SINGAPORE — It is not surprising when contemporary artists today make radical shifts in their work. But perhaps such developments are one of the reasons why young artists who are still defining their practices are so compelling for this writer.

Richard Koh Fine Art recently presented one of its first exhibitions of young Singaporean artists of the year. The exhibition, Discovering New Endeavours, features new works by Melissa Tan, Geraldine Kang and Izziyana Suhaimi.

Tan’s works often feature meticulously-cut crystal formations on paper, pieced together in layers as if they were converging and diverging. For the exhibition, Tan has created them on a larger scale — a change which she sees as an evolution of her crystal islands into larger landforms. Titled The World Is Full Of Distance, the crystal formations in this series follow the contours of various countries, reassembled to form alternative maps of imagined landscapes.

Yet, while these enchanting worlds of Tan’s converge, there is a sense of disorder and restlessness. We notice within them that complexity prevails over simplicity, discordance over composition, chaos over order. Through these qualities, Tan suggests that what divides the world is not merely physical proximity.

Meanwhile, Kang presented a series of photographs titled This City By Any Other Name (Would Smell Just As White). Each photograph features a seemingly banal and mundane scene: Buoys along a coastal seawall; a bin next to the back of a small building; and a white railing structure dividing unused land. What connects these photographs is the presence of a white element in each of them, a colour used for its local political connotations.

But this series also sees Kang taking on a different approach to photography. One of her most prominent works, In The Raw (2011), for example, features the artist with her family members and domestic worker in staged scenes that run counter to the tropes of Singaporean familial order. Often personal, her works are set in private spaces and have a sense of narrative and intimacy, qualities of which are abandoned in the mundane public spaces of her latest work.

Izziyana Suhaimi’s Making Working Time is a series of embroidery on paper works which visualise time through hair and needlecraft. She also included 15 postcard-sized stitching samplers, each featuring a new embroidery technique that she learnt, with typewritten notes of her thoughts as she was creating them. We can see the imperfections as she learns each technique — records of her mistakes and triumphs — both of which she embraces and presents.

For me, these small but enigmatic samplers were the strongest works in the show. They remind us of the importance of process and the desire for transformation that is pivotal to the unfolding of artistic endeavours. JOLEEN LOH

Discovering New Endeavours runs until March 27 at Richard Koh Fine Art, Artspace@Helutrans. Closed on Sundays and public holidays.