Film-maker Royston Tan documents 100 family dinners in new installation work at Art Outreach

Homecoming 3: Coming Home

With Ramadan and Chinese New Year starting in the same week, households around Singapore are engaged in shared and peculiar familial rituals around food and celebration. It is apt that Art Outreach Singapore is hosting an exhibition capturing the myriad expressions of how Singaporeans come together for a meal.

The exhibition features two interconnected works that form a panorama of Singaporeans at the dining table. In the video installation 100 Dinners, film-maker Royston Tan documents 100 families across Singapore as they share their meals. In the same space, ceramist Kim Whye Kee presents 100 hand-thrown ceramic rice bowls, each painted with a pomfret.

Curator John Z.W. Tung notes in his curatorial statement that the works on display showcase four varieties of pomfret, each with distinct symbolism across Singapore’s diverse communities. “What appears as luxury to some offers sustenance to others; what marks celebration in one household provides everyday comfort in another. These interpretations, layered and varied, mirror the richness of our multicultural fabric.”

Coming Home, presented in partnership with Families for Life – formerly known as the National Family Council – is the third instalment of the Homecoming exhibition series.

Where: Art Outreach Singapore, 01-06 Gillman Barracks, 5 Lock Road
MRT: Labrador Park
When: Till Feb 22, 11am to 7pm
Admission: Free
Info: str.sg/wFbZ2

ReSounding: See Ning Hui In Recital

Singaporean pianist See Ning Hui’s first solo recital in Singapore after returning from London opens deceptively with French composer Claude Debussy’s preludes, but what follows is a compelling programme that goes beyond standard piano repertoire even as it is invoked.

The night’s centrepiece is Easter Sonata (1828) by German composer Fanny Mendelssohn, who was as prodigious as her younger brother Felix, although it is the latter who is far better known today. The four-movement piano work was long misattributed to Felix and premiered under her name only in 2012.

Audiences will also hear familiar Singapore soundscapes in the world premiere of Singaporean composer Toh Yan Ee’s commissioned piece Within A Cage Of Echoes, inspired by bird songs heard at Serangoon North near her home. There will also be a performance of Singaporean composer Ng Yu Hng’s The Memory Mansion At The End Of Time (2021).

See will also perform the Singapore premiere of Fantasie Negre No. 2 In G Minor (1932) by Florence Price, the first African-American woman to be recognised as a symphonic composer. The piece, which integrates African-American soundscapes, provides a counterpoint and resonance to Polish composer Frederic Chopin’s Fantaisie In F Minor, Op. 49.

Where: Esplanade Recital Studio, 1 Esplanade Drive
MRT: City Hall/Esplanade
When: Feb 22, 4pm
Admission: $22 to $50
Info: str.sg/jGRf

Reimagined Realities by Ezra Chan

Singaporean artist Ezra Chan, who was in 2015 the youngest emerging artist to win the Most Promising Artist of the Year (Singapore) award under the emerging artist category at the UOB Painting of the Year competition, is having his first solo exhibition, Reimagined Realities.

Since 2015, the 25-year-old’s work has been shown on international platforms in Britain, the United States and Spain.

Chan’s bold use of colours in his acrylic-on-canvas works lends vibrancy to his scenes of neighbourhoods, cityscapes, expressways, tourist spots and familiar iconography. Drawing from the visual vocabulary of mosaics and kaleidoscopes, the everyday landscape of Singapore is rearranged through his playful gaze.

Organised by UOB under the UOB Artist Alumni Network, all displayed artworks are available for sale except for Chan’s prize-winning artwork, Play. Full proceeds from the sales will go to the artist.

Where: Parkroyal on Beach Road (outside Si Chuan Dou Hua Restaurant), 7500A Beach Road
MRT: Nicoll Highway
When: Till March 31
Admission: Free
Info: str.sg/9aXp