Arts Picks: An experimental installation, a show that pays tribute and more
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(Clockwise from left) Artists Yanyun Chen's artwork Risk: Rage, Bridget Tay and Nazrin Ramlee's Synapse Intarsia and Farhan Siki's Life In Uncertainty.
PHOTOS: ART PORTERS GALLERY, KOH ZHI JING, LINDA GALLERY
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Gently Savage
The usual floral motifs that are associated with the work of artist Yanyun Chen have taken on a darker patina.
While her artworks like Risk Rage (2022) still evoke the paintings of flowers by 17-century Dutch masters, Chen also adds savage strokes of black charcoal that are more akin to 20th-century abstract expressionism. It is a duality that is aptly expressed in the title of the exhibition, which is showing at Art Porters Gallery.
Her works are inspired by the writings of French psychoanalyst and philosopher Anne Dufourmentelle, who was also her professor at the The European Graduate School in Switzerland where she received her PhD in Philosophy, Art and Critical Theory in 2018.
Dufourmentelle died in 2017 trying to save two children from drowning in the Mediterranean Sea. For Chen, Gently Savage is also a moving tribute to her former professor who once wrote: “It is not always sweet to live. But the sensation of being alive calls upon gentleness.”
Where: Art Porters Gallery, 64 Spottiswoode Park Road artporters.com
MRT: Outram Park
When: Till Feb 5, Tuesdays to Sundays, 10.30am to 7pm; Mondays by appointment
Admission: Free
Info:
Without Beginning / Without End
Artwork by artist Farhan Siki called Life In Uncertainty (2022) at the exhibition, Without Beginning / Without End at Linda Gallery.
PHOTO: LINDA GALLERY
Indonesian artist Farhan Siki got involved with public art projects after graduating from the State University of Jember in 2000 where he read literature. And that urgent, urban and street aesthetic of his early works have come to define his art-making process.
Not one to shy away from social commentary, Farhan uses his work, often created with spray paint, to highlight issues such as climate change, energy crises and war. His recent works are now on show at an exhibition called Without Beginning / Without End at Linda Gallery.
The artist, who also won the United Overseas Bank UOB Painting of the Year (Indonesia) award in 2022, uses stencils as well. In the work titled Life In Uncertainty (2022), stencilled text and various appropriated symbols of urban life on canvas read like a secret, cryptic message.
A call to action perhaps? If so, Farhan’s weapon of choice is a can of spray paint.
Where: Linda Gallery, 04-04 Tanjong Pagar Distripark, 39 Keppel Road info@lindagallery.com
MRT: Tanjong Pagar
When: Till Jan 30, 10am to 6.30pm daily; closed on public holidays
Admission: Free
Info: Email
Synapse Intarsia
Artist duo of Bridget Tay and Nazrin Ramlee’s Synapse Intarsia at Little India.
PHOTO: COLIN WAN
Art may not always come fully formed. This is evident in Synapse Intarsia, an experimental art installation by artist duo AVC in Little India.
Located at POLI @ Clive Street, the work features bulbous pink forms made from expanding foam that are embedded with circuits designed to animate parts of the work and produce sound in response to visitors’ movement patterns. This brings the installation to life.
AVC comprises artist, curator and educator Bridget Tay, as well as Nazrin Ramlee, a multidisciplinary musician and designer. With Synapse Intarsia, they aim to examine the relationship and dynamics of painting and sound, and provoke new ways of engaging with art.
Synapse Intarsia is part of the final edition of Art Outreach’s Art Encounters series of travelling exhibitions that are housed in repurposed shipping containers. After POLI @ Clive Street, it will travel to Tanjong Pagar Distripark (39 Keppel Road) for Singapore Art Week 2023 from Jan 6 to 15. www.artoutreachsingapore.org
Where: POLI @ Clive Street (Little India cultural precinct)
When: Till Jan 2, 11am to 7pm daily
MRT: Jalan Besar
Admission: Free
Info:
