Singapore Biennale 2016 @ SAM

Momiji on Lim Soo Ngee's An Inscription of the Island (2016)

Momiji and I went to the Singapore Art Museum (SAM) to check out the Singapore Biennale 2016 (the SB). It has been a decade since the first SB, Belief!

The 2016 SB is titled An Atlas of Mirrors. Featuring more than 60 artists from Southeast Asia, East Asia and South Asia, this year's SB explores shared histories and current realities within and beyond the Southeast Asian region.

Right outside the SAM is a large copper sculpture of a hand with a pointing index finger (where it points depends on perspective) - Singaporean artist Lim Soo Ngee's Inscription of the Island. The SB exhibition guide has this to say about the 2.5m x 5m x 3m sculpture:

"This piece consists of a sculpture of a large left hand emerging from the ground, with the palm facing skyward and a pointing index finger. In Lim’s imagination, this was once part of a colossal statue that guided the ships of an ancient, mythical civilisation. But the statue collapsed and, being too large to be moved, was left to nature. Subsequently, the islanders drew a circle around the hand and used it as a sundial. The artist asks: might Singapore have had a Bronze Age to call its own? In proposing myth upon myth, Lim extends our sense of history beyond historical records. Meanwhile, our imagination is left to run wild: we ponder what lies in the earth beneath, as indicated by this lone left hand."

HARUMI YUKUTAKE | Paracosmos (2016)

Harumi Yukutake's Paracosmos dominates the entire staircase leading to Level 2 of SAM. According to the SB exhibition guide:

"Paracosmos propels the viewer into a parallel world – a space of otherness that is recognisable but unfamiliar. Shaped by Shinto ideas of interconnectivity, the site-responsive work is situated in the circular stairwell of the Singapore Art Museum, a central transition space that connects two floors. Here, the ‘membrane’ of hand-cut mirrors dissolves the definition between foreground and background by dissipating the single image into an explosion of reflections. A space of simultaneity, and eternally liminal, the mirror was core to philosopher Michel Foucault’s concept of the heterotopia as a kind of zone that could encompass other sites. Yet munificence can also be deceptive, and like a mirror that throws a warped or skewed reflection, heterotopias can disturb and distort the spaces held in their embrace. The mirror reveals itself as a paradoxical device: able to hold every other image by having no inherent image, it canenfold an ‘everywhere’ by being a ‘nowhere’ in itself."

HARUMI YUKUTAKE | Paracosmos (2016)

HARUMI YUKUTAKE | Paracosmos (2016)

HARUMI YUKUTAKE | Paracosmos (2016)

I think it's quite obvious that I couldn't get enough of Paracosmos. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't capture its full awesomeness.

KENTARO HIROKI | Rubbish (2016)

Next to the glittering and impressive Paracosmos, Kentaro Hiroki-san's Rubbish is very easily missed. The SB exhibition guide explains:

"Working with a strict methodology and set of criteria, Kentaro Hiroki handpicks everyday objects discarded on the streets to form the basis for his works. The things he chooses are intended to be reflective of time and space: unique to the localities in which he finds them, each object has its own story to tell of the communities it was found in. Once the artist has painstakingly replicated each found article into a detailed paper reproduction of the original item, the original value of these items in the economic context is replaced with an art object, its uselessness imbued with renewed meaningfulness. Each piece takes up to four days to create, and Hiroki’s execution is simultaneously an exercise in translation and self-reflection."

KENTARO HIROKI | Rubbish (2016)

What I find amazing about Rubbish is that Kentaro-san created these items entirely from paper and colour pencils.

PATRICIA PEREZ EUSTAQUIO | The Hunters Enter the Woods (2016)

Filipino artist Patricia Perez Eustaquio's 3-m x 5.4-m dominates the seating area on the ground floor gallery, just before the staircase leading to the 2nd level. The SB exhibition guide writes:

"Rendered with hyper-realist precision, Eustaquio’s painting reflects on our contradictory attitude towards the world – both manmade and natural – through the metaphor of the Orchidaceae, asking what drives our quest for the unique, even as we seek to manipulate and replicate the object of our desire. While orchids were once rare specimens that spurred an obsession in flower hunters, they are now big business in the global horticulture industry and popular attractions in botanical gardens, with over 100,000 hybrids created to date. The diptych – resembling Rorschach inkblots or island formations – mirrors the orchid’s zygomorphic form. The left side portrays the Paphiopedilum fowler, an endangered wild orchid that can be found in the Singapore Botanic Gardens. The adjoining panel depicts a recently named orchid hybrid: as part of this artwork's commissioning process, Eustaquio acquired its naming rights. "Winter Wedderburn" references a H.G. Wells story, in which an orchid collector is killed by his bloodsucking floral possession."

NI YOUYU | Dust (Singapore Galaxy) (2016)

NI YOUYU | Atlas (2016)

I was also very taken by Ni Youyu's three works, Atlas, Dust (Singapore Galaxy); and Invisible Force. I didn't manage to get a decent photograph of Invisble Force, but it is pretty impressive - though my favourite of the 3 is Dust. According to the SB exhibition guide:

"This piece consists of a sculpture of a large left hand emerging from the ground, with the palm facing skyward and a pointing index finger. In Lim’s imagination, this was once part of a colossal statue that guided the ships of an ancient, mythical civilisation. But the statue collapsed and, being too large to be moved, was left to nature. Subsequently, the islanders drew a circle around the hand and used it as a sundial. The artist asks: might Singapore have had a Bronze Age to call its own? In proposing myth upon myth, Lim extends our sense of history beyond historical records. Meanwhile, our imagination is left to run wild: we ponder what lies in the earth beneath, as indicated by this lone left hand."

PALA POTHUPITIYE | Other Map Series (2016)

PALA POTHUPITIYE | Other Map Series (2016)

The SB exhibition guide explains Sri Lankan artist Pala Pothupitiye's Other Map Series:

"Cartography is an act of history-making; history is created and interpreted by the act of mapping. Is it possible for an artist to look beyond officially constructed maps, and imagine a different past or an alternate future? Pothupitiye attempts to do so in this series, where he re-crafts the official version of maps to tell a different story. The maps he constructs are like palimpsests where he overlays, juxtaposes and transforms portraits of voyages, landscapes, mythical figures and other maps to re-inscribe stories of Sri Lanka’s past and present, interspersed with his own personal history. The maps he refers to range from Ptolemy’s maps of Ceylon to current maps of Sri Lanka. His atlas of maps tells many different stories simultaneously: of the deep scars of colonialism, the civil unrest and religious extremism of recent years, and also the lyrical beauty of a country that was once called Ceylon."

EDDY SUSANTO | The Journey of Panji (2016)

EDDY SUSANTO | The Journey of Panji (2016)

Dominating a well-lit corner by itself is Indonesian artist Eddy Susanto's The Journey of Panji installation. According to the SB exhibition guide:

"The Panji cycle is a collection of stories revolving around the legendary Prince Panji, which originated in Java around the fourteenth century and spread to what is now modern-day Malaysia, Cambodia, Myanmar, the Philippines and Thailand. It was only in the last century that these stories were gathered into a single volume, the Wangling Wideya, by S.O. Robson. The images in this artwork are taken from reliefs illustrating episodes from the Panji cycle. Their outlines are rendered in scripts, starting first with Javanese script, then flowing out into scripts reflecting the various regions and localities that this narrative has travelled to: a calligraphic cartography charting the movement of the Panji cycle throughout Southeast Asia. Even as the work reminds us of Southeast Asia’s shared cultural histories, the letters spilling out from the compendium of Panji stories suggest the impossibility of ‘containing’ Southeast Asia and the limits of any attempt to unify its histories or to conceive of the region as a singular entity."

Singapore Biennale 2016

MADE WIANTA | Treasure Islands (2012)

MADE WIANTA | Treasure Islands (2012)

Balinese artist Made Wianta's Treasure Islands is another of my favourites of the SB artworks on display at the SAM. The SB exhibition guide describes:

"Treasure Islands delves into overlooked chapters of Indonesia’s colonial past, threading together geographies as disparate as the tiny spice island of Rhun in Maluku, Indonesia, and the metropolis of Manhattan in New York. In the 1667 Treaty of Breda, the Netherlands relinquished their claims to New York (then known as New Amsterdam), in exchange for control of Rhun in the Indonesian archipelago, which was home to precious nutmeg trees, then regarded as the linchpin for Dutch control of the highly profitable spice trade. Three and a half centuries later, the fortunes of these island outposts of empire have diverged dramatically, and Rhun has all but faded from global awareness. Treasure Islands is inspired by a desire to recover these submerged historical relationships: the orange-gold surfaces of these skin-maps, embedded with glittering mirrors and nails, are redolent of the colour of the spices, yet evoke an arid and barren landscape, stripped of its treasures."

HEMALI BHUTA | Growing (2016)

HEMALI BHUTA | Growing (2016)

Mumbai artist Hemali Bhuta's Growing is a dense forest of incense sticks strung up with monofilament threads. According to the SB exhibition guide:

"Made from incense sticks of different fragrances that are strung together and suspended from above, this work is a reaction to and continuation of a previous work, The Shedding (2008). The constant cycle of shedding a growing reflects on ideas of growth, life and death, and the state of ‘in-betweenness’. Growing is also informed by the Buddhist concept of dependent co-origination: human beings are a unique species, yet form part of the larger whole that is Nature; both are subject to the same cycles of birth, growth and death. In this respect, we are like the single incense stick that aspires to be singular and ‘pure’ with its own novel fragrance, yet is also part of a larger perfumed environment. The work also alludes to ideas of tangibility, fragility and temporality. Bhuta’s use of unusual materials reaffirms her interest in the transformative power of vernacular everyday materials and their aesthetically generative possibilities."

TAN ZI HAO | The Skeleton of Makara (The Mythe of a Myth) (2016)

Malaysian artist Tan Zi Hao's 'dinosaur' dominates the foyer of the 2nd level. Quite the sight after you pass through the glittery mirrorball that is Paracosmos. I think that while Tan's piece is amazing, I found it hard to tear my eyes (and camera) away from Paracosmos. Anyway, on closer inspection, one will realise it isn't actually a dinosaur. As the SB exhibition guide explains:

"One of the most prevalent mythological icons in Southeast Asia is the makara, which originated in Hinduism. Depicted as a hybrid of different animals, typically half-mammal and half-fish, it has penetrated cultural, religious and philosophical discourses. Based on the idea of conceiving a myth out of a myth, Tan fabricated a large-scale skeleton of a makara: an elephant-crocodile hybrid with the tusks of a wild boar and the tail of a fish. His intention is to provide a ‘scientific’ basis to myth through presenting paleontological ‘evidence’; the replica of a fossil is intentionally incomplete to make it more believable. The artist shows how the dissemination of an icon such as the makara has influenced our historical narratives, and reveals how our construction or representation of history is sometimes based on something totally chimerical and imaginary, even absurd."

PANNAPHAN YODMANEE | Aftermath, 2016

On Thai artist Pannaphan Yodmanee's apocalyptic Aftermath mural/installation, the SB exhibition guide explains:

"In a titanic mural, Pannaphan presents a mapping of the Buddhist cosmos that resembles a landscape painting. Using materials raw and natural, as well as the new and mass-produced, her amalgamation of contemporary and traditional Thai art creates a unified cartography of the heavens and the earth that chronicles Southeast Asian history. Pannaphan’s ongoing investigation of the intersecting points between Buddhist cosmology and modern science has led her to consider the concepts of change, loss, devastation and inevitable armageddon. The artist argues that our persistent striving for development and progress ultimately exposes our shortcomings and the revelation of a larger universe outside our spheres of comfort and control. She presents us with the ultimate question: at the end of all ends, will we find comfort in our faith?"

QIU ZHIJIE | One Has to Wander through All the Outer Worlds to Reach the Innermost Shrine at the End, 2016

Also one of my favourites of the SB artworks at the SAM is Chinese artist Qiu Zhijie's One Has to Wander through All the Outer Worlds to Reach the Innermost Shrine at the End. His ink maps are huge and detailed. The SB exhibition guide explains:

"In his creation of maps, Qiu adopts a methodology that incorporates daily experience as well as a philosophical approach to thinking with graphics, and organising relationships and systems of knowledge. This map series presents Qiu’s investigation into cartographic history. From his archaeological analysis of pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact theories, to the systemisation of motives, logics and methods of different map-making approaches, he links together history, philosophy, mythology and science. In this work, the artist surfaces two elements underlying the connections between the phantom island, Utopia, and monsters: fear and temptation. While early adventurers and explorers were drawn to distant mysterious lands, their voyages, as they recount, were often interrupted when they encountered uncanny creatures. Qiu’s installation features a handblown glass bestiary of fantastical monsters, imagined as traversing between the mountains and the seas, conjuring a world of mystery that may once have been out there, but has now disappeared."

The Singapore Biennale 2016, Singapore Art Museum

I got lost!

DENG GUOYUAN | Noah's Garden II (2016)

DENG GUOYUAN | Noah's Garden II (2016)

DENG GUOYUAN | Noah's Garden II (2016)

Located in the Chapel is Chinese artist Deng Guoyuan's super bewildering mirrored labyrinth with brightly coloured and whimsical (fake) rock formations and fake plants tucked alcoves. There are 2 revolving mirrored panels in the middle. If not for those crazy fake plants and rocks, it would be difficult to get un-lost. According to the SB exhibition guide:

"This site-specific work is at once a garden of artificial flora and a labyrinth of mirrors. Entering the installation, viewers find themselves inside a kaleidoscope, where the surrounding infinite mirror images create a feeling of the loss of subjectivity. Artificial plants, referencing classical Song Dynasty representations of particular flora, but coated in vibrant colours, assault the senses and blur the lines between the real and the artificial. In applying the colour schemes from maps he has examined to these artificial plants and classically-referenced ‘scholar rocks’ he has created, the artist defies the conventional systems of colour-coding in map-making, recasting the world with a renewed hope for the integration of richness and diversity and the resolution of conflicts. By evoking scepticism and uncertainty, his work raises doubt about the validity and accuracy of map-making; it creates a utopia while simultaneously disassembling it."

I would say Noah's Garden II is one of the highlights of the SB exhibition for me! Definitely one of my firm favourites of the works located at SAM. But I think it's a mirrored labyrinth one'll have more fun entering with a like-minded companion. I wanted to photograph Momiji in there. In fact, I wanted to photograph Momiji at a lot of the exhibits, but it's a little daunting to do so under the eagle-eyed SAM custodians. On top of the other visitors (mostly tourists), and there were many.

RYAN VILLAMAEL | Locus Amoenus (2016)

RYAN VILLAMAEL | Locus Amoenus (2016)

RYAN VILLAMAEL | Locus Amoenus (2016)

RYAN VILLAMAEL | Locus Amoenus (2016)

The SAM Glass Porch was recreated into a little hanging-vine paradise by Filipino artist Ryan Villamael. Up close, the lush hanging vines are actually made up of replica maps of the Philippines and felt. According to the SB exhibition guide:

"Latin for a “pleasant place”, the phrase Locus Amoenus also evokes the notion of an escape into an ideal landscape. In this instance, the pastoral paradise has been sited within a house of glass – the greenhouse – an engineered Eden for flora uprooted from its native soil. Indeed, Villamael’s ‘greenhouse’ houses unusual foliage: intricate cut-outs created from archaic and contemporary Philippine maps. Coalescing notions of nature and nurture, culture and the cultivated, the work probes the imaging of the Philippines’ fraught history as the country that endured the longest colonial rule in Southeast Asia. Collapsing multiple realities, the installation is cut from maps that have two sides – a semiotic layering that conjoins the historical with the present-day. Creeping down from the ceiling, the Monstera deliciosa looks to colonise its climate-controlled space in the museum. It is situated in the Singapore Art Museum in the only space where a section of the original colonial building façade from 1852 is still visible."

If I was asked which is my #1 favourite artwork at the SAM, I would be hard-pressed to choose between Harumi Yukutake's Paracosmos (above) and Ryan Villamael's Locus Amoenus. Ni Youyu and Deng Guoyuan are definitely among my top favourites too!

TCHEU SIONG | Spirit of Sky and Earth 3 & 4, 2016

Laotian artist Tcheu Siong's massive appliqued fabric works reference the pictorial embroidery of the Hmong people. According to the SB exhibition guide:

"Particular to Siong’s artistic repertoire are the lanky creatures – featured prominently on each panel – that represent the ‘shadows’, ‘spirits’ or ‘souls’ of her dreams, which her husband Lao, the village shaman, interprets. In Tree Spirit, Spirit of the Sky and Earth 3 and Spirit of the Sky and Earth 4, Siong uses design motifs that are typical of Hmong embroidery and ‘story clothes’ (pictorial embroidery) – triangles that border her panels symbolise mountains, while the cluster of five circles with a dot in each symbolises a peacock ocellus."

ARAYA RASDJARMREARNSOOK | Jaonua: The
Nothingness (King of Meat: The Nothingness), 2016

ARAYA RASDJARMREARNSOOK |
Jaonua: The Nothingness
(King of Meat: The Nothingness), 2016

I got lost (again!), and ended up at the Learning Gallery 1. I opened a door and felt my way through floating, diaphanous strips of white cloth, and arrived at a dark room with white cloth panels sowing video installations by Thai artist Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook. The SB exhibition panel explains:

"This installation consolidates Araya’s thematic interests from throughout her career in an attempt to extract “the inseparable entanglement of things/lives/subjects”. Negotiating the expanse of time between life and death, consumption presents itself as a dominant theme within the work – explored through the metaphysics of eating, femininity, the animal gaze, sexuality, and gender stereotypes. Projected on four fabric screens leading up to a projection upon a bed, the presentation of the video works echoes the transient nature of our existence while also blurring the borders between art and life. In this installation, Araya has woven various stories together into a cohesive experience. Almost akin to a surrealistic dream, she invites audiences to ponder with her the karmic consequences of being entrapped within the Sisyphean cycle of existence."

MADE DJIRNA | Melampaui Batas (Beyond Boundaries), 2016

MADE DJIRNA | Melampaui Batas (Beyond Boundaries), 2016

MADE DJIRNA | Melampaui Batas
(Beyond Boundaries), 2016

The SB exhibition describes Balinese artist Made Djirna's installation:

"Djirna’s art seeks to transcend the boundaries between interiorities and outward form, the physical and the spiritual, the microcosm and the macrocosm. Within his installation of found objects is an antique ironwood boat, symbolic of journeying between the Nusantara (the Indonesian archipelago) and the larger world, as well as between the worlds of the living and the dead (in Balinese belief, the boat carries the soul to its ancestral abode after death). Hundreds of terracotta figurines, symbolising humanity, exhibit individual expressions, even as their numbers suggest a community, and the clay, their frailty. Close by stands a tree fashioned from driftwood; within its trunk and branches are fragments of other lives, cultures and civilisations. This is a tree ‘beyond time’, collapsing boundaries of distance, space, and culture. Charged with a numinous quality, Djirna’s installation is a personal cosmology that maps the voyages of his artistic imagination, as well as worlds beyond rational apprehension."

And then I stumble on two pedestals. Singaporean artist Fyerool Darma's The Most Mild Mannered Men is a representation of historical amnesia and espouses the position that history tends to be written from the perspective of the dominant, powerful and influential. The SB exhibition writes:

"Driven by his concern about a growing historical amnesia, Fyerool Darma departs from his characteristic painting practice to present sculptures of two key figures in Singapore history: an appropriated bust of Sir Stamford Raffles by Sir Francis Legatt Chantrey, and a bustless pedestal inscribed with the name, birth and death dates of Sultan Hussein Mua’zzam Shah. Both Raffles and Sultan Hussein played pivotal roles in the signing of two treaties that resulted in the founding of modern Singapore, and this artwork seeks to uncover the relationships between them. The way these men are represented is symbolic of the partisanship between major and minor narratives in historical discourse, reiterating the sentiment that history is often written by the dominant, while the dominated are relegated to minor roles."

Darma's work reminds me of the Artist and Empire: (En)countering Exhibition at the National Gallery Singapore, which we went to the other day with Miss Joaquim. I think some of the SB artworks and the Artist and Empire exhibition can go hand-in-hand, given the alternate viewpoints that they present.

SHARMIZA ABU HASSAN | The Covenant, 2016

The swarm of aluminum swordfishes of Malaysian artist Sharmiza Abu Hassan's The Covenant is another piece that grabbed my attention. It looks so realistic, just like a swirling ball of fierce swordfish about to attack!

According to the SB exhibition:

"Sharmiza rereads and re-enacts two stories from the Malay Annals, a keystone of Malay literature, to re-examine some of the Malays’ traditional values and practices. The episode of the covenant highlights the solemn oath made between Malay rulers and their subjects, while the tale of the swordfish attacks revolves around Hang Nadim, who saved Singapore from the attacks but was unjustly murdered by his king. The work comprises a throne and a chair, the text of the covenant in Jawi, and an assemblage of swordfish sculptures. While the latter cast a haunting interplay of shadows, the throne and the chair – symbolising, respectively, the ruler and the people – face each other, as if in dialogue with the past, and also reflecting present political tensions between the two."

SHARMIZA ABU HASSAN | The Covenant, 2016

As a child, I have read the tale that Sharmiza refers to. The tale is recorded in the Serajah Melayu (the Malay Annals), and tells of how Singapore's south coast was infested with fierce swordfish that would attack the fishermen and villagers if they went close to the sea. Unable to trade at sea or fish due to the swordfish, they sought the help of the Sultan. However, the Sultan and the royal army were unable to fight off the swordfish which pierced many of the soldiers to death.

Presently, a little boy made a proposal. He proposed that they build a barricade of banana trunks and line them along the swordfish-infested areas. The bright boy explained that should the swordfish attack, their pointed beaks would pierce the banana trunk barricade and, as they would not be able to free themselves, they would be trapped!

The Sultan implemented the boy's plan and it was successful. However, the subsequent popularity of the boy made the Sultan envious. He feared that the boy would become a threat to his rule in the future, and sent soldiers to kill the boy. His orders were carried out, and the blood of the boy was said to have flowed down the hill on which he lived, staining the whole hill red.

The blood-soaked hill became known as Redhill or Bukit Merah (Malay for "hill red"). The coast where the banana trunk barricade was placed became known as Tanjong Pagar, Malay for "cape of stakes".

This tale and others tell of the origins of Singapore's name, names of places in Singapore, and various mythical creatures that supposedly lived in and around Singapore.

TITARUBI | History Repeats Itself, 2016

Indonesian artist Titarubi's History Repeats Itself somehow makes me think of golden dementors. According to the SB exhibition:

"History Repeats Itself is a meditation on the history of power, seeking to make visible the legacies of colonial conquest in Southeast Asia. The burnt-out ships in this installation recall the ominous appearance of European armadas on the horizon during the early centuries of European colonialism. At the same time they make reference to the burning of ships in Indonesia by the Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie (Dutch East India Company or VOC) in an attempt to seize control of the lucrative spice trade. Standing atop the charred ships are shadowy, cloaked figures. Their robes are made of gold-plated nutmeg, a spice once worth its weight in gold, over which countless wars were fought. Their rich sheen suggests grandiosity and pomp, and their hollowness conjures the illusoriness of riches and power: at its heart, empty. They are spectres from the past, a dark mirror to our present."

TITARUBI | History Repeats Itself, 2016

History Repeats Itself is yet another artwork in the SB exhibition that I think will match well with the themes explored in the Artist and Empire: (En)countering Colonial Legacies at the National Gallery. (The other was Fyerool Darma, above.)

