Arts Picks: The Utopia Of Rules, Verse and a travelling gallery
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Hong Kong artist Kwan Sheung Chi's In Defence Of Kwan Sheung Chi adopts the language of militant patriotism to abuse his own critics.
PHOTO: COURTESY OF KWAN SHEUNG CHI
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The Utopia Of Rules
Amid the glut of Singapore Art Week (SAW) events, a show that has not had much airtime is The Utopia Of Rules, which opens at 72-13 Mohamed Sultan Road on Jan 17.
It is a tight, conceptual show that brings together 15 artists – including Heman Chong from Singapore, American Josh Kline and Hong Kong’s Kwan Sheung Chi – who examine bureaucracy and how it impacts artists’ practices and people’s lives.
Part of the interest is in the eclectic mix that curators Kathleen Ditzig and Hera Chan have amassed. There are video works – like Kwan’s In Defence Of Kwan Sheung Chi, in which he stages a press briefing to denounce critics of his art – but also batik, mixed-media installation works incorporating plants and award trophies, and architectural blueprints.
National University of Singapore senior lecturer Margaret Tan’s illustration of a “smart apron”, which she pitched in 2003 for a digital arts awards competition, is a curiosity.
Today, one might be tempted to read its indication of a “string tied around neck to check vital signs” and a “computer mainframe sewn into apron” satirically. But Tan has said it is a sincere creation bearing in mind the needs of migrant domestic workers who are often passed over by technological advances.
Curator Ditzig describes the show as “experimental, ambitious and international”, as well as a secret love letter to Singapore and its art community, which includes artists and the state.
“With the pivot towards automatisation, we felt it was high time to think about how artists have creatively addressed the systems and logics that run our lives.”
The show title is taken from American anthropologist David Graeber’s 2015 book, a railing against excessive rules and form-filling that render both enforcers and followers of rules impotent and stupid.
National University of Singapore senior lecturer Margaret Tan’s Smart Apron illustration is a futuristic imagination of what investing in migrant domestic workers might look like.
PHOTO: MARGARET TAN
Where: 72-13 Mohamed Sultan Road theutopiaofrules.sg
MRT: Great World/Fort Canning
When: Jan 17 to 26, noon to 6.30pm
Admission: Free
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Objects In Mirror Are Closer Than They Appear
Cynthia Suwito recreates her home studio by popular demand in this show of miniatures.
PHOTO: CON-TEMPORARY ART
How much art can you squeeze into a box? Maverick project Con-Temporary Art wants artgoers making their circuits over the weekend to seek it out on foot, as its travelling exhibition perambulates Tanjong Pagar Distripark, Shenton Way, Basheer Graphic Books at Bras Basah Complex and Dhoby Ghaut.
It is an exercise in miniature, erecting a Con-Temporary “art gallery building” without bricks or steel that can be borne by two people.
Within the contraption, the works of five artists have been curated, deadly serious in their aesthetic philosophies – whether Ong Kian Peng’s Op Art piece or Cynthia Suwito’s sculpture that is an uncanny replica of her home studio, an embracing of “self-referential indulgence”.
The project is the brainchild of Joshua Kon, who is interested in playing out his predictions on the future of contemporary art and the role of the artist.
The group will update its whereabouts daily via its social media channels. Artistic director Arrvinraj says: “What we lack in scale, we balance with ambition.”
Where: Various locations, including Tanjong Pagar Distripark and Shenton Way str.sg/nD26
MRT: Various
When: Jan 17 to 26, various timings
Admission: Free
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Verse at The Arts House
A Little Bead Of Work by Kray Chen will be in The Arts House front lawn.
PHOTO: KRAY CHEN
The Arts House, which promotes the literary arts, is plugging into the buzz of SAW with its own outdoor installations, theatre performances and film screenings in January.
In the foyer, it has set up “Singapore’s largest interactive blackout poetry installation”, a blackboard populated with words and phrases with which visitors can co-create multilingual poetry.
Its screening room is also playing host to a showcase of 13 Singapore short films, some as short as two minutes, giving new spins to national buzzwords such as active ageing, lifelong learning and redefining success. These are created by acclaimed film-makers including Boo Junfeng, K. Rajagopal, Kirsten Tan and Royston Tan.
A pre-loved books nook with more than 200 titles makes for a fertile pit stop, while Kray Chen’s interactive installation – A Little Bead Of Work – on the lawn provides glow-in-the-dark alphabet beads, so visitors can create friendship bracelets a la American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift, melding high art and pop culture.
The programmes are part of Verse, a new year-long literary arts programme launched by Arts House Limited to make literature accessible.
As part of Light To Night Festival 2025, the facade of the Old Parliament House also becomes canvas to a reimagination of Singapore’s graffiti culture, created by street artist Sufian Hamri, going by his artist name TraseOne.
Where: The Arts House, 1 Old Parliament Lane artshouselimited.sg/tah-verse-2025
MRT: City Hall
When: Jan 17 to Feb 2, various timings
Admission: Free and ticketed
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