Greetings From Asian

Archipelago presents a contemporary revisit to strangely familiar sights and conditions situated within the Southeast Asia. Based loosely on a cluster of islands in reference to the geographical trait, the exploration extends across time and space for man’s pursuit of paradise. The journey depicts encounters that are shaped by invisible forces of personal anecdotes, migrant sojourns, and the colonial past. 

In addressing the invisible sea boundaries and occurrence surrounding island state Singapore, Charles Lim’s SEASTATE spreads across sporadic spaces throughout the gallery to re-examine the perception of boundaries and space. Lim’s observation of the human agenda on resources and land are further narrated by an interview of the inarticulate sandman, concerning sand transportation for land reclamation. In Eiffel Chong’s For Such is the Wickedness of the World that It Shalt be Destroyed by a Great Flood, the work opens a conversation about the paradoxical relationship between human and nature, with an ominous subversion of a seaside holiday. Threading between the thin line of human’s ambition and folly, MM Yu’s inquiry within “Fantasy Island” reveals the absurdity of materialising an artificial white beach made up of crushed dolomites, amidst the dire needs of the society engulfed by the Coronavirus emergency. The human’s activity and the resulting ecological impact knows no national boundaries. Depicted in Hanging Heavy On My Eyes, Ang Song Nian reinterprets the public air pollutant data to visualise the recurring haze situation in Singapore, arising from illegal agricultural burnings in neighbouring Sumatra, Indonesia. 

Pressed under the weight of development and progress, the impact on the lives of people and the environment are oftentimes complex and invisible. Underlying the ecological impact lies the inconspicuous thread between the colonial past and present, as explored in Memorandum on Colonial Mining Policy. Elizabeth Gabrielle Lee juxtaposes archival records drawn from the Kew’s Library and Archives in London with appropriated corporate footages on Christmas Island. Responding to the Western portrayal of the Greek mythological character Medusa, Wawi Navarroza reimagines a new hero’s journey in MEDUSA (The Tropical Island and Tropical Marble) that begins with a generic coastal image titled, Island, where the real and abstract unfolds in Romblon, the capital city of Philippines’ marble deposits and industry. 

 

In Ocular, the construction of the protagonist stems from Poklong Anading’s attempts to retrace his deceased mother’s steps, by following the photographs sent to him during her 11 years stint as a domestic helper in Hong Kong. Enclosed within the projection chamber, lies both the private pain and nostalgia felt by Anading, and the impossibility to capture her absence within the recording devices. The loss is further reverberated in MM Yu’s Absent, as she documents the aftermath in Tacloban City, struck by Typhoon Haiyan. The moving image is accompanied by popular Filipino nursery tune “Tong Tong Tong Pakitong-Kitong”, sung by school children who continued on with their lessons at make-shift tents next to the disaster zone. 

 

The upheaval and interruption brought by forces beyond one’s control, continues to result in the loss of homes, farmland and heritage building, as documented by Lim Sokchanlina, in National Road Number 5. The conditions of the working class and domestic space come into picture with Room no. 2” and “Sunset on Unnamed Lanes at Khlong Toei, Bangkok. Through Miti Ruangkritya’s documentation of the domestic space of marginalised inhabitants, and fragments of sunset viewed in-between tin roofs of densely unidentifiable lanes, it prompts the question around the process of urbanisation, economic disparity, as well as the experiences of individuals living within communities of lower social status.

 

In light of flux in life, human’s desire to comprehend its existence and belonging persist. WHO is a personal account of Wilfred Lim’s family visit to ancestry home in Xiamen. The discovery of an untold story in his family history, and serendipity in life became a reflection on the parallel lives between the rural village of Malaysia and China. The diaspora sojourns continue with Tethered Torrential, Elizabeth Gabrielle Lee constructed an interspecies encounter in the multiverse while speculating on the intertwined relations between family and archival narratives, which the moving image draws on Lee’s family oral record of her great-grandfather, a 19th century colonial magistrate of the Christmas Island. Weaving together dream and authentic self, Wedding is a romantic re-enactment which Nor held a sunrise beach wedding on the East Coast of Singapore.

As the night fall, A Convenient Sunset presents a placid presence of 7-Eleven stores bathing in the lights of the setting sun. The inviting dreamy scenes are soon eclipsed by the realities detailed in A Convenient Holdup. Still, dreaming and desires persist into the night with Urban Street Night Club. The alluring neon lights, never-ending street sound, and elevated promise “To make Phnom Penh more beautiful” continue to call out to an ephemeral paradise on this earth.

 

Text By Gwen Lee

ANG Song Nian (b. 1983, Singapore) works with materials and traces of human behaviours made visible within landscapes through photographic documentations and installation. Intrigued by the narration of thoughts and ideologies through visuals, he has always favoured a microscopic approach to concepts, a style which he always employ to open up details in his practice. His works questions the relationship of human interventions and invasions on landscapes.

 

Song Nian’s recent solo exhibition, Artificial Conditions: Something To Grow Into premiered at the Tokyo Photographic Art Museum in 2019. His other earlier solo exhibitions include Hanging Heavy On My Eyes, exhibited at both DECK (Singapore) and the Sunderland University Priestman Gallery in 2017, As They Grow Older And Wiser at the Bangkok University Gallery in 2016, as well as A Tree With Too Many Branches in 2015. Group exhibitions include Unearthed at the Singapore Art Museum and Engaging Perspectives at the Centre for Contemporary Art (Singapore). He has exhibited in the Photo Espana Festival (Spain), Lianzhou International Photo Festival (China), Gallery Jinsun (Seoul, South Korea), Hanmi Gallery (London) and the Institut d’Estudis Ilerdencs (Lleida, Spain).

 

Song Nian's works has been awarded the Grand Prize in the 41^st edition of the New Cosmos of Photography award organized by Canon Inc. in 2018. He was also the winner for Photography in the Noise Singapore 2012 and was selected for eCrea Award (Spain, 2010) as well as the Association of Photographers Awards (UK, 2010). In 2012, he was awarded the International Graduate Scholarship for his graduate studies at the London College of Communication, University of the Arts London.

 

He received his Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Photography from the UAL Camberwell College of Arts and the London College of Communication respectively. Song Nian currently lectures in the Photography department at the School of Art, Design and Media at the Nanyang Technological University in Singapore.

 

He is also the founder of THEBOOKSHOW, a platform which started in 2014, that works towards providing opportunities for artists and photographers interested in the self-published photobook medium.

 

Charles Lim Yi Yong (b. 1973, Singapore) studied Fine Art at Central Saint Martins School of Art and Design, London, graduating in 2001. Lim’s artistic practice stems from an intimate engagement with both man-made systems and the natural world, mediated and informed by field research and experimentation, drawing, photography and digital video. His epic SEA STATE project, beginning 2005, examines the political and biophysical contours of the nation state through the visible and invisible lenses of the sea. His most recent solo show, Staggered Observations of a Coast was exhibited at STPI Creative Workshop & Gallery in 2021/2022. 

 

Lim’s work has been exhibited widely across Europe and the Asia-Pacific, at documenta 11 (with the collective tsunamii.net), at Manifesta 7, at Biennales in Shanghai, Singapore, Osaka, Sydney, the EVA International in Ireland, the Aichi Triennale in Japan and more recently in 2020’s Busan Biennale and at the Istanbul Biennale in 2022. In 2015 Charles represented Singapore at the 56th Venice Biennale with SEA STATE. Lim’s short films have also travelled extensively in the film festival circuit, notably his short film "All Lines Flow Out" won a Special Mention at the Venice Film Festival in 2011, making it the first Singapore film to win an award at the prestigious festival.

 

Eiffel Chong, b. 1977, Kuala Lumpur, MALAYSIA.Now lives and works in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

 

Eiffel Chong graduated with an MA in International Contemporary Art and Design Practice from the University of East London and a BA (Hons) in Photography from London College of Printing. Besides his production of photographic work, Chong is highly engaged with the Malaysian photographic community; taking on the role of mentor for the Malaysian Pixel Shooting Stars programme and Exposure+ Workshop. In addition, he has been appointed to the panel of judges for the Kuala Lumpur Photography Awards 2016 and 2017 Annual Nikon Photo Awards, Malaysia.

 

He is also an academician with Tunku Abdul Rahman University of Management and Technology. Eiffel Chong’s work considers abstract concepts of life and death through the banal details, silent landscapes and curious obsessions he observes from daily life. He is interested in how the photographic medium can translate a particular time and space, memories and thoughts into something permanent. He personally thinks that the images say more with less, and makes one just want to stare and think about it.

Lina works across documentary and conceptual practices with photography, video, installation and performance. Using different strategies, he calls attention to a variety of social, political, geopolitical, economic, cultural and environmental changes in Cambodia in relation to the globe and in the notion of what power and economic play roles in our everyday living and contemporary present.

