SAFARI SAFARI SAFARI SAFARI SAFARI
an expeditionary adventure by Imdiu Wong and Yong Tai Si
Guest of Honour: Mr Bernard Harrison
CEO, Bernard Harrison & Friends
Opening preview and reception
Thursday 12th June 2003 7.30 pm
Utterly Art Exhibition Space
208 South Bridge Road 2nd Level, Singapore 058757
Tel: 6226 2605 E-mail: utterlyart@pacific.net.sg
Mon-Sat 11.30 am - 8 pm Sun 12 noon - 5.30 pm
The exhibition runs through to Sunday 22nd June 2003.
Animal lovers unite! Proceed to Utterly Art Exhibition Space where artists Yong
Tai Si and Imdiu Wong have captured a rambunctious menagerie of animals on
canvas and paper for your select viewing pleasure! Stare in amazement at the
bewildering diversity of fauna on show, from capricious crocodiles to alluring
angelfish! Gawk at the gleeful parade of wildlife, clad in chromatic radiance as
brushed in oil by Tai Si, or pouting with pernicious prickliness as drawn in ink
by Imdiu.
The exhibition brings together two young ladies, both former classmates in the
LASALLE-SIA College of the Arts, with individually idiosyncratic styles for a
combined zoological display. Ultimately, both artists use animals to investigate
subconscious change: incremental conversions that occur whilst we react to a
continually changing mundane routine. Their art captures frozen moments of which
we might be otherwise unaware, precious seconds which might otherwise go
unnoticed. Journey with the artists in their personal safari as they chart new
territory in exploring vignettes from the subliminal cracks in our lives.
Artists rip canvases, pour paint, drag squeegees to show
new possibilities for painting
Wednesday, 19 May 2004
Ever seen an 8-foot high painting made by one single brushstroke with a brush
bigger than its canvas? Or one made by repeated pouring of paint through a
watering can onto a canvas the result a perfectly-symmetrical circle of colour?
Earl Lu Gallery at LASALLE-SIA College of the Arts will feature 28 intriguing
paintings that demonstrate new possibilities for painting. Whether it is pouring
paint onto a canvas, dragging a squeegee across a beautifully-painted surface,
or ripping, slashing and crushing a piece of canvas, the processes of making
these works are highlighted in Painting as Process. By shifting the significance
of painting from its representational systems to its processes, these artists
re-evaluate painting's relevance to contemporary art practice.
Nine international artists including German great Gerhard Richter, dubbed by
Sotheby's as the most influential living artist in the world' and who received
the prestigious Golden Lion at the Venice Biennale in 1997; and Turner
Prize-nominated Ian Davenport who, along with his controversial contemporary
Damien Hirst, belonged to the late 1990s phenomenon known as the Young British
Artists are participating in the exhibition. Other artists involved in the
exhibition include Torie Begg, Alexis Harding and Jason Martin from the United
Kingdom , Angela de la Cruz from Spain , Robert Sagerman from the USA , as well
as a younger generation of Singaporean painters, namely Ho Tzu Nyen and Yong Tai
Si.
Says Dr Eugene Tan, Director of Earl Lu Gallery and curator of the exhibition:
Painting as Process re-evaluates painting's relevance to contemporary art
practice through an examination of painting's processes. The works illustrate
attempts at mediating expression with a conceptual mode of painting, in a manner
that results in a new understanding of painting demonstrating a rich myriad of
possibilities for painting.
That the possibilities are infinite is apparent in the various works. For
instance, conceptual artist and painter Richter uses a wide variety of methods
to apply paint onto canvas. In addition to using the spatula and his finger to
apply paint, he also developed his by-now trademark process of blurring a
painted surface with a squeegee, in the process destroying the image but also
bringing about a new one. In Singaporean artist Ho's work, each of his four
paintings is a different proposition of what painting might possibly be. For
instance, in his work Untitled #12 , three pieces of paper each painted in one
of the primary colours are crushed, folded and wrapped together 100 times.
Each of the pieces is then recorded by a scanner, and recombined into a whole,
whereupon a multiplicity of colours is generated. Printed upon a piece of
canvas, it is a frozen record of the manual activity of painting, and also
perhaps a tiny suggestion of how a new technology may be summoned in the
practice of painting. On the other hand, Martin's work allows for unpredictable
events to unfold in the rhythmical regularity of the painting. Martin's work has
been extensively shown in Europe, the US and Japan, and is best described
through its method of production where using his bodily movement, a brush'
with deep set fissures is pulled from one side of the painting to the other in
one continuous flow. In Davenport's Untitled Circle Painting series, however, he
creates naturally symmetrical arches and circles of colour through paint pouring
techniques that involve pouring layer upon layer of different-coloured paint
one over another thereby creating ecliptic relationships of colour and form.
Official opening by Mr Lee Suan Hiang, CEO of National Arts Council: Friday, 4
June 2004.
Five of the participating artists will be present at the opening: Torie Begg
(UK), Ian Davenport (UK), Ho Tzu Nyen (Singapore), Alexis Harding (UK) and Yong
Tai Si (Singapore).
INTERVIEWS with curator Dr Eugene Tan and selected artists can be arranged.
Event Details
Title Painting as Process: Re-evaluating Painting
Exhibition Opening 4 June 2004 , 7pm-9pm
Guest of Honour Mr Lee Suan Hiang, CEO, National Arts Council Singapore
Exhibition Period 5 June 4 July 2004
Venue Earl Lu Gallery I & II
LASALLE-SIA College of the Arts
90 Goodman Road
Time 10am 6pm , open daily
Admission Free
Public Enquiries Call 6340 9102/9116 or email earllugallery@lasallesia.edu.sg
Related Event I
Title Panel Discussion 'Painting Today: Is painting still relevant for
contemporary art practice?'
Date 6 June 2004
Time 1.30pm 5.00pm
Venue Earl Lu Gallery I
LASALLE-SIA College of the Arts
90 Goodman Road
Moderator Dr Eugene Tan (Director, Earl Lu Gallery, LASALLE-SIA College of the
Arts)
Panelists Torie Begg
Ian Davenport
Ho Tzu Nyen
Alexis Harding
Brian Muller (Executive Editor, CONTEMPORARY)
Gunalan Nadarajan (Dean, Office of Research and Creative Industries, LASALLE-SIA
College of the Arts)
Yong Tai Si
Admission Free of charge.
Related Event II
Title Sunday Art Trolley
Dates 6th, 13th, 20th and 27th June 2004 & 4th July (Sundays)
Time 2.00pm 5.00pm
Venue Earl Lu Gallery I & II
LASALLE-SIA College of the Arts
90 Goodman Road
Instructor David Chan
Panelists For children aged between seven and 12 years old
Admission and participation is free of charge
Art materials provided
Sunday Art Trolley
The Sunday Art Trolley is a series of drawing sessions tailored for children
between the ages of seven and 12. Children are encouraged to freely express
themselves through drawings and paintings by responding to the Painting as
Process exhibition by using a variety of art materials provided by Earl Lu
Gallery. Participants will be guided by a trained art instructor and each
session is three hours in duration. Admission and participation is free of
charge.
Participating Artists
Gerhard Richter [Germany]
Ian Davenport [UK]
Torie Begg [UK]
Alexis Harding [UK]
Jason Martin [UK]
Angela de la Cruz [Spain/UK]
Ho Tzu Nyen [Singapore]
Yong Tai Si [Singapore]
Robert Sagerman [USA]
Curator
Dr Eugene Tan, Director, Earl Lu Gallery, LASALLE-SIA College of the Arts.
