The serial artist does not attempt to produce a beautiful or mysterious object but functions merely as a clerk cataloging the results of his premise. – Sol Lewitt Operating on logical relationships that rule out unpredictability, seriality, as Jean Baudrillard argued in decades past, is a phenomenon inextricably tied to industrial production and modernity. To those who live in the twenty-first century some half a[…..]
Satirical and documentary, the visual language of former photojournalist Manit Sriwanichpoom in Phenomena and Prophecies displays a certain perspicacity in recognizing urban conflicts and decadence in contemporary Thai society. Inspired by his memories of student-driven activism of the 1970s, Sriwanichpoom’s works appear to have been produced with the intention of critiquing the overwhelming hypocrisy of political processes in Thailand and the burgeoning capitalistic mindlessness in urban[…..]
Digital Nights, an adaptation of Nuit Blanche that prioritizes the technological in the multidisciplinary vision of contemporary art, is a 10-day showcase of a varied lot of visualization projects by European artists Miguel Chevalier, Bertrand Planes and Art collectives Visual System and Lab[au], currently on view at the Singapore Art Museum, one of the few venues anchoring this joint project. It has been several decades[…..]
There is no easy, harmonious blend in the overtly bright and exaggerated portraits in Yunnan-born artist He Jia’s works – headless bikini-clad figures, larger-than-life flora and fauna and traditional Chinese masks just to name a few – but therein lies a complicated and often contradictory statement on contemporary culture. Much has been written about the antagonism between local culture and global culture, the former loosely[…..]
In the 2-story installation space comprising about 50 works at the Singapore Art Museum, Tags & Treats is a mid-career retrospective of Singaporean contemporary artist Vincent Leow’s artistic practice that spans almost 3 decades. Traditional genres of sculpture and painting play no small part in Leow’s early works which at once question and reaffirm institutional pressures, social change and identity. A palette of vivid colours[…..]
