkrit Tiravanija at NGS’ rooftop. It’s a large-scale bamboo structure with a pathway that you can walk through from one end to the other, and there’s also a Japanese teahouse in the centre, though it was too hot that day for me to join in in the tea ceremony events they were holding at the time.

Singapore Philatelic Museum – The Little Prince: Behind the Story

I like to visit Singapore Philatelic Museum (or the “Stamp Museum”) every once in a while to see their exhibitions that somehow always manage to incorporate stamps! It was nice to re-see Arnaud Nazare-Aga’s Little Prince sculptures at the ‘The Little Prince: Behind the Story’ exhibition. I had first seen them in Hong Kong in 2015 during the Christmas and New Year season – see the post here!

National Gallery Singapore – Children’s Festival

It’s always so fun at Children’s Festival at National Gallery Singapore seeing everyone, kids and adults, having fun playing with the artworks! The first one pictured is all kitchen sponges and for the second artwork, you could throw those triangle-shaped pieces and they would stick on the patterned wall.

I’m also very proud to say that I managed to speed-walk across Justiniani’s bridge in one piece this time round, HAHAHA! For last year’s edition, I was so scared of the never-ending depths of the illusionistic effect of the bridge that I actually paused while walking across it. I’m still kinda terrified of this kind of things, but clearly it’s only me, since all of the other kids were happily examining the details in the bridge.

National Library Singapore (Central) – Selling Dreams: Early Advertising in Singapore

‘Selling Dreams: Early Advertising in Singapore’ is a very well-researched and very big exhibition on advertisements in Singapore from the 1830s to the 1960s. I really recommend reading all of the details in the didactics for the exhibits, as they are all so interesting! This was probably the longest time I spent at an exhibition though, about 2 hours? The exhibition is on till 24th February 2019.

National Gallery Singapore – (Re)collect

I shared a mini review of ‘(Re)collect’ at National Gallery Singapore on my Instastories, now saved in my highlights, to try out a new format of sharing about exhibitions! That was really fun, but I also wanted to share Lee Lim’s composite photographs on a bigger screen, so that it would be clearer to see. His photographs appear like Chinese ink paintings, especially with their Chinese inscriptions and his seal on the sides of the paintings. It’s fascinating to see how photographs can also look like paintings in a way.

The Cathay – Whatshisname x Mighty Jaxx

The first time I saw these dogs, I was walking towards The Cathay from YMCA. From afar, I thought could this possibly be Jeff Koons’ Balloon Dog I’m about to see?? Well, turns out these weren’t Koons’ sculptures, but Whatshisname’s pooping dogs are humorous in their own way, yes? A total of 4 dogs were commissioned for The Cathay, and they are still on show!

Singapore Night Festival 2018

For this year’s Singapore Night Festival, I was excited to see FierS à Cheval by Compagnie des Quidams after seeing photos of their performance at the opening of Tai Kwun in Hong Kong (which I must visit!). Horses are my favourite animals, and the performers really captured the elegant movements of horses. Funnily enough, this performance was made for the Year of the Horse in 2014, but it’s been so popular that the company has continued to perform this show until now!

I also went to see the dress exhibits from World of WearableArt (WOW), which holds an annual award competition for fashion designers from all over the world to present their avant-garde designs. These two dresses were my favourite!

STPI – Handmade Readymades

These two prints by Lichtenstein were shown at STPI’s exhibition ‘Handmade Readymades’. The exhibition featured the prints of four 20th century American artists, Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, James Rosenquist and Roy Lichtenstein, but I only took a liking to Lichtenstein’s prints. The first time I visited STPI in 2015, I think, I also remember seeing and liking Lichtenstein’s prints. That aside, STPI always has top-notch exhibitions so I always like to visit. I’m looking forward to their Cheong Soo Pieng exhibition opening in January 2019!

Gardens by the Bay – Mid-autumn Celebrations

Gardens by the Bay had such a lovely display for the Mid-Autumn celebrations! The giant lanterns also gave me Story of Yanxi Palace vibes, which was everyone’s favourite drama of the year, right?? YASSS.

National Museum of Singapore – In an Instant: Polaroid at the Intersection of Art and Technology

‘In an Instant: Polaroid at the Intersection of Art and Technology’, a travelling exhibition that has made its stop at the National Museum of Singapore, was not what I was expecting at all!

The beginning of the exhibition charts out the history of the Polaroid, starting from its invention by Edwin Land, who was inspired by his daughter when she questioned on a holiday trip, why can’t we have our photographs printed out instantaneously, instead of going through the long process of developing film.

Most of the exhibition features artistic Polaroids following a few themes, but my favourites are these more contemporary shots captured on Polaroids. I didn’t realise that so many prominent artists and photographers had worked with Polaroid! The exhibition is on till 31st March 2019.

Affordable Art Fair Singapore 2018

I went for a quick walk through Affordable Art Fair in November, and all of my photos can be seen in my Instastories highlights! It was my first time attending it in Singapore and I found it much livelier that my experience at AAF in Hong Kong in 2015.

I found the paintings of those curly haired little, hmm, midgets by a Japanese artist (in the first two photos) really cute! There were also many South Korean galleries at the fair, and I really liked the style of these works by Korean artists (latter two photos).

ArtScience Museum – Future World (Revamped!)

This year was really the year of teamLab for me, seeing their works across ArtScience Museum, National Gallery Singapore and Marina Bay Sands. See my posts on teamLab – Part I and Part II!

I’d shared about ‘Future World’ at ArtScience Museum before it closed for revamp, and I was debating if I should visit the revamped exhibition… Guess what, I did! I bought a bundle ticket to see the new Future World and the Minimalism exhibition across ArtScience Museum and National Gallery Singapore, and I’m glad I did because I like the revamped exhibition even more! Also, I’m definitely going to do up posts on the ‘Minimalism: Space. Light. Object.’ exhibition(s) because I have so much opinions on it, so I would leave my comments for those upcoming posts.

Christmas!

We have reached Christmastime, the best time of the year!! This year’s theme of Disney Magical Moments for the Orchard Road Christmas decorations were so fun! I grew up on Disney, so this is definitely a special year!

Ion Art Gallery – Virtually Versailles

My last exhibition of the year was ‘Virtually Versailles’ at the Ion Art Gallery and Ion Sky, all the way up on the 55th floor of Ion Orchard. I already know that Versailles is on my travel wishlist, and this exhibition gave a taste of the Palace of Versailles’s architecture, decor and extensive art collection.

It’s mostly made up of a lot of videos, so I didn’t really capture many good photos of it. There are many interactive elements though, like biking around different parts of the palace (actual biking, virtual tour of palace), and having your face superimposed on royal portraits, which was really fun!! This free exhibition is on till 6th January 2019.

The last photo was a candid shot of me taken by my sister looking at the collection in the Palace, and it just seems like such a nice reminder to keep looking at all the art around us! Here’s to 2019!

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The great thing about this exhibition is that you can see works from a range of street artists all in one place, saving the trouble of trekking across sloping streets to hunt down street art (yes, I’m referring to HKwalls at Tai Ping Shan!) But beyond arguments of the ‘institutionalisation’ of street art by showing them as museum exhibits, or losing the site-specificity of these works, I think that there is something about the dynamic nature of these works that belong solely to the streets, which is lost when placed within a museum setting.

| Cover picture: Futura, Spray paint on concert background, 1982, spray paint on canvas |

Futura, Electric Orange, 1984, spray paint on canvas

Still, that’s not going to stop me from appreciating these works of art as they are! Right from the beginning of the exhibition, I was particularly attracted to Futura’s Futuristic “abstract graffiti style”.

Is this possibly inspired from Futurism, an early 20th century art movement that started in Italy? Futurists, as supporters of the movement called themselves, celebrated modern life and the city. Aesthetically, their artworks showcased vivid colours and abstract forms that highlighted speed and dynamism. On a darker note, their violent rejection of old forms of culture also formed an aspect of the movement. Personally, I find this bit of art history quite fascinating, and it is really interesting to see this allusion to the movement in street art today too.

Crash, Silver, 1981, spray paint on canvas

I love how spray paint can create this blurry effect, particularly clear in Crash’s Silver. Futura’s two works above also look a little unfocused along the edges as you pan out from the centre.

Stéphane Bisseuil, Graffiti, New York, 1991, digital wallpaper print

There are a few works in the exhibition that were captured in a large wall print so you can see the artwork in the context of its street, which I thought was very nicely done!

Invader, Pong, 2001, ceramic on wood panel

Ah, Invader in Singapore… though not in his usual secret “invasion” mode! In Hong Kong however, he has already invaded the city three times, with his last visit around October last year.

In Pong, notice the lone silver mosaic tile – it’s actually a reflective mirror-like piece!

Zhang Dali, Demolition: Forbidden City, Beijing, 1998, photograph

This is another favourite of mine! Zhang Dali is really one of relatively few Chinese artists who also work on street art. From 1995 to 1998, he spray painted an impressive 2,000 images of his head onto walls of to-be-demolished structures as an act of protest against the rampant demolition of traditional buildings in China, especially common in Beijing. In some cases, like this work here, he punched through the wall while keeping the shape of his head in side profile.

Banksy, Rat & Heart, 2015, spray paint and emulsion on canvas

Of course, Banksy has to be included in this exhibition of street art! But it’s perhaps due to the popularity of his works that I feel like I’ve seen this image of Rat & Heart many times elsewhere.

There’s actually one more Banksy work in the form of a wallpaper print located at the entrance/exit of the exhibition, which made it inconvenient to take a picture! I wished it was placed inside the exhibition galleries instead!

Jef Aérosol, Sitting Kid and Butterflies, 2016, stencil on cardboard; Sitting Kid, 2015, stencil

I like Sitting Kid in stencil more than its companion Sitting Kid and Butterflies, but here they are shown side by side.

Rero, One More Picture On My Phone, 2017, digital wallpaper print

Wow, I haven’t had an artwork speak to me as much as One More Picture On My Phone does, HAHAHAHAHA! I can just imagine this on a pristine white wall in Tiong Bahru, where so many people take OOTDs…

Remi Rough, Concise, 2018, created on-site at Artscience Museum

Felipe Pantone, Chromadynamica, 2018, created on-site at Artscience Museum

There were a couple of works created on-site at ArtScience Museum, which I thought was really cool! Two of them are pictured here, by Remi Rough and Felipe Pantone (also seen in my HKwalls post).

Vhils, Fondations [Foundations], 2017, advertising posters recovered from the street, hand cut and carved

I got so caught up looking at these faces that I didn’t realise that they were actually cut out from street posters!

Os Gemeos by Stéphane Bisseuil, Houston x Bowery street mural, New York City, 2009, photograph

Such a fun and colourful pop of colour on the street.

I don’t often participate in interactive activities in museum exhibitions, though I really should especially when Singapore museums always seem to have fun activities! For Art on the Streets, you could fill in these old-school Hello my name is stickers and paste them onto an in-house graffiti wall!

Check out this exhibition before it closes next Sunday, 3rd June 2018. There’s a 1-for-1 offer for this exhibition now!

I’m pretty shameless to say that I always go to ArtScience Museum when they have 1-for-1 offers, and I went to see Art from the Streets along with Treasures of the Natural World when the latter exhibition was in its last week! Treasures of the Natural World was just fantastic, more on that exhibition soon.

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I got to see the Artist and Empire: (En)countering Colonial Legacies at National Gallery Singapore and Journey to Infinity: Escher’s World of Wonder at ArtScience Museum, and they are both great exhibitions to see! So excited to see how Singapore is growing its arts and culture scene. I’m going to have miss the January lineup in Singapore, but I’m back in Hong Kong to view other exhibitions!

SINGAPORE

Singapore’s busiest art month would be January, with two art fairs Art Stage Singapore 2017 (12 – 15 Jan) and Singapore Contemporary (19 – 22 Jan) and a slew of events, talks, and exhibitions making up Singapore Art Week (11 – 22 Jan).

The ongoing Journey to Infinity: Escher’s World of Wonder at ArtScience Museum (which I’ll be sharing about later) and Singapore Biennale 2016: An Atlas of Mirrors at Singapore Art Museum are also included in Singapore Art Week. I very highly recommend Journey to Infinity – a very comprehensive show of Escher’s works. I was waffling over whether or not to go to Singapore Biennale but I decided to pass on it this time.

A few more events part of Singapore Art Week that I wanted to highlight:

• Welcome to Birdhead World Again – Singapore 2016

Birdhead (鸟头) is a Chinese photographer duo and I’ve found their works to be pretty interesting. They are involved in ShanghART’s Southeast Asia residency program and traveled across various countries in SEA and are now exhibiting their photographs taken during their travels in Singapore.

9 December 2016 – 26 February 2017, ShanghART Singapore, 9 Lock Road, #02-22 Gillman Barracks, more info here.

• Public Art at Parkview Square

More public art in Singapore! This exhibition of public art includes a Botero sculpture as well as selected works from the exhibition On Sharks and Humanity organized by Parkview Arts Action which is dedicated to building environmental awareness through art (interesting!). On Sharks and Humanity is said to be forthcoming in Parkview Group’s upcoming private museum in Singapore.

Also, I did not know that Parkview Square was designed in the style of Art Deco! Honestly, I have never stopped by long enough to even look at it properly. I have a thing for Art Deco, so I should probably stop by and take a good look at the building next time.

11 – 31 January 2017, Parkview Square, 600 North Bridge Rd, Singapore, more info here.

• Glass Rotunda: Story of the Forest and Singapore, Very Old Tree

A digital art installation and photography installation that explores Singapore’s history at National Museum of Singapore, Singapore’s history museum. My sister visited the museum and said Story of the Forest was really impressive!

10 December 2016 – 22 January 2017, National Museum of Singapore, 93 Stamford Road, more info here.

HONG KONG

• The World of Tim Burton

I was so so excited to hear that this exhibition was coming to Hong Kong, but my excitement totally deflated when I realized that tickets were going at HKD$180 (student tickets: $144)!!! That is way too much for me, especially when I’m used to going to most exhibitions in Hong Kong for free. For hardcore Tim Burton fans, this would be an amazing exhibition to see.

Note: Photography and video taking are not allowed in this exhibition (why…!!).

5 November 2016 – 23 January 2017, ArtisTree, 1/F Cornwall House, Taikoo Place, 979 King’s Road, Quarry Bay, Hong Kong, more info here.

• Ceremony and Celebration – The Grand Weddings of the Qing Emperors

I’m really interested to see this one! It would be fun to immerse in some Chinese traditional culture by looking at this collection of Qing wedding artifacts. Interestingly, in the long history of the Qing dynasty, only four emperors married an empress during their reign and had wedding ceremonies held in the Forbidden Palace. Also, this exhibition has a much more reasonable admission price.

30 November 2016 – 27 February 2017, Hong Kong Heritage Museum, 1/F Thematic Galleries 1, 2, 5 & Function Place, 1 Man Lam Rd, Sha Tin, more info here.

• Lost Treasures of the Shiqu Baoji in Hong Kong

A fitting accompanying exhibition to Ceremony and Celebration featuring Chinese paintings and calligraphy works of the Shiqu Baoji (石渠寶笈), an imperial collection of Chinese artworks during the Qianlong period. The exhibits belong to the Xubaizhai collection of Hong Kong Museum of Art, which is now closed for renovation until 2018. I finally get to see a bit of Hong Kong Museum of Art’s Chinese art collection!

30 November 2016 – 20 March 2017, Hong Kong Heritage Museum, 1/F Chao Shao-an Gallery, 1 Man Lam Rd, Sha Tin, more info here.

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GALLERY

• Anish Kapoor 

Anish Kapoor’s art is in Hong Kong! I think many people would know him for his Cloud Gate in Chicago (or the bean!). Gagosian gallery is showing the London-based sculptor’s works in his first solo exhibition in Hong Kong, which features some of his well-known mirrored sculptures. I liked seeing his mirrored works on the street (like the one shown above, also see this post) or in art fairs, as they reflect the people and environment around them, but it would be interesting to see how they work in a clean gallery space.

September 12 – November 5, 2016, Gagosian (Hong Kong), 7/F Pedder Building, 12 Pedder Street, Central, Hong Kong, more info here.

ART FAIR

• Fine Art Asia 2016

The last art fair in Hong Kong’s art scene in the year, Fine Art Asia showcases art and antiquities from Asia, including Chinese material culture, decorative art, ink paintings, and contemporary art. It’s a different sort of art fair from most of the contemporary art fairs in Hong Kong, and I find it nice that it offers a different look at art.

2 – 5 October 2016, Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, more info on ticketing and opening times here.

FESTIVAL

• 4th HKIPF (Hong Kong International Photo Festival)

HKIPF is a biannual festival that celebrates and promotes photography as an artistic medium, and comprises of a number of photography exhibitions. Two exhibition highlights:

• David Clarke and Xu Xi: Interruptions

Interruptions took on a refreshing form of exhibition in its combination of photography and writing. The exhibition starts with a photo by Clarke, which Xu responded to with an essay, which triggered the next photographic selection, and the cycle repeats for a total of 12 photos and essays. I recommend viewing the catalogue to read Xu’s essays in full!

14 September – 16 October 2016, University Museum and Gallery, The University of Hong Kong, more info here.

• Picturing Asia: Double Take – The Photography of Brian Brake and Steve McCurry

I find Steve McCurry’s photographs arresting and just really striking, so I’m happy to see more of Steve McCurry in Hong Kong! Asia Society’s current exhibition connects the two photographers Brian Brake and Steve McCurry in the way they gave the West “glimpses of the East,” and showcases some of their famous photographs, including Steve McCurry’s Afghan Girl.

10 September 2016 – 7 January 2017, Chantal Miller Gallery, Asia Society Hong Kong Center, 9 Justice Drive, Admiralty, Hong Kong, more info here.

• World Press Photo 2016

One of the key exhibitions of the HKIPF is World Press Photo 2016 opening at the end of the month, and it features over 150 photographs from the World Press Photo competition related to various topics. This one looks really really interesting, I’m excited to check it out!

L0 & L1 Gallery, Jockey Club Creative Arts Centre, Shek Kip Mei, 30 Pak Tin Street, Kowloon, Hong Kong, more info here.

MUSEUM

• Artist and Empire: (En)countering Colonial Legacies

After National Gallery Singapore’s first collaboration with Centre Pompidou for the exhibition Reframing Modernism (which I accidentally missed), National Gallery Singapore’s next collaboration is going to be with Tate Britain! Artist and Empire: (En)countering Colonial Legacies is going to be a Part II of Tate Britain’s exhibition Artist and Empire that ended April this year. Colonialism (and post-colonialism) is still very much a phenomenon that affects us in some way or another, and it would be interesting to see what and how the artworks would be presented especially from the perspective of the colonized.