PHUONG LINH NGUYEN | Memory of the Blind Elephant, 2016

Pitch-black works in a darkened room with only spotlights! Perhaps to symbolise a dark period in Vietnam's history? We have yet another art installation that evokes a critical review of colonialism in the Southeast Asian region. Vietnamese Phuong Linh Nguyen's installation would also fit well into Artist and Empire, to some extent. The SB exhibition's description of her installation:

"Rubber cultivation was introduced to France’s territories in Indochina by Dr Alexandre Yersin at the start of the twentieth century. Plantations such as the Michelin Rubber Plantation in Vietnam not only boosted the economy, but also set the scene for the build-up of anti-colonial sentiments and Communist-led strikes. Fascinated by colonial rubber plantations and the role they have played and continue to play in Vietnam, Phuong Linh explores the materiality of rubber and investigates the historical significance of the country’s rubber trees and plantations. Her work is realised in three parts: a video projection, a nine-piece installation, and a suite of soil drawings on paper. The video captures the activities and landscapes surrounding rubber plantations, while the drawings chronicle the artist’s reflections and explorations around the plantations. The installation addresses the history of rubber in Vietnam and the Cham Pa community, who live in central Vietnam where many plantations are located."

DO HO SUH | Gate, 2003

Beautiful, delicate, highly detailed - South Korean artist Do Ho Suh's Gate floats like a ghostly apparition next to a staircase. According to the SB exhibition:

"Suh’s works are a meditation on home and belonging. His celebrated fabric installations are architectural compositions of once-inhabited spaces, their diaphanous quality suggesting lightness as well as malleability, reflecting a desire to make ‘home’ transportable. These ethereal structures are identity and memory made manifest; often, they are also ‘ghosts’ of places that have ceased to be. Gate is modelled on a gate at the artist’s family home in Korea, itself constructed after a traditional scholar’s house built in the nineteenth century, and made with discarded wood from demolished palaces and other historical buildings. These buildings, which had survived the wars and turmoil of previous years, were torn down at a time when Korea witnessed rapid modernisation – a phenomenon familiar to many throughout Asia and Southeast Asia. Gate is a poignant and personal memory of home; it is also a collective statement about dislocation and transformation in contemporary Asia, and the ghost of what has been left behind."

TUN WIN AUNG & WAH NU | The Name, 2008-ongoing

According to the SB exhibition, this video projection, The Name, by a Burmese husband-wife pair:

"...revisits established accounts of Myanmar’s past by intervening in its ideologically-driven gaps. The husband-and-wife artist duo have resurrected figures from the nineteenth-century Anglo-Burmese Wars and beyond, recuperating an autochthonous historical voice against what they perceive as a colonial narrative. The three Anglo-Burmese Wars left the Burmese empire depleted; with each defeat, the Konbaung kings of Burma surrendered more territory to the British, until the final conflict concluded with the annexation of the country. In this work, portraits adorned with ornate, arabesque patterns emerge as uncanny apparitions, deliberately aestheticised and re-presented as majestic, almost monumental tributes. The series includes photographic images of figures such as King Thibaw, U Wisara (a Buddhist monk who died after a six-month hunger strike against British rule in 1929, becoming an icon of the nascent independence movement) and Saya San (the leader of the so-called Saya San Rebellion in 1930–1932, a key event of the anti-colonialist crusade)."

The final artwork we viewed was on level 3 all by itself: Han Sai Por's Black Forest.

HAN SAI POR | Black Forest, 2016

HAN SAI POR | Black Forest, 2016

Singaporean artist Han Sai Por is a leading modern sculpture in Asia whose works comment on Southeast Asia's changing landscapes. Her Black Forest is an amazing installation of charcoal and burnt wood spanning the entire floor of the gallery. At first glance, it looks black, but a closer look reveals the different monochromatic shades, the tortured shapes of the charcoal and wood.

According to the SB exhibition:

"Han has been recognised for her investigations into the impact of human activities on the natural world. Since 2011 she has been working on the ‘Black Forest’ series, which takes the form of installations comprising black or blackened wood logs lying on beds of charcoal. This presentation is different: we see a destroyed ‘forest’ of charcoal logs standing upright. Representing the charred wood from ongoing deforestation activities, these evocative ‘columns of nature’ prick our conscience, yet attest to Nature’s resilience against every imaginable catastrophe."

Would have liked to revisit some of the artworks, but our sore feet had had enough. Momiji also reminded me that she wanted that photo with "that huge dark green hand outside". (She meant Lim Soo Ngee's sculpture.)