Arts Picks: Singapore Art Week highlights from OH! Open House, Suzann Victor and Fort Canning
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
Chong Kim Chiew’s Isolation House builds a maze and memorial to the 500,000 people who were placed in internment camps during the Malayan Emergency.
PHOTO: OH! OPEN HOUSE
Follow topic:
The Eye And The Tiger
Singapore Art Week is an annual deluge of visual arts events. Some shows will inevitably disappear under the unmanageable avalanche, so here are some worth your time and effort.
First on the list is OH! Open House’s artistic takeover of a black-and-white bungalow. Since it started in 2009, OH! has built some intriguing artistic explorations out of unexpected venues.
The Eye And The Tiger is thus typical OH! fodder, juxtaposing a clutch of South-east Asian artists’ works in conversation with colonial legacies of architecture, exploitation and aesthetics. The tiger motif ties into OH!’s storytelling focus, exploring the big cat’s role in Singapore’s story and parsing how the colonial gaze still influences the Republic’s relationship with land and nature.
The 90-minute guided art tour dives into the history of not just the black-and-white bungalow, but also that of nearby landmarks Botanic Gardens and Tiger Hill. The artists featured include OH! artistic director Alan Oei, Robert Zhao Renhui and Ezzam Rahman.
OH! is also launching its fund-raising campaign for 2025 and a Friends Of OH! programme at this show.
Where: 7 Adam Park give.asia/theeyeandthetiger str.sg/u3os
MRT: Botanic Gardens
When: Jan 12 to 19, Monday to Friday, 4 to 10pm, Saturday and Sunday, 1 to 7.30pm
Admission: $40 at
Info:
Constellations
Singapore-born Australia-based artist Suzann Victor’s new show Constellations is on at STPI from Jan 15 to March 2.
PHOTO: TONI CUHADI
Suzann Victor’s latest show at STPI features a series with acrylic discs mounted in displays that “print” light and shadow on walls.
PHOTO: SUZANN VICTOR
Suzann Victor’s Enigma – In Two Movements (Green 4), 2024.
PHOTO: SUZANN VICTOR
Expectations are high for Singapore-born artist Suzann Victor’s latest collaboration with STPI, after her previous experiments at the print workshop.
Having deployed liquid paper as a painting medium on acrylic and turned the STPI galleries into resonant chambers in her previous show at the space, the Sydney-based artist is exploring light and shadow in Constellations.
More than 20 new works will be on display. Transparent glazed acrylic discs are mounted in minimalist monochrome layouts that “print” light and shadows on walls. These look like pared-down versions of some of her large-scale prismatic installations and present a sense of distilled sensuality.
In the Enigma and Simulation series, the energy of mark making is captured in bold abstract forms. These are more reminiscent of the series created with spit bite aquatint in her 2015 STPI show.
Where: STPI – Creative Workshop & Gallery, 41 Robertson Quay str.sg/dULF
MRT: Fort Canning
When: Jan 15 to March 2; Mondays to Saturdays, 10am to 7pm; Sundays, 11am to 5pm; closed on public holidays
Admission: Free
Info:
Before And After The Unknown
Before And After The Unknown is a multimedia installation combining film, sculpture and video game elements.
PHOTO: MARK CHUA AND LAM LI SHUEN
Film-maker and artist duo Mark Chua and Lam Li Shuen are presenting a multimedia installation at Fort Canning Park. This ambitious work brings together film, sculpture and a video game to create an imagined 11th-century Temasek island.
This speculative fiction work presents snapshots of this island’s mythic history. Players of the video game, titled Kelabi Figments, will have to look for three characters – created with 3D scans of real performers – with different stories to tell.
The production crew has credentials. Creators Chua and Lam won the inaugural 2021 Julius Baer Next Generation Art Prize; theatre veterans Irfan Kasban and Rizman Putra are involved as costume designer and actor respectively; and performers include contemporary dance company P7:1SMA co-founders Hasyimah Harith and Norhaizad Adam.
What is intriguing is the attempt at a decolonising narrative, an artistic corrective of sorts to the third public statue of Sir Stamford Raffles and Dr Nathaniel Wallich, the installation of which caused a furore in 2024.
For a more in-depth experience of the work, join the artists’ tour on Jan 18 and 25 at 3pm via this link, tinyurl.com/baatu2025
Where: 21 Lewin Terrace str.sg/9cCY
MRT: Fort Canning
When: Jan 17 to 26, 11am to 7pm
Admission: Free
Info:
Ong Sor Fern is arts editor at The Straits Times.