I thought that I would have to miss this exhibition, but I’m happy to see it would be ongoing for a few months! I should probably be able to make it to Singapore within that time…

6 Oct 2016 – 26 Mar 2017, Singtel Special Exhibition Gallery, National Gallery Singapore, more info here.

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Anish Kapoor, Untitled (Stellar Green Pearl / Transparent Black), 2014, aluminium and paint, kamel mennour

Anish Kapoor, Mirror (Magenta), 2016, stainless steel and lacquer, Kukje Gallery

Julian Opie, Runners (individual titles: Running men; Running women), 2015, pair of screenprints, Alan Cristea Gallery

Looks like Julian Opie’s theme for the year is all about exercise and running…

Julian Opie, Soldier and Pilot, I., 2015, vinyl on wooden stretcher, Lisson Gallery

Julian Opie, Teacher and Waiter, I., 2015, vinyl on wooden stretcher, Lisson Gallery

Julian Opie, Plastic Umbrella, 2014, silkscreen on painted wooden board, Gerhardsen Gemer

Julian Opie, Kukje Gallery

There were also these two works that are not part of the exercise theme and are more in line with his images of city walking, a lot of which was shown at Art Basel in Hong Kong last year. I missed getting the didactic for this last artwork, but it’s a moving image of women walking continuously over and over again.

Lee Ufan, Dialogue, 2014, oil on canvas, Lisson Gallery

Lee Ufan, Dialogue, 2015, oil on canvas, Kukje Gallery

Lee Ufan, Correspondence, 1995, oil on canvas, Ben Brown Fine Arts

Lee Ufan (이우환) is Korea’s answer to a Minimalist artist, and his works with a smooth dab of paint in the middle of a large white canvas are always around at Art Basel Hong Kong. I’m not really a fan of any kind of Minimalism, but I guess the precision and simplicity of such works appeal to people.

Felix Gonzalez-Torres, “Untitled” (Last Light), 1993, light bulbs, extension cord, plastic light sockets, dimmer switch, Andrea Rosen Gallery

Morimura Yasumasa, Portrait (Futago), 1988, type C print, transparent medium, frame, ShugoArts

This was such an art history moment!! Granted, this probably looks really out there for first-time viewers, so a bit of background is needed here. Morimura is a well-known Japanese appropriation artist, and his photography features him dressed up and acting after models in famous paintings, artists, and famous figures in history, whether male or female. This work appropriates Édouard Manet’s Olympia (1863), an art history favorite, which at the time of its showing outraged viewers for its depiction of a prostitute holding a boldly confrontational stare. Traditionally, (male) artists painted female mythological figures in the nude that made it comfortable for the “male gaze,” since they were not “real” people and most never look directly towards the viewer. Manet however started something new, and while not particularly appreciated at the time for his efforts, he is now often known as the artist who began the wave of modern art.

Morimura’s enactment of the scene of Olympia is more extravagant but he gets the details of the painting down pat. He adds a Japanese flair to his work, with the black waving cat at the right corner and the blanket with a gold crane motif. Morimura’s work has come up in class on quite a few occasions, so it was great to see a properly blown up version of this photograph at the fair!

Keith Haring, Untitled, 1989, acrylic on canvas, Gladstone Gallery

Tracey Emin, You Saved Me, Galleria Lorcan O’Neill Roma

Not all of Emin’s works appeal to me, but I’m a big fan of her neon word art. There really needs to be a Tracey Emin font.

Also, I found the showing of this work at the fair over the Easter weekend nicely fitting, since it ties in with the commemoration of Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday. :D

Alexander Calder, Small Moths, 1974, Dominique Lévy

One of my favorites by Calder I’ve ever seen!

Alexander Calder, Ben Brown Fine Arts

Alexander Calder

Alexander Calder, Black and Blue, 1975, painted sheet metal and wire, Acquavella

Looking at Calder’s mobile from a different angle. And trying not to get blinded by the spotlights.

Alexander Calder, The Golfer (John D. Rockefeller as a Golfer), 1927, wire with wood base, Van de Weghe Fine Art

A different kind of style from Calder, and equally well done.

Jeff Koons

True story: I was trying to get a shot of Koons’s work from the side, but two women taking a selfie with the work told me to move aside because I was appearing at the side of their photo. -.- I don’t think a super crowded Art Basel fair is exactly the best place to exercise your supposed right not to get photobombed in your selfie.

