Art review: Prudential Singapore Eye

SINGAPORE — During visual artist Lee Wen’s solo retrospective at the Singapore Art Museum in 2012, a particular artwork proved quite popular among visitors: His unusual, circular take on the ping-pong table, titled Ping Pong Go-Round.

An even bigger version of it — first presented at last year’s Art Basel Hong Kong — now occupies an entire room at ArtScience Museum. In this cavernous starkly white space, the Cultural Medallion’s tongue-in-cheek installation is quite an impressive sight. It’s also about as audacious and loud as it gets for what’s a pleasant but ultimately tame Prudential Singapore Eye.

And given the circumstances, pleasant and tame probably isn’t the best strategic shout-out one would want for the local visual arts scene.

The pressure is on for this show. After Korea, Indonesia, Hong Kong and Malaysia, Singapore is the fifth country/territory to feature the exhibition under the internationally established Prudential Eye Programme. It’s also the first Singapore survey show to kick off SG50 celebrations. And it’s currently vying for attention among the events at the ridiculously jampacked Singapore Art Week: Adjacent to it at the museum is a showcase of works by nominees for the Prudential Eye Awards, given to the best emerging Asian artists. Over at the Singapore Art Museum, the APB Foundation Signature Art Prize lauds the region’s best. And let’s not forget the high-stakes art market buzz of Art Stage Singapore in a few days’ time.

There may be other ongoing group shows and solo shows, such as at LASALLE College of the Arts and the Esplanade, but this is the most high-profile assemblage of Singapore artists: A total of 17 artists chosen from 110 submissions and supplemented by a book featuring a whopping 62 artists, which were all chosen by an international curatorial panel comprising Saatchi Gallery’s Nigel Hurst, Prudential Eye Programme’s Serenella Ciclitira, ArtScience Museum’s Honor Harger and former SAM director Tan Boon Hui. And like other “Eye” shows, it could also very well travel overseas.

To be clear, there is nothing wrong with the works, all of which have been presented elsewhere and selected for this show. And as a “snapshot” of the scene, it suffices: It’s arguably a who’s who, with the likes of Lee, Ho Tzu Nyen, Charles Lim, Kumari Nahappan, among others. Comparatively lesser known but equally interesting names are likewise present, such as Chen Sai Hua Kuan and Mintio.

But setting aside some questionable omissions and unusual decisions extending to the book (the popular collective Vertical Submarine is “represented” by some of its members individually, and the likes of Venice Biennale awardee Ming Wong and conceptual artist Heman Chong are nowhere to be found, for instance), it is perhaps the manner of presentation that is found most wanting.

Lee Wen’s ping-pong table may be a perfect fit here, but others struggle to impose themselves in the space. Walking through Jason Wee’s large, black geometric city model Master Plan was a wonderfully claustrophobic experience in a previous version. Here, not so much. Jane Lee’s grand “sculptural” paintings and Mintio’s large scale disorienting cityscape photographs suddenly seem to have shrunk, while a series of small, intimate images from Adeline Kueh are swallowed up by the cavernous space. There is also, for one artist, at least, a case of knowing there’s something better nearby. Once you see Prudential Eye Award nominee Donna Ong’s dramatically eerie dolls installation next door, her dream-like cabinet of curiosity contribution for this show unfortunately feels like an afterthought.

But for all its shortcomings, it would be too harsh to dismiss a project such as this. In the current glut of art events, its mere presence is a welcome statement of intent. Once the dust clears, however, perhaps it would also be relevant to cast an eye on it once more.

Prudential Singapore Eye runs until June 28 at the ArtScience Museum. There will be free entry for this exhibition every first Monday of each month starting Feb 2. For more information, visit http://www.marinabaysands.com/museum.html