Chance to learn where Singaporean art is heading plus two firsts for emerging artist competition Presidents Young Talents at Singapore Art Museum

SINGAPORE MUSEUM ART COMPETITION

Singapore had a predicament. The city-state needed to find the young artistic voices to represent Singapore at international level art fairs and events. The problem has been solved and future Singaporean art stars are being identified with the inception of the Presidents Young Talents (PYT) exhibition, a contemporary art exhibition series featuring the 4 most promising young Singaporean artists who compete for votes from a discerning public. The President’s Young Talents exhibition first debuted in 2001, organized by the Singapore Art Museum and Istana, but this is the first year with the online voting function that includes an interactive public.

It works like this

Four young artists are chosen by a curatorial committee, and a special work is created by each artist and exhibited at the Singapore Art Museum in the PYT exhibition.

The public can also view artworks and artist biographies online, and is encouraged to vote for their favorite artist via the PYT website from Aug 15th through Oct 31st, 2009.  One of the 4 artists will be declared the winner, and receive a cash prize and art residency abroad, sponsored by Credit Suisse. The winner of the PYT 2009 will be announced on November 6th, 2009 at the PYT Gala dinner.

The artists nominated for the show, curated by Ms. Tan Siu Li, are: Donna Ong, Felicia Low, Twardzik Ching Chor Leng, and the artist collective Vertical Submarine. This is the first year in which an artist collective has been selected to participate, and Vertical Submarine’s inclusion reflects an acceptance of the current changes in contemporary art practices.

For a quick summary Art Daily gives an overview of each work below. However for a more lively description, we encourage you to click through to the particularly well-planned website (link above) where you can see short videos in which each artist discusses the concepts behind their non-traditional intriguing projects.

All the artists will create a new work for PYT 2009, and this exhibition offers a unique opportunity to take stock of where contemporary art in Singapore could be heading.

Donna Ong’s installation will examine the representation of perspective in Eastern as well as Western artistic traditions through a series of layered landscapes.

Twardzik Ching Chor Leng continues her practice of land-based art by inviting the public to reconsider the significance of the Singapore River in history, as well as in our lives today.

Felicia Low, who actively engages with (often marginalised or disadvantaged) communities in her work, will conduct live sessions in the gallery, leading groups of people in an exploration of family and social relationships.

Last but not least, tongue-in-cheek collective Vertical Submarine will present a work-within-a-work, inviting the public into their immersive installation which continues their earlier investigations into the relationship between text, image and representation.

Land art by Twardzik Ching Chor Leng

Editor’s note: We were particularly interested in Twardzik Ching Chor Leng’s plan to siphon an “‘umbilical cord” pipeline of river water through the streets of Singapore to connect the river and art museum. Land art is rare in Asia which makes the artist’s attempt to promote this genre in the confined space of city-state Singapore all the more inspiring.

Space constraints stimulate Singaporean artists?

It is interesting to note that each of the contestants deals with the topic of space in one form or another: from land art to the creation of domestic interiors to the study of perspective as a representation of space.

What the museum staff say

Regarding the exhbition, Mr. Tan Boon Hui, Director Designate of Singapore Art Museum, says:

“President’s Young Talents is SAM’s key platform to introduce Singaporeans to the work of a new generation of contemporary artists. The ‘can-do’ spirit that marks much of the best contemporary art coming out from Singapore now is clearly visible in these new works from Donna Ong, Twardzik Ching Chor Leng, Felicia Low and Vertical Submarine.

While their work has departed markedly from the traditional conventions of what art should look like, it is nonetheless as thoughtful, enjoyable and beautiful as the paintings and sculptures we are more familiar with.

Through such channels as the new PYT microsite, with its information rich content, SAM is working also to make contemporary art accessible to as large a community as possible. As one of the few platforms that regularly provides support to nurture the creation of original local art, SAM hopes to continue growing PYT along with the local contemporary arts scene.’

The President’s Young Talents is on display at the Singapore Museum from August 15th till December 27th, 2009, at the museum’s 8Q SAM art space and you can vote until the end October 2009. Be warned though that the voting mechanism requires input of addresses and phone numbers. We hope that this will be stream-lined in the future to encourage voter participation.

-contributed by Erin Wooters

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• Singaporean artist Mona Choo awarded first V & A printmaking residency- Dec 08
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• Sovereign Asian Art Prize 2008 emerging artists on show in Hong Kong– Oct 08

Related Links

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Thai Chinese artist Nipan Oranniwesna shows installation art made of baby powder in Hong Kong – review

THAI CONTEMPORARY ART IN HONG KONG

Is national identity still relevant within our globalized world, which is more interdependent than ever before? Where do we get our identity, and what does baby powder have to do with it? Art Radar talks with the renowned Thai contemporary artist Nipan Oranniwesna at the Osage Gallery in Kowloon, Hong Kong before the opening of his latest exhibition Being….. at homE.

Storytelling through sight, smell, and unexpected mediums

Nipan Oranniwesna had a big job ahead of him when he arrived in Hong Kong for his exhibition at the Osage Gallery, perhaps the most respected experimental art gallery in Hong Kong. In only 4 days, he would create 2 massive installation exhibits that sprawl across the floor of Osage’s Kwun Tong gallery space in Kowloon, which are sculpted out of only baby powder. Not just any baby powder either, mind you. Nipan’s baby powder installations require the signature scent of a product by Johnson & Johnson that is only available in Thailand, and countless packages needed to be flown into Hong Kong for the artist’s materials. The exhibition is essentially a story, and is complete with 3 narrative installation works that consider identity and the idea of home on a global scale, a national scale, and ends considering the idea of home and connectedness to one’s personal space.

Powder cities demonstrate fragility

The result of Nipan’s labor is astounding. The exhibition, titled Being….. At HomE questions the validity of nation-based identity within modern society. The first piece of the show, City of Ghost, is a massive cityscape made of baby powder that depicts 13 major metropolitan cities of the world as interconnected. A similar work of his was also on display at the 2007 Venice Biennale for 6 months, and other sprawling works of sculpted baby powder cities have sold to private collectors, fetching up to $20,000 USD. Nipan explains the meaning of this work:

“Every country is nationalistic, but is it real, or does it just manipulate our thinking? This piece challenges personal and national identity. We think we are Thai, but the interconnectedness of this work demonstrates a question… I used baby powder because global society is both beautiful and fragile. The smell of the specific brand was important, as I wanted this to be a full sensory experience, with a stronger, more serious scent.”

Chinese National Anthem in powder suggests vulnerability

The next piece, titled ...with our flesh and blood, examines the idea of home and identity at the national level, depicting the Chinese national anthem written in baby powder. Accompanying framed works also show the Chinese anthem created from small pierced holes on paper, creating a braille-like version of the lyrics. Through these works, Nipan was subtly suggesting the vulnerability of basing personal identity on one’s nationality or ethnicity.

Come home, take off your shoes.

The last piece of the show, Narrative Floor, brings the audience to the most intimate interpretation of place and identity, the home. The piece invites viewers to get involved, take off their shoes and walk on the work, which resembles a hard wood floor inlaid with photographic ‘rain drops’. Upon closer inspection, these raindrops are revealed to be small scenes from Hong Kong, China, and Thailand. Nipan admits this piece reflects his heritage; he is ethnically Chinese, but native to Thailand. The work begs the question, when a person is connected to different places, where is home? Nipan suggests everywhere that touches someone becomes a part of him, and all of those places are his home. The piece invites viewers to take off their shoes, sit down, and even lie down, demonstrating home is a feeling that can be felt anywhere one happens to be.

It’s easy to miss the meaning

The last work, Narrative Floor, is decidedly different from the other pieces, most notably because it does not use baby powder. Nipan explains:

“I wanted to use a new language. Baby powder is just one language….. I deal with the perception of the viewer, especially using distance, the space between people and artwork, the space between people and other people. This is what I access in my work. In this piece you come inside…

The exhibition is also full of clues of meaning that could be easily missed. Nipan reveals:

Every piece and work is like a sign. The way to read the exhibition is to look for the signs, issues, even though they are almost hidden, very subtle… The red in this room suggests the color of the Chinese flag. The 5 dots that are present in the exhibition title are a reference to the 5 stars on the Chinese flag. The capital letters in the exhibition title Being….. at homE are a reference to the space between the word ‘be.’ I am concerned with what lies between. Of course my work can be read in other ways, and that is okay. But I want to deal with this triangle of me, Hong Kong, and China.

Problem: Fragile art gets harmed

The delicate nature of the work is part of the art’s significance, and also leads to inevitable mishaps. Staff at the Osage Gallery mentioned they considered turning down the air conditioning to prevent air flow from disturbing the powdery surface, and Nipan cheerfully recalled the footprint he discovered in the Venice Biennale’s installation.

