Arts Picks: Peranakan Museum’s Batik Nonyas, Yeo Workshop’s textile art, Esplanade’s Voices festival
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Get insights into craft and batik in Batik Nyonyas: Three Generations Of Art And Entrepreneurship at the Peranakan Museum.
PHOTO: PERANAKAN MUSEUM
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Batik Nyonyas: Three Generations Of Art And Entrepreneurship
Craft can and should be considered high art and this show at the Peranakan Museum is a good argument in favour of this statement.
Batik Nyonyas showcases the works of three generations of batik-makers from a Peranakan family in Indonesia: Nonya Oeij Soen King (1871 to 1950), Nonya Oeij Kok Sing (1895 to 1966) and Jane Hendromartono (1924 to 1988).
While the show is centred on these three women, there is an effort to contextualise their work and explain what sets them apart from other batik-makers. Oeij Soen King’s pieces are displayed against other renowned batik-makers such as Eliza van Zuylen, the most successful Eurasian batik-maker in Pekalongan.
While the family ran their business from their home, it is no exaggeration to say their batik pieces are couture creations, painstakingly hand-drawn and made exclusively for wealthy clients.
Try your hand at tracing one of the batik motifs at an activity station and you will gain a new appreciation of the skill needed to pack multiple small motifs onto a piece of fabric with a hot canting, the tool for applying wax for the dye resistance process.
The works are evidence of the vibrant cultural exchanges that happened, and are still happening, in this part of the world. A sarong (1900s to 1920s) by Lien Metzelaar depicts the Snow White story with characters dressed in mediaeval costumes, while wall hangings by Hendromartono and Oeij Kok Sing depict classical Chinese beauties in traditional dress.
This is a good introduction to batik for newbies with no knowledge of the tradition and makes a good case for considering batik-making as a fine art.
Where: Peranakan Museum, 39 Armenian Street str.sg/eo3e
MRT: City Hall/Dhoby Ghaut
When: Till Aug 31, 10am to 7pm daily, till 9pm on Fridays
Admission: Singapore residents – free for permanent galleries, $6 for special exhibitions; tourists – $18 for permanent galleries and special exhibitions
Info:
Who Is Weaving Skynet?
Yeo Workshop’s latest group exhibition features artists working with textiles.
PHOTO: NUHAYD NAUFAL
From heritage fabrics at the Peranakan Museum to contemporary art treatment of textiles at Yeo Workshop. The traditional crafts of sewing, embroidery and weaving have been picked up by contemporary art practitioners in recent years as a way of querying issues ranging from gender roles and heritage to colonialism and materialism.
Yeo Workshop’s latest group exhibition, curated by New York-based Vietnamese curator Do Tuong Linh, addresses head-on the snobbery and colonialism inherent in the characterisation of textile-based practice as “craft”.
The works featured range from Vietnamese Tra My Nguyen’s textile sculptures to Iranian Leila Seyedzadeh’s fabric installations.
The exhibition also includes a performance art element that is part of Millenia Walk’s Moving Wonders showcase. Vietnamese artist Lai Thi Dieu Ha will be showing his wearable fabric sculptures at the mall on Nov 30, 2 to 5pm, and Dec 14, 2 to 5pm.
See textiles in new light at Yeo Workshop’s group exhibition.
PHOTO: NUHAYD NAUFAL
Where: 01-25 Gillman Barracks, 47 Malan Road www.yeoworkshop.com
MRT: Labrador Park
When: Till Jan 5, 11am to 7pm (Tuesdays to Saturdays), closed on Sundays, Mondays and public holidays
Admission: Free
Info:
Voices – A Festival Of Song
The year’s end can often feel frenetic with the demands of the holiday season. So, grab the chance to chill out to the thrilling trills of song at the Esplanade’s annual Voices festival.
In this age of auto-tuned monotony, the a cappella groups highlighted in the festival are a spine-tingling reminder of the beauty and purity of the human voice.
The Gesualdo Six will sing a Christmas concert at the Esplanade's Voices festival.
PHOTO: ASH MILLS
Look out for award-winning British ensemble The Gesualdo Six, which will present a Christmas programme including a motet by Renaissance composer William Byrd and an arrangement of Away In A Manger by its director Owain Park.
Singaporean soprano Joyce Lee Tung presents a programme of art songs at the Voices festival.
PHOTO: KATE BIRD
Australian group The Idea Of North offers a more mainstream programme of pop and jazz numbers, while closer to home, The Art Song Coterie features Singaporean soprano Joyce Lee Tung, who will premiere home-grown composer Americ Goh’s 7 Songs On A Living.
Where: Esplanade – Theatres on the Bay, 1 Esplanade Drive str.sg/dcTX
MRT: Esplanade
When: Dec 5 to 8, various timings
Admission: Free and ticketed
Info:
