Group exhibition And That Which Is Always Known takes into account the historical baggage that artists inherit when making art. The works by artists from South-east Asian countries such as Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam include collage, textiles, photographs and videos.
Where: Yavuz Gallery, 02-23 Gillman Barracks, 9 Lock Road MRT: Labrador Park When: Till May 24, 11am - 7pm, Tue - Sat, 1 - 5pm, Sun, by appointment only on Mon and public holiday Admission: Free Info: www.yavuzgallery.com
Lee Jian Xuan
1 NATIVE COUNTRY (2013)
The photograph is from a series depicting the mixed-race children of Vietnamese women and Japanese soldiers following Japan's military occupation in 1941. Posing for the camera in their homes, these men and women are at once Japanese and Vietnamese, yet the histories shared in these photographs remain untold.
2 UNTITLED (2014)
The artist draws on design motifs and decorative traditions unique to the Lanna culture of northern Thailand. The brightly coloured paper, typically used in celebrations and festivities, obscures digitally printed photographs of violent political events in Thailand's history. Here, political upheaval and violence are literally masked by ornamentation.
3 NO ONE TO TAKE CARE (2015)
The Cambodian artist explores difficult memories from a childhood spent in a period of civil war near the border of Thailand with graphite drawings that explore the line between abstraction and figuration, and convey her experiences of imprisonment and freedom.
4 KBACH PHKAA CHAN 1 (2014)
The artist transforms the Khmer kbach, a traditional design motif found in the temples of Angkor, through the use of synthetic materials such as beads, buttons and sequins. These flower-shaped textiles are a contemporary interpretation of an ancient cultural form.
5 SCANNING (2013)
The work is an extended video of a performance by American artist Amy Lee Sanford, who is born in Cambodia. Her father, an intellectual, helped her escape Phnom Penh shortly before Pol Pot's forces seized the capital. Here, she scans for safe-keeping hundreds of letters that her father sent to her adoptive mother before he was murdered by the Khmer Rouge in 1975.
6 FULL CIRCLE, UNBOUNDED ARC (2012)
This installation comprises 18 sculptures made during a performance, in which Lee broke and then repaired clay pots made in the village where her father was born. Her work is based on personal processes relating to the aftermath of war, such as guilt, loss, alienation and displacement.
7 ENJOY MY SAND (2013)
The artist performs at Singapore's East Coast beach, where he gives rides to strangers as a ''Free Cow Taxi From Cambodia''. Much of the sand from Singapore's expanding coastline is imported from Cambodia, where unregulated mining of sand causes environmental and human problems.
8 TITLE: ENJOY MY SAND (2013)
Comprising 400 plastic jars filled with sand from Cambodia, this participatory installation accompanying Khvay Samnang's video invites visitors to take the sand from Cambodia home with them.
