SAM Visit

On 25 January 2016, we went on a class visit to Singapore Arts Museum.

Below are two installations which really caught my attention.

 

HEMAN CHONG

Calendars (2020-2096)

2004-2010

1001 offset prints with matte lamination

30 x 30 cm (each), installation dimensions variable

Singapore Art Museum Collection

Untitled-2  calendar

 

This installation had a very big space and at first sight, I was attracted to the brightly coloured photographs. I did not know that these were calendars until I went in for a closer look. The photographs were pictures all around Singapore. There were 1001 of them and they were devoid of people, which is up to us to decipher what Singaporeans will be like in the future. It becomes apparent that the concept of “time” is being projected as extremely abstract and impersonal. To whom do these calendars and the “time” manifested here belong? The uncertainty of the future. What will Singapore become over the next few years? I like how the artist uses contradictory themes like calendars of the future but images of the past. This installation got me thinking for awhile and appreciate the things in life. Somehow I am reminded of my family and the happy times that we went out together. All the familiar places could be seen on the calendars, even images of ADM is in a few of these calendars.

 

 

JONATHAN JONES

Lumination fall wall weave

2006/2015

Electrical cable, light fittings, bulbs

Installation dimensions variable

The Xstrata Coal Emerging Indigenous Art Award 2006 (swimming entry)

Purchased 2006 with funds from Xstrata Coal through the Queensland Art Gallery Foundation

Queensland Art Gallery Collection

 

IMG_5244

 

This installation caught my attention the minute I step into the gallery because of the bright lightings. There are no colours on this installation except white. At a closer look, you can see the weaves of the electrical cables on the wall, forming a standardise design across. The simple yet unique look of the electrical cable is something that is very soothing and interesting to look at. I spend about 15 minutes looking at this artwork. The light bulbs at the bottom form a straight line illuminating only the bottom part of the wall. It resembles a curtain where only the sun light enters through the bottom. The artist was inspired by his mother’s sewing practice and the communal activity of Aboriginal net-making. The question of community is central to the installation in which electrical cables are literally woven through a wall in repeated loops, modelled on the shape of the canoes used by the Cadigal people of Sydney Harbour and its surroundings. After reading the text, I realise that the lights are domestic light bulbs hanging from their ends in a long row hovering just above the gallery floor, a reference to the campfires reflected on the water that were descried by the first Europeans to arrive there. This sensory field, created by the light and the electricity pulsing through the woven cords, suggests a single entity operating as a metaphor for community and encounters with otherness; from “first contact” to the experience of sharing a space with another person.

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