This May, Singapore Art Museum (SAM) invites international and local artists to come together to create a rich tapestry of perspectives, cultural exchanges, and artistic dialogues.
Contemporary art has existed in Singapore since the 1980s, and Singaporean artists have always responded to the social and cultural circumstances of their times. As a new generation of artists emerges, daring and adventurous works are produced, ranging from multimedia installation to graphics and augmented reality. SAM is the first art museum in Singapore since 1996 and has always presented contemporary art from a Southeast Asian perspective for artists, art lovers and the art curious.
Eugene Tan, Director of SAM, says: “The three new exhibitions showcase the breadth of presentations at SAM as we continue to profile contemporary artists from Singapore and beyond. Through varied exhibition formats that appeal to different audiences, SAM invites visitors to reconsider preconceived notions of art while engaging with the multisensorial installations that introduce new perspectives on a range of issues.”
With SAM’s previous exhibitions, such as “Think! Contemporary 2022” and “Natasha”, which were showcased during the Singapore Biennale, SAM has sparked dialogues on contemporary art on both an educational and international level. Now, the museum is shifting its focus towards the regional contemporary art scene, acknowledging the transformative power of the digital era. As Singapore’s art scene embraces the digital future, artists are reexamining the past while adapting to new technologies. This shift in contemporary art takes centre stage in the upcoming exhibitions at SAM this May. Read on to find out more about these groundbreaking exhibitions.
1. Lila Unending Play by Jane Lee
One of the exhibition highlights is Jane Lee’s debut solo exhibition in a museum titled “Lila: Unending Play”. The distinguished Singaporean artist is renowned for her intensive research and laborious process of painting, taking what we know of the traditional medium beyond the body of a canvas. Derived from the Sanskrit word, Lila means play and spontaneity, encouraging the audience to interact intrinsically with her work. In Lee’s attempt to understand and redefine the traditional medium of painting, small-scale two-dimensional paintings and three-dimensional works have continually given paint— the medium itself — corporeality.
New commissions, including “Lila (The Ultimate Play)”, “Hollow”, and “Empty”, and a new work as part of Lee’s well-known Fetish series, “In Praise of Darkness”, experiment with space, light, reflection, and shadows, pushing the boundaries of what a current-day painting practice could be. Alongside the new works, audiences can also experience a selection of earlier works by Lee, including Status, The Object I, The Object II and Fetish-White II.
Lee’s artistic process involves a simultaneous reconstruction, deconstruction, and construction of painting concepts. In an era where artificial intelligence and the future of art are in question, Lee’s works hold significant relevance in re-evaluating the role of painting.
2. SAM Contemporaries: Residues & Remixes
A perennial ideas of local contemporary art continues with SAM’s new biennial project, SAM Contemporaries: Residues & Remixes. Focusing on emerging practices and generative trends in Singapore art between collaboration with artists and curators, the inaugural edition titled “Residues & Remixes” considers the collection of past, present and future, influencing what we know of the now from our ingrained history to how new technologies change our global view. With a variety of experimental and progressive artistic practices, six Singaporean-based artists create fresh narratives about Singapore’s historical and cultural discourse.
Themes of Singapore’s colonial history, the complexities of identity and turning archives in art are explored through the works like Priyageetha Dia’s “LAMENT H.E.A.T”, “a caveat, a score” by Moses Tan and Fyerool Darma’s “Total Output”. The array of artworks unravels Singapore’s hidden histories and uncovers forgotten stories with intentional and mesmerising works — through an amalgamation of mediums.
3. Hito Steyerl: Factory of the Sun
Undoubtedly for the fans of multimedia arts, the German filmmaker and artist Hito Steyerl’s critically acclaimed video installation, which debuted in 2015 Factory of the Sun — is not to be missed. The video, first shown at the Venice Biennale, is a montage of YouTube dance videos, drone surveillance footage, video games, fictitious news segments, and actual documentation of student uprisings. The spellbinding video was created at a period when there was an unparalleled discussion of the uprise of Big Data — and the inclusion of this work in the May lineup has come full circle, coinciding with the current social implications of AI, as this video steps foot into Southeast Asia for the first time.
Physically enter Steyerl’s artwork at SAM and witness her 23-minute-long gaming universe, which teeters between fact and fiction while probing late capitalism’s social, cultural, and financial dimensions — raising pertinent questions once more.
From 18 May to 24 September 2023, visit Gallery 1, SAM at Tanjong Pagar Distripark for the three exhibitions. Once you’re done with this story about the SAM, catch up with the rest of our May 2023 issue here.
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