Arts Picks
The Private Museum’s show focuses on the state of being human
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Human Being Human at The Private Museum
PHOTO: THE PRIVATE MUSEUM
Human Being Human
This humanist show has, as its centrepiece, a life-size photograph of German artist Joseph Beuys striding forward in a fisherman’s jacket. In this everyman get-up, he is a prophet-artist showing the way after two world wars – a message that permeates the two floors of art at The Private Museum in Upper Wilkie Road.
Drawn from the collection of former medical officers John and Cheryl Chia, Human Being Human is a presentation about rebirth, and viewers are made to go through the process of re-socialisation.
Curator Tamares Goh takes visitors from the sequential studies of English photographer Eadweard Muybridge – full of curiosity as he captures the micro-movements of how animals walk – to the burdensome state of being alive, anchored by Singaporean artist Zai Kuning’s existential installation that reminds one of the ferryman Charon rowing his boat across the river Styx.
The Private Museum show is part of Singapore Art Week, but is on till April.
There are transfixing video works but also a series of body prints by Lee Wen, and one can marvel at just how complex the striations on a human body are, and how foolhardy it is to affix an identity to people. Until the Philippines’ power art duo Isabel and Alfredo Aquilizan retort by showing how simple it is to stuff one’s belongings into a box.
In an ode to the foibles, and also necessity, of human endeavour, Chinese artist Zhang Huan got naked collaborators to pile on one another on a mountain in a work titled To Add One Meter To An Anonymous Mountain. Human effort may be fundamentally ridiculous, but it is also simultaneously noble and brave.
Where: 11 Upper Wilkie Road str.sg/HLaP
MRT: Rochor/Little India
When: Till April 26, 10am to 7pm (Mondays to Fridays), 11am to 5pm (Saturdays and Sundays)
Admission: Free
Info:
Shuang Li: Alliance
Artist Shuang Li’s video work at Kim Association follows her curiosity in the practice of storm chasing.
PHOTO: KIM ASSOCIATION
Art project space Kim Association is back with a new project, spotlighting the Germany- and China-based artist Shuang Li. This exhibition is just opposite New Bahru at a capsule space, and is primarily a video work following Li’s curiosity in the practice of storm chasing.
She uses it as a metaphor for the thrill and disorientation of online media, on which so much time is spent. But the deeper story here is also about the desire to get out of one’s body and locale. Li was born in a village in China called Wuyi, and her early worldview was shaped by pirated media: knock-off Nintendo, bootleg CDs, Myspace and YouTube culture.
The 36-year-old says of the process of making the work, which took her team to 11 states in the US over seven days: “I used to put on all these live streams of storm chasing and it was very soothing, because there are hours of driving nowhere, like meditation. For us, it was peaceful for the most part, but we also saw a drone crash in South Dakota.”
Her body in the video is remade by the tornado. Li’s relationship with her body is still complicated. “Before Covid-19, it was quite abstract, but now, I’m making more things with my hands. I’m doing acupuncture. It’s like I’ve only recently become human.”
Where: 63 Kim Yam Road hello@kimassociation.org kimassociation.org
MRT: Fort Canning
When: Till March 22, by appointment via
Admission: Free
Info:
Singapore International Violin Competition
Three Stradivari violins on display at the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music.
PHOTO: YONG SIEW TOH CONSERVATORY OF MUSIC
View three million-dollar violins made between 1688 and 1718 by the renowned Stradivari family at the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music, as part of the triennial Singapore International Violin Competition 2026.
The platform, started in 2014, brings together 30 of the best violinists in the world under the age of 30, and is a good opportunity for musicians here to witness the bowing and pizzicato of some of the most promising players in action.
The 2026 edition started on Jan 24 and the violinists are put through a gruelling schedule. By Feb 7, three grand finalists will remain and get the chance to perform a concerto of their choice with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra in the Esplanade Concert Hall. They will be judged by an international jury for not just their interpretive daring, but also command of the orchestra arena.
Admission up till the semi-finals is free. Tickets for the grand finals start at $20.
Where: Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music, Victoria Concert Hall, Esplanade Concert Hall singaporeviolincompetition.com/schedule
MRT: Kent Ridge, City Hall/Raffles Place, Esplanade
When: Till Feb 7, various timings
Admission: Free and ticketed
Info:
