Arts Picks: Zhang Fuming, Tan Chin Boon and City Chinese Orchestra
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Artwork Reflection, 2022, by Zhang Fuming.
PHOTO: AC43 GALLERY
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Zhang Fuming’s Props And Poses
Singaporean artist Zhang Fuming critiques the inauthenticity and materialism of the middle class in stark black-and-white woodcuts for his latest exhibition, Props And Poses.
While he focused more on the gritty realities of the less well-off in his previous exhibitions, there is a preponderance of faceless suits here.
A man in a white button-down sits at a feast, his head replaced by two screens depicting another two faceless men in suits gesturing approval.
In another work, moviegoers watch a scene straight out of the Central Business District. A man monitors the value of his stocks on his laptop, with a view of skyscrapers. He is also in a button-down suit, his face once more outside the frame.
Many of the 11 large mixed-media woodcuts and eight smaller drawings in this exhibition were completed by Zhang in 2022.
An installation by artist and printmaker Zhang Fuming.
PHOTO: ZHANG FUMING
Those who know his work might find the latest tranche slightly more impersonal, but they remain dynamic, forged by Zhang’s determined carving against the woodgrain.
Where: AC43 Gallery, Level 1 Carlton Hotel Singapore, 76 Bras Basah Road www.ac43gallery.com/exhibitions
MRT: Bras Basah/City Hall
When: Friday to Jan 2, noon to 7pm daily
Admission: Free
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Tan Chin Boon’s Immersive Wetlands
Tan Chin Boon’s Rising Like The Sun (left) and Strolling In The Wetland at his Immersive Wetlands exhibition.
PHOTOS: NAFA
With just Chinese ink and colour, Tan Chin Boon evokes the tropical wetlands and fauna, sometimes with precise strokes, other times with gestural movements that border on the abstract.
Tan learnt seal carving and Chinese ink painting under pioneer artists See Hiang To and Chen Chong Swee, and has been more well-known for his seal carvings, which feature aphorisms that are humorous and reflective of the vernacular – a twist on the traditional Chinese craft.
His latest works attempt to reimagine classical Chinese landscape painting. There are stylised shorebirds and fish, and the soft edges of partially submerged plants give it all a mythical, early-morning quality.
Where: The Ngee Ann Kongsi Galleries 1 & 2, Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts Campus 1, 80 Bencoolen Street str.sg/wCjC
MRT: Bencoolen/Bugis
When: Saturday to Dec 28, 11am to 7pm
Admission: Free
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City Chinese Orchestra’s Vistas
Vistas is conducted by Cultural Medallion recipient Tay Teow Kiat.
PHOTO: Singapore Chinese Cultural Centre
This is City Chinese Orchestra’s first return to the stage since Covid-19 and it does so with a full orchestra.
The concert’s repertoire includes erhu concerto Red River by He Bin and Ma Shenglong, about Song dynasty general Yue Fei’s anguished loyalty to and love for his country; as well as the premiere of the four-movement suite Mongolian Fantasies Of The Vast Horqin Grassland by Zhang Hanshu, a Han Chinese who grew up in Inner Mongolia.
There is also Li Huanzhi’s Longing For Reunion, a classic piece of emotional and cultural attachment felt by people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait. This incorporates traditional Nanyin instrumentation, Hokkien wayang and folk tunes.
The concert is conducted by Cultural Medallion recipient and City Chinese Orchestra founder Tay Teow Kiat.
Where: Victoria Concert Hall, 11 Empress Place www.sistic.com.sg/events/vistas1222
MRT: Raffles Place
When: Sunday, 5pm
Admission: $18 to $38
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