Singapore Art Week, the country’s biggest celebration of visual arts, is back this year, with over 150 events taking place across the island. Leading the hub for South-east Asian contemporary art is the much-awaited S.E.A. Focus. If you’re an art enthusiast keen on a highly curated and enriching art experience, you’ll want to add this event to your calendar.

Now in its sixth edition, S.E.A. Focus returns to Tanjong Pagar Distripark from Jan 20 to 28, with Bank of Singapore as its Main Sponsor. The sponsorship supports S.E.A. Focus as a home-grown art platform in highlighting the region’s rich cultural heritage and artistic diversity, and gives artists the unique opportunity to showcase their talents.

The boutique exhibition brings together 22 galleries and more than 40 artists from around the region who have responded to the theme “Serial and Massively Parallel”, which explores the relationship between humanity and technology, showcasing artworks that reflect on human creativity and expression in this digital age. 

Visitors and collectors can expect to see large-scale works and installations, including a designated screening room featuring artists’ video works. 

Get your tickets here, and read on for key artworks to look out for from some of the best artists in the region. 

Conversing with the “Sun”

Living in a digital age means being glued to one's devices, particularly smartphones. It is common practice to be constantly taking photos and videos to share on social media, if not storing them as keepsakes.

But Thai artist and acclaimed filmmaker Apichatpong Weerasethakul sees this practice in a different light, saying: “To film is not to keep, not to remember, but to have a dialogue with the present.” 

His introspective video installation work, “A Conversation with the Sun”, was first presented at BANGKOK CITYCITY GALLERY in 2022. Inspired by Weerasethakul’s contemplations of the sun on his long walks, the piece is a profound exploration of memory and perception, featuring self-documented video footage of landscapes, people and objects taken over several years. Like a personal memory archive, these clips offer a peek into the artist’s mind.

The footage is ingeniously displayed with a large, mobile curtain backdrop mechanised by Thai visual design studio DuckUnit. This distinctive use of the fabric-curtain-backdrop is a recurring motif in Weerasethakul's work, seen in his past projects such as “Fever Room” (2015) and “Constellations” (2018). In this latest installation, the curtains are not just static displays but mobile elements that interact with the video, adding a layer of theatricality and mystery.

Insect larvae as art?

Aside from entomologists, not many people would pay much attention to moth larvae. Malaysian artist Tan Zi Hao is an exception.

His fascination with plaster bagworms – tiny, often unnoticed household pests – are the stars of his macro photography series titled “Bags of Stories”. In this series, created using UV printing on fabric and displayed in a lightbox, these larval cases – which appear grey and monochromatic from afar – suddenly become an explosion of colour and pattern.

Through this work, Tan, who is represented by A+ Works of Art, draws a poetic parallel between humans and these moths, known scientifically as Phereoeca (meaning “bearer of house”). His work reveals how these larvae's cases, made from everyday remnants like hair or carpet fibres, symbolise the interconnectedness of human life and nature.

Exquisite glass sculptures  

When you think of blown-glass objects, decorative ornaments like vases may come to mind. But Filipino artist Goldie Poblador, represented by MONO8, uses this fascinating art form to draw attention to issues such as environmental health, femininity and her identity as a Filipina living in a postcolonial society.

A selection of Poblador’s “Sea Anomaly” series will be exhibited at S.E.A. Focus. These intricate blown-glass sculptures, such as a colourful sea slug perched on a branching coral, reflect on the fragile marine life affected by the 2023 oil spills in the Verde Island Passage in the Philippines.

Through the sculptures, Poblador takes visitors on a journey into environmental awareness, cultural identity and the power of art as a vehicle for change.

Elsewhere in the exhibition, check out Vietnamese-American artist Dinh Q Le’s stunning, highly sought-after photo-weaving series, “Splendor & Darkness”, which were created with the help of the Singapore Tyler Print Institute’s (STPI’s) technical capabilities. Meanwhile, Indonesian artist Alexander Sebastianus Hartanto’s five-panel work of batik prints on pixelated, archived photographs begs a closer look. 

Selected outstanding artworks showcased during the exhibition will be acquired for the Singapore Art Museum (SAM) collection under the SAM S.E.A. Focus Art Fund. This initiative was established by S.E.A. Focus in 2023, and backed by founding sponsor the Yenn and Alan Lo Foundation, to celebrate the region’s artistic talents.

S.E.A. Focus will be held from Jan 20 to 28 at Tanjong Pagar Distripark, 39 Keppel Road, Singapore 089065. Tickets are on sale at $10 via www.seafocus.sg. Each ticket is valid for multiple entries. 

Visit this website for more information on programmes, artists and ticketing.