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Singapore Art Week 2016: From solo shows to tours

SINGAPORE — The phrase “spoilt for choice” is an apt one to describe the options Singaporeans have when it comes to getting their regular dose of the arts. And when it comes to visual art, this month is as hectic as it gets, thanks to what has become the ultimate event in recent years: Singapore Art Week (SAW).

SINGAPORE — The phrase “spoilt for choice” is an apt one to describe the options Singaporeans have when it comes to getting their regular dose of the arts. And when it comes to visual art, this month is as hectic as it gets, thanks to what has become the ultimate event in recent years: Singapore Art Week (SAW).

There are more than 80 events throughout the nine-day event beginning this Saturday (Jan 16), with our homegrown artists rightly in the thick of the action.

Over at SAW’s main events, Robert Zhao Renhui, Sherman Ong and Marvin Tang are part of Art Stage Singapore’s South-east Asia Forum exhibition next week (not to mention other Singaporean artists’ works that will be up in the various booths by art galleries displaying their wares).

Zhao will also be seen at this year’s Prudential Eye Awards exhibition, which also opens on Saturday. He will be the sole Singaporean among the 15 shortlisted artists from the region.

GOING SOLO, GROUP WORK

A handful of solo shows will also be hosted at various art galleries: Over at Objectifs, for instance, Singapore-based Indonesian artist Boedi Widjaja’s Imaginary Homeland (from Jan 13) will look at 30 years of Indonesian politics by way of photographic reportage; while Ang Sookoon heads for the mountains, in a manner of speaking: Her show, in collaboration with British designer Sorcha O’Raghallaigh, is titled Everest (Jan 20) and looks at notions of scale, with sculptures, videos and drawings.

Artist collective Vertical Submarine, meanwhile, takes over Chan Hampe Galleries’ Geylang space, Shophouse 5, with the installation Death By A Thousand Cuts (Jan 14). It is apparently based on the ancient Chinese method of execution parlayed into a narrative involving a political exile.

Singapore Tyler Print Institute has Jane Lee’s Freely, Freely (Jan 17), which sees the painter translating her innovative tactile strategies on painting to print and paper. Paper works are also seen in Melissa Tan’s Arc Of Uncertainties (Jan 18). Presented by Richard Koh Fine Art at Artspace@Helutrans, the planetary-inspired show will comprise new works blending pieces of watercolour paper and stainless-steel structures.

If space is Tan’s domain, it’s the forest for Donna Ong: My Forest Has No Name (Jan 16) at FOST Gallery features works that combine antique prints and readymades to look at our portrayal of forests dating back to colonial times.

And then, of course, there is the highly-anticipated solo show by Tang Da Wu at the National Gallery Singapore next week, Earth Work 1979. A restaging of The Artists Village founder’s seminal show Earth Work from 1980, it will feature various earth and land art installations from that show, which have never been exhibited since 1980.

It’s not all about solo exhibitions by familiar names, though.

One of the more interesting shows this writer is looking forward to is the group show SCOUT at Gillman Barracks (Jan 18), which will feature works by 25 artists done in 16 containers. Some of the artists are relatively familiar, such as ZERO, ANTZ and Alecia Neo, but a majority are slowly making themselves known in the scene, which is why this show is worth a visit.

Emerging photographers, meanwhile, are exhibited at container art space DECK at Prinsep Street: The inaugural edition of Undescribed, which features six freshly-minted art graduates who were chosen by artist Zhao (who seems to be everywhere at SAW this year).

Over at Fort Canning Park’s Galeri Nila@The Foothills, the established Malay artists group Angkatan Pelukis Aneka Daya (APAD) returns to SAW with the group show Beyond The Surface, featuring seven artists who will present two-dimensional works such as paintings and prints but done “within three-dimensional frameworks”.

TIME TO GO, GO, GO

For those who prefer to walk around a lot, there are a number of themed-tours and place-focused events: Singapore’s two main arts housing spaces, Aliwal Arts Centre and Goodman Arts Centre will be presenting their respective multi-disciplinary festivals on Jan 16 and Jan 23, respectively.

Meanwhile, if you want something quirky, there’s a public art project under the banner of Artwalk Little India (Jan 17) as well as a public art walking tour along the new Jubilee Walk in the Civic District and Marina Bay area. Art walkabout group Open House is going back to Joo Chiat with its immersive theatre presentation No Man’s Land (beginning Jan 22), while over at Chinatown, the People’s Park Complex carpark comes to life with PPC: A Public Living Room (Jan 15), with an exhibition featuring some 20 visual and performance artists.

Another interesting exhibition is One By One Metre Space, which tips its hat to the historic Sungei Road flea market. Organised by sungei.net projects, the exhibition will take place in Flaneur Gallery and will feature a visit to the flea market across the road. You’re also encouraged to bring bric-a-brac to the gallery as “speculative artworks”.

Although the bus tour conducted by architect Lai Chee Kien, titled Concrete Island, is already sold out, you can still check out the Asian Film Archive’s State Of Motion (from Jan 16), which will take you to five former film locations around the island, such as Siglap and the old Outram Prison. Each stop will feature a site-specific work by an artist.

For more details on Singapore Art Week’s many events, visit http://www.artweek.sg/

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