Arts Picks: ArtScience Museum’s AI fest, Wild Rice’s studio show Dive, Ang Ah Tee at Confluence
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Singaporean artist Niceaunties has created her first real-world work, an oversized inflatable of a garlic character, for the ArtScience Museum's In The Ether festival.
PHOTO: MARINA BAY SANDS
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In The Ether – A Festival Of Technology And Innovation
Singaporean sensation Niceaunties is reason enough to pop by the ArtScience Museum in September. The artist known for her quirky artificial intelligence-generated art centring on a world filled with aunties doing weird and wacky things has a new work on show at In The Ether.
Tucked up on the fourth floor of the museum, Auntiedote: Aoli Times comprises an animated short and an inflatable installation – Niceaunties’ first real-world work.
The short tells the story of a little head of garlic which aspires to be a model and is encouraged in its quest by a group of supportive aunties. The inflatable is a re-creation of the garlic character.
Look closer and you can spot the flaws of AI-generated visuals – four-fingered hands and six-toed, mismatched feet – blown up to larger-than-life proportions.
There are other works scattered throughout the museum’s public access areas for this mostly free festival, presented in partnership with community engagement platform Ethereum Singapore.
There are a couple of fun interactive installations in the basement. Stand in front of Bios: Living NFTs – Bonsai Specimens by Jake Tan and Ernest Wu, and the display will “grow” you as a bonsai plant.
Kids of all ages will love Quick, Draw! by Google Creative Lab, which is like playing Pictionary, except you are doodling on an iPad for AI to decipher your scrawls.
The ArtScience Cinema will also be screening a selection of short films and AI-assisted works as part of the festival. There will be free and ticketed screenings.
This festival is a good chance to check out the virtual-reality (VR) gallery as there is a free programme. Awavena (2018) is a VR documentary about Hushahu, the first woman shaman of the Yawanawa people of the Amazon.
Where: ArtScience Museum, 6 Bayfront Avenue str.sg/wVqkj
MRT: Bayfront
When: Till Sept 30, 10am to 7pm, Sundays to Thursdays; 10am to 9pm, Fridays and Saturdays
Admission: Free
Info:
Dive
Wild Rice is presenting Dive, written by Laura Hayes and directed by Sim Yan Ying.
PHOTO: RACHEL NG
Singapore-based British theatremaker Laura Hayes’ play traces the development of one couple’s relationship from adolescence to old age. Directed by Sim Yan Ying, this dives into the darker side of relationships, beyond the giddy glee of first love, and explores the complexities of a long-term partnership.
This intimate production will be presented at Wild Rice’s studio space, and there are content warnings of intimate partner violence and suicide references.
Where: The Studio @ Wild Rice, Funan, 107 North Bridge Road str.sg/64Za
MRT: City Hall
When: Sept 5 to 22, 7.30pm, Tuesdays to Fridays; 2.30 and 7.30pm, weekends
Admission: $40
Info:
Poetry In Motion
Artist Ang Ah Tee is showing a selection of oils, acrylics and mixed-media works at Confluence Art Space.
PHOTO: ANG AH TEE
Cultural Medallion recipient Ang Ah Tee is on a roll. After exhibiting 40 new works at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (Nafa), University of the Arts, in a show which closed on Sept 4, the 81-year-old is holding another exhibition at Confluence Art Space.
The gallery space is tiny, highlighting just a few of the 45 works covered in the print catalogue. But this showcase is an interesting contrast to the recently ended Nafa show as it spans the breadth of Ang’s career.
Two rare figurative oils depicting weavers show the Nafa-trained artist’s influences. Weavers (1971) features lanky female figures reminiscent of Cheong Soo Pieng.
Artist Ang Ah Tee’s Weavers (1971).
PHOTO: ANG AH TEE
More intriguing from this artist known for his thickly textured paint strokes are the ink and mixed-media works like Boon Tat Street (1984) and Queen Street II (2021), where the influence of Chinese ink painting dominates in the light washes of colour and use of white space.
Where: Confluence Art Space, 02-29 Havelock 2, 2 Havelock Road www.confluenceartspace.com
MRT: Chinatown/Clarke Quay
When: Till Oct 6, 1 to 6pm, Wednesdays to Sundays; only by appointment on Mondays and Tuesdays
Admission: Free
Info:
