Singapore Biennale 2006
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Thursday, July 29, 2004
Rocks & Water
New Landscape Drawings by Jimmy Ong
Jimmy Ong, one of Singapore’s most well-known contemporary artists, shows his latest series of charcoal drawings — soulful interpretations of dramatic waves and ancient rocks.
Rocks & Water — New Landscape Drawings by Jimmy Ong is the New York-based artist’s first exhibition in Singapore in seven years.
During that interval, Ong, acclaimed for his passionate, spiritual and controversial charcoal studies of nude figures, has been busy with well-received shows in New York, Santa Monica, Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur and Colombo.
The exhibition documents his travels and expresses his continuing love affair with the landscape of Sri Lanka. Ong first visited the country in 1994 when he took part in a show of Singaporean art in Colombo. In 1999 he visited the country again, and after several trips produced the series Trees in a Garden, which proved his ability to translate the immediacy and sensuousness of his human figures to the lush forms of trees and plants. This series was made in Lunuganga, the renowned estate of the late master architect Geoffrey Bawa, and shown in Colombo and Lunuganga in 2002.
Rocks & Water is the result of subsequent visits in 2002. Ong spent his winter vacation in the Light House Hotel near the old fortress-town of Galle, south of Colombo. The rocky outcrop in front of the seaside hotel particularly fascinated him. These drawings are meditations on rocks and waves. They also capture the forceful, dramatic splashes of the waves during the monsoon season. Ong successfully takes on a theme with an exceptionally ancient resonance — both rocks and waves are classic subjects in traditional Chinese painting — and gives it the contemporary relevance in his inimitable fashion.
Contemporary and traditional, unapologetically personal yet universal, humble in medium yet epic in spirit. These are the hallmarks of Jimmy Ong’s drawings.
(ppe)
Rocks & Water is on view from 31 July- 15 August 2004.
Block 43 Studio Gallery, Work Loft Spaces, Chip Bee Gardens #03-80, Jalan Merah Saga Holland Village. Gallery hours, Mon-Sun 11am-7pm, contact James Holdsworth.
Email: type studio and followed by @block43.com
THIS WEEK at Plastique Kinetic Worms - 61 & 63 Kerbau Road
An interdisciplinary production consisting of two parts: the
performance If the Universe, between Circle and Ellipse, Slips and the
sound and visual exhibition Sounds Like Mirrors.
DATES & TIME
Sound & Visual Exhibition opens 28 July. On till 7 August 2004. 11 a.m.
- 7 p.m.
Performances on 3*, 4, 5 August 2004. 8 p.m.
*by invitation only
a $5 contribution per person, payable at the door on performance
nights, will help defray some production costs. Thank you for your
understanding.
WHO’S INVOLVED?
The work is conceived and directed by interdisciplinary artist, Susie
Lingham. Susie, known for her idiosyncratic approach, was last heard
in, Feedback, in One Breath, a text and soundwork for the ‘Loudhailer
Park’ at Asian Comments, Copenhagen, Denmark (2002). She also wrote an
equation of vulnerability, a book produced in collaboration with visual
artist, Suzann Victor, which was published by the former Contemporary
Asian Arts Centre, Singapore (2002). This month, Susie has taken time
off her PhD research to pull together a dynamic local team of promising
emergent talents and accomplished practitioners in various art
disciplines from visual art to performance, for this unusual production.
WHY BOTHER?
You could describe it as a rare moment in contemporary art, a
paradoxically ‘baroque minimalist’ experience. An aubergine-coloured
hall of art-mirrors; claustrophobic steely soundscape; stark lighting;
a “staircase creature” in severe flame-coloured taffeta with a train
over two-and-a-half metres long; one pair of illuminated talking heads
in dialogue with two bodies in elasticized orbit around each other.
lil India rocks cos we're there!
www.pkworms.org.sg
Tuesday, July 27, 2004
LEA Gallery cfp: Global Crossings (GX)
** Worldwide Call for Submissions **
Please feel free to spread the word widely:
LEA Gallery Special: Global Crossings (GX)
Guest Curators: Dennis Summers and Choy Kok Kee (gxgallery@astn.net)
The Leonardo Electronic Almanac Gallery (http://mitpress2.mit.edu/e-journals/LEA/LEA2004/gallery.htm) is inviting submissions in conjunction with the Leonardo Global Crossings Initiative. The Gallery is looking to make visible the work of international artists, professionals and scholars who live and work in a wide variety of situations where access to established venues for exhibition, display and publication is limited. Difficulty of access may be attributed to cultural, geographic, ethnic, institutional or disciplinary diversity, or issues related to the North/South divide, age, gender, etc. Through this Gallery we seek to showcase little-known work in the art-science-technology field and to counter the
natural tendency of networks to be inward looking, thus reinforcing established points of view.
We are looking for work that considers the global earth in some fashion or another. It can be work that addresses global social, political economic, spiritual, etc. issues. It can be work that physically or metaphorically lies in multiple locations on the planet, it can be work that may have personal relationships to multiple locations on the planet. Or anything else that loosely falls along the concept of being "global" in nature.
LEA encourages international artists / academics / researchers / students to submit their proposals for consideration. We particularly encourage young authors outside North America and Europe to send proposals.
Form
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Create a single web page, in any common format that either documents the work or actually is the work. As long as it is only one page, the work can take any form. Try to avoid pages that require special or unusual plugins. Keep in mind that many parts of the world do not have high-speed Internet access.
Process
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Zip all necessary files into a folder named after the contributing artist. Send as an attachment to type gxgallery and followed by @astn.net or if necessary, provide ftp instructions.
In a separate attachment include:
- 300 word abstract / synopsis / description of work
- A brief author biography / resume
- Any related URLs
- Contact details
In the subject heading of the email message write “Name of Artist: LEA Global Crossings – Date Submitted”.
Deadline for submissions: 31 August 2004
Please send proposals or queries to:
Dennis Summers/Choy Kok Kee
type gxgallery and followed by @astn.net
You are cordially invited to the opening of
AH MAHS AND CONCRETE LILIES
A look at yesteryear by Koh Tien Gui
The artist’s proceeds for the exhibition will be donated to the
Cleft and Craniofacial Centre of the KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital
Wednesday 28th July 2004 7 pm
Utterly Art Exhibition Space
208 South Bridge Road 2nd Level
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 till Mon 2nd Aug 2004.
The Ah Mah Jie or nanny in her trademark white and black tunic used to be a common sight in our Singaporean homes and streets not so very long ago. Similarly, Samsui women, called Concrete Lilies by Westerners, were very prevalent around construction sites where they performed backbreaking work. These hardworking women of yesteryear have virtually vanished from our urban landscape, and lawyer Koh Tien Gui recalls them in brilliantly bold colours in this exhibition before they disappear from our collective memories. Brought back to its roots in Chinatown where the show will be held, Ah Mahs and Concrete Lilies also offers other vignettes of days gone by: boys playing marbles, the barber in the backlane, a view down the five-foot way, streetmarket and laundry scenes. The strong colours of his art belie the gentle sensitivity with which Tien Gui approaches his subjects.
This colourful exhibition, recalling the tough working women from days gone by, is by former UN lawyer and current Group Counsel, Koh Tien Gui. The artist's proceeds from the show will be donated to the Cleft and Craniofacial Centre, KK Women's and Children's Hospital, which continually provides care for patients in Singapore and the surrounding region.
Women In The Arts (WITA)
Cordially invite you to witalk
On 29 July Thursday, 7pm
At Perfect Art Space
179 River Valley Road
#01-07 River Valley Building (next to Liang Court)
Three artists, Lise MacDermott, Anette Notfors and Marisa Keller would discuss their art practices after art schools - setting up studios, getting represented by galleries, understanding the market system, funding bodies, art institutions, the art Museums and the public, networking and exhibitions.
Lise MacDermott - MFA painting/research 2002 QCA Griffith University Qld; PG Ed. Art and Design
1993 London University; BA Hons Fine Art 1990 Camberwell school of Art London. Currently residing in London and fulltime art teacher will talk about her experiences and life after art school, particularly her many resisdencies and mural projects in India and Africa.
Anette Notfors - Originally from Sweden, Anette Notfors took her degree in Fine Arts
(Paintings) in 2003 at LaSalle-SIA. Her works are mainly mixed media on paper - highly textured drawings and monotypes. She draws her inspiration from nature and our changing, and increasingly distant, relationship to nature. She has exhibited in Singapore and is represented by a local gallery.
Marisa Keller - Full time artist Marisa Keller grew up near the sea in the South of the Netherlands. Now a Singapore PR she works and lives in here since 1993. Trained as a painter she was always interested in printmaking and started to produce colour woodcuts in the early nineties. During this time she did her Master of fine Art in printmaking. Other techniques like video installations were introduced in to her practice and now she is dedicated to push the boundaries between printmaking and other media. She is currently a part-time lecturer printmaking at LaSalle-SIA. Her paintings, prints and video installations were shown in Singapore, USA, Australia and the Netherlands.
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