Edgar Degas, Dancer Looking at the Sole of Her Right Foot, 1919-1937, bronze, Acquavella

I have to commemorate my first time seeing a Degas! He is now well-loved for his paintings of ballet dancers that examine the physicality of their bodies in movement. I would love to travel and see the masterpieces of modern art for myself one day, but I’m definitely happy to view these smaller works in Hong Kong!

Claude Monet, Route de Monte-Carlo, December 1883, oil on canvas, Acquavella

I patiently waited to get this MONEY SHOT. Monet is worth it, yes. On another note, Acquavella always brings in the bulk of modern art to Art Basel Hong Kong.

Pablo Picasso, Femme aux mains croisees II, December 19, 1960 – January 1, 1961, oil on canvas, Acquavella

Niko Luoma, Self-titled adaptation of the Young Ladies of Avignon (1907, Pablo Picasso), 2015, archival pigment print, diasec with floater frame, Atlas Gallery

Hmm, I’m not really buying it. Picasso’s Les Demoiselles d’Avignon (The Young Ladies of Avignon) is also an art history favorite (and also features prostitutes). Funnily enough, it was never fully completed as Picasso tossed it aside after his friends and peers criticized the painting while he was still working on it. I don’t actually think it’s his best and most groundbreaking work as a lot of people probably put it; I find his Cubist works with Georges Braque (his collaborator on Cubism who has been kinda forgotten) much more interesting and forward-looking.

Tom Wesselmann, Blue Nude #3 N125, 1999, oil on cut-out aluminium, Gmurzynska

This references to Henri Matisse’s Blue Nude, which was a motif that Matisse went back to over the years. Again, not really buying it…

Roy Lichtenstein, Water Lilies with Cloud, 1992, screenprinted enamel on stainless steel with painted wood frame, Edward Tyler Nahem

Rudolf Bauer, Furioso XII, 1918, oil on canvas

Andy Warhol, Mao, 1973, acrylic and silkscreen ink on linen, varnished, Ben Brown Fine Arts

So much of Warhol at the fair this year!

Andy Warhol, Mao (set of ten), 1972, screenprints on paper

Discussing serious business under the gaze of Mao. I find this quite amusing.

Andy Warhol, Flowers (portfolio of 10), 1970, screenprint on paper, Galerie Thomas

Andy Warhol, Self-portrait, 1966, synthetic polymer paint, silkscreen ink on canvas, Van de Weghe Fine Art; Self Portrait (Red), c. 1966-67, acrylic and silkscreen ink on canvas, Edward Tyler Nahem

Andy Warhol, Campbell’s Elvis, 1962, silkscreen ink and acrylic on canvas, Edward Tyler Nahem

Andy Warhol, Diamond Dust Shoes (Green), 1980, acrylic, silkscreen ink and diamond dust on canvas, Edward Tyler Nahem

Diamond Dust Shoes (Green) and Campbell’s Elvis appeals more to me than Warhol’s more well-known serial artworks for some reason. I guess it’s one of those things about art.

Andy Warhol, Dollar Sign, 1981, synthetic polymer paint and silkscreen ink on canvas, Van de Weghe Fine Art

Jaume Plensa, Slumberland XXXI (Patricia), 2015, graphite on paper, Richard Gray Gallery

Subtle, charming, and so beautiful.

Jaume Plensa, Roots (Study), 2015, painted stainless steel, Richard Gray Gallery

Nice to see this again, albeit in a smaller size! The big one sits at Raffles Place in Singapore.

Jaume Plensa, Laura Asia; Paula Europe; Mar Asia, 2015, marble, Galerie Lelong

These three sculptures are pretty large in size, and are based on portraits of women who Plensa knows. Feels like a bit of quiet amid the bustling fair.

And that’s it for my review of Art Basel Hong Kong this year! To see the first half of my review of Art Basel featuring contemporary artworks, click here, and if you’ll like to see my review of Art Basel last year, click here to see all of the related posts!

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