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Notes From A Revolution | 4/5

SINGAPORE — When it comes to Singapore’s emerging artistic talents, socio-political commentary doesn’t seem to be high up on the must-do list. It probably sits a little lower down along with watercolour painting. Which makes 26-year-old Godwin Koay’s first solo show quite something.

SINGAPORE — When it comes to Singapore’s emerging artistic talents, socio-political commentary doesn’t seem to be high up on the must-do list. It probably sits a little lower down along with watercolour painting. Which makes 26-year-old Godwin Koay’s first solo show quite something.

Notes From A Revolution is a quiet, unassuming exhibition that recently opened at Grey Projects. Comprising 17 small watercolour paintings of an imagined turbulent Singapore of the future, bits of the series have appeared in two Valentine Willie Fine Art group shows on Singapore art last year — at New Strange Faces in its defunct Singapore space and Still Building in Bandung, Indonesia.

Surrounded by other louder works, Koay’s paintings can be perceived as a quirky oddity, or even be overlooked altogether. But now expanded and given its own space, you get it.

Stuck on the gallery’s white walls are imagined headlines and photographs from newspapers, and screengrabs from YouTube, FaceBook or TV. It’s as if they’re all culled together at random, even if it all points to something pretty serious — “Illegal camp at Hong Lim Park grows: Police issues ultimatum” goes one painting of a headline. Another image is of a Google Map view of a street where the police confront protesters. Yet another is of an unidentified government official assuring viewers on TV that everything is okay.

Of course, while the idea for the entire project sprang from the Occupy Wall Street events of 2011, as well as events like the Arab Spring and the Population White Paper debate, it’s all entirely fictional. None of the images or headlines are real — although it’s not hard to see the allusions (to anti-Vietnam War monk Thich Quang Duc, for example, in an image of a protester’s self-immolation).

But this is hardly your typical political art. The choice of a medium as delicate as watercolour — which is a perfect fit for picturesque landscapes but an odd choice for painting riot vans — automatically “softens” everything. The works aren’t blown up in size, but neither do they seem insignificant. Instead, the headlines and images approximate the actual scale in newspapers or computer screens, giving the work an uncanny sense of being of the day-to-day.

That said, despite the obvious care and thought put into the show, Notes From A Revolution, a somewhat giveaway title, also feigns detachment. You have imaginary photographs, headlines, sometimes both in one work — but you don’t have any meat, i.e., the actual text that offers context.

Seeing as it’s as much about this so-called “revolution” as it is about the media that transmits it (mainstream and alternative), you do get a sense of what’s happening as the works play off each other. Think, perhaps, of the way we scan images and headlines on social media, print media or television — the experience is primarily on the surface, one of impressions and quick associations.

Notes On A Revolution has the opportunity to grow even further, whether it’s a book that Koay’s planning with the gallery or a continuation of the series, but as it is, it’s an impressive opening statement of intent from a promising young artist. Mayo Martin

Notes From A Revolution runs until Sept 22, 1pm to 7pm, Grey Projects, 6B Kim Tian Road. Free admission. www.greyprojects.org.

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