Solution: That’s OK.

He explains that damaging the artwork is not encouraged, but minor accidents are natural and ultimately contribute to the participatory quality of the work, relating it to viewers. Such an attitude is wise, considering the tours of school children that parade through the gallery. Furthermore, upsetting the fragile medium reinforces the essence of the work. Nipan proves although something is not meant to be broken, it may still be far too easy to destroy.

Nipan’s exhibition is among 2 others on display at the Osage Gallery in Hong Kong. Other exhibited artists include Cheo Chai-Hiang from Singapore, and Sun Yuan & Peng Yu (China). The exhibition runs from August 21-October 4, 2009.

-contributed by Erin Wooters

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Osage Gallery

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Emerging Chinese installation artist Tozer Pak Sheung Chuen at Venice Biennale 2009

VENICE BIENNALE HONG KONG

The award-winning young conceptual artist Tozer Pak Sheung Chuen will represent Hong Kong at the 53rd Venice Biennale (June to November 2009) with an exhibition of newly-created works and past works which will focus on the two themes of Hong Kong and cultural alienation .

The exhibition called  “Making (Perfect) World: Harbour, Hong Kong, Alienated Cities and Dreams” is curated by Mr Tobias Berger, formerly curator of Hong Kong’s Para/Site and now curator at the Nam Jun Paik Art Center in Korea.

Tozer Pak Sheung Chuen works

His highly original and playful works often provoke a sense of surprise and curiosity. In recent works he enjoys numbers, words and the spaces between them. He likes to provoke serendipitous happenings and to explore the unknown and non-existent.

Tozer Pak Sheung Chuen, The Half Folded Library, Guangdong Art Museum

One of the most intriguing works by this artist which was created during his residency in New York and exhibited at the 3rd Guangzhou Triennial 2008, involved secretly folding page 22 in 15,500 books in the Ottendorfer Branch Public Library in New York.

Tozer Pak Sheung Chuen, 2008 film 2008, film installation

In an exhibition currently showing at the Nam Jun Paik Art Center in Singapore ‘The First Stop on the Super Highway” Tozer Pak explores space/time with film in his film installation ‘2008 film 2008’.

“In a film, 1 second is 24 frames. Each frame is a picture. But when you watch 1 second of film, you are not only watching 24 frames of pictures. You also watch the blank spaces (the black bars) between the frames. We see the light, but we can’t see the darkness.

I cut out all the blank spaces from a film. And then, I join all these blank spaces back together into another “film”(a black film). This “film” is then projected on the wall by a film-projector. Through this process we are able to watch the “invisible part” of a film, the time that is traditionally considered inexistent.

The proportion of blank space and picture space in a frame (of that Hong Kong film) is 7:13. The “black film” on the wall and the film in the machine are both 383cm, and were cut from 23 seconds of film. During the exhibition this film will be shown on the first fifth minute of every hour. (Pak Sheung Chuen) note 1

Information about and images of his earlier works which explore height and politics can be found on Tozer Pak’s gallery on Hong Kong Art Web.

Biography of Tozer Pak Sheung Chuen

Pak Sheung Chuen is a young conceptual and performance artist who was born in 1977 in Fujian and immigrated to Hong Kong in 1984, . Pak graduated from the Chinese University of Hong Kong in 2002 with a major in fine arts and a minor in theology. He has exhibited at, among others, The 3rd Yokohama Triennial (2008), The 3rd Guangzhou Triennial (2008), ‘China Power Station: Part 2′ and Inward Gazes – Documentaries of Chinese Performance Art’ Macao Museum of Art (2005). In 2006, he was awarded the Lee Hysan Foundation Fellowship of Asian Cultural Council and joined ISCP residency program in New York.note 2

Notes:

1. Tozer Pak sat Nam Jun Paik Art Center First Stop on the Super Highway
2. Tozer Pak Sheung Chuen residency at Asia Art Archive

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• Hong Kong artists showcased for first time at Sotheby’s Asian art sale 2009 Apr 2009
• The distinctive style of young Hong Kong Fine Line artists – what is it and who are they? Feb 2009
• Review of performance artist Tatsumi Orimoto’s Finger Dolls in Hong Kong Jan 2009
• Abu Dhabi’s Venice Biennale curator says only 6 interesting artists from Emirates – whom will she show? Jan 2009
• Emerging Taiwanese new media artist Huang Hsin Chien at Shanghai Biennale 2008 Oct 2008

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