 

His works usually involve researching to discover, unpack and record the history of present and the imagination of future by learning from the past.

Lina is an active member of the artist collective, Stiev Selapak since 2007 which founded and co-runs Sa Sa Art Projects since 2010, a long-term initiative committed to the development of contemporary visual arts landscape in Cambodia. Together with his collective, they teach, initiate, and innovate art programs facilitating a growing and critically conscious community. For the last 3 years, he teach contemporary photography at Sa Sa Art Projects.

Lim’s recent exhibitions include Maja Tuk Maja Day (Master of Territory), Documenta 15 , Kassel, Germany, Emotional Asia: Miyatsu Daisuke Collections x Fukuoka Asian Art Museum, Fukuoka Asian Art Museum, Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan, River Pulses, Border Flows, Guangdong Times Museum, China, Phnom Penh 243(2010-), Asian Art Biennale, Taiwan 2021, Phantoms and Aliens: The Invisible Other, Richard Koh Fina Art, Malaysia (2020), Cambodian Migrant worker in Asia (A Conversation), Singapore Biennale (2019), Wrapped Future II, NCA Nichodo Contemporary Gallery Tokyo (2019), Foreshadows, Tokyo Art and Space, Tokyo, Japan (2019), National Road Number 5, Bangkok Art Biennale, Thailand 2018; Sydney Biennale (2108), This Life of Thing, Esplanade, Singapore (2018), Sunshower, Mori Art Musuem, Tokyo (2017), Singapore Art Stage (2016), Darwin Festival, Australia (2014), Phnom Penh Rescue Archaeology, CCA, Singapore (2014), Urban Street Night Club, Art Stage Singapore, SE Asia Platform (2014), Wrapped Future (Triangle Park), Brooklyn (2013), and SA SA BASSAC (2012), Phnom Penh: Rescue Archaeology, ifa, Berlin and Stuttgart (2013), and Riverscapes INFLUX, various spaces: Hanoi, Saigon, Bangkok, Phnom Penh, Jakarta, Manila (2012).

Miti Ruangkritya (b.1981, Thailand) is a visual artist whose photography practice expands into the realms of video, text, and publishing. A graduate of the University of Westminster (2008), MA Documentary Photography, Miti is nominated for the Foam Pual Huf Award (2023), the recipient of the Open Call Winning Portfolio at the Singapore International Photo Festival (2021), Finalist for the Sovereign Art Prize (2016), Winner of the Portfolio Award at Format Photography Festival (2015) and shortlisted for the Kassel Book Award (2015). In addition to solo artist presentations in Australia, Bangkok, Singapore, and Venice, his works have been featured in numerous exhibitions and festivals domestically and internationally, including: The Noorderlicht Photography Festival (NL, 2012), FORMAT International Photography Festival (GB, 2015), as well as the Singapore Art Museum travelling exhibition After Utopia (AU, JP, 2017). In 2017, Miti was also part of The Backers Foundation and AIT Residence Programme. His practice is represented in the institutional collections of the Singapore Art Museum (SG) and MAIIAM Contemporary Art Museum (TH), while his publications also reside in the libraries of the Tate (GB), Metropolitan Museum of Art (US), the Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art (ES), as well as many others.

He lives and works in Bangkok, Thailand.

 

GROUP EXHIBITION (2023)
'Living Pictures: Photography in Southeast Asia’, National Gallery of Singapore, 2022-23
'UNTIL WE MEET AGAIN. Regional Writings (Southeast Asia)', Weserburg Museum für moderne Kunst, Germany, 2022-23

SOLO EXHIBITION (2023)
‘BLISS’, Silpakorn Art Centre, Thailand, 2023

 

B.1978, Lives and works in Manila, Philippines.

 

MM Yu has worked between photography and painting since obtaining her degree in Fine Arts from the University of the Philippines in 2001. Her works in both media tackle the nuances achieved between composition and color as they occupy the frame. Primarily drawn to street photography and documenting the everyday, her photographs evoke the ever-changing cultural texture and topology of Manila as seen through its inhabitants, the city’s infrastructure and its waste product as it archives not only the economy but also the ecology of life in the myriad forms it takes in the city.

 

The hybrid and density of MM Yu’s subjects remind us of how objects and signs are not necessarily self-contained but take part in larger systems of interaction. These recorded static scenarios show through their thematic variety the artist’s interest in discovering and valuing the fleeting moment present even in its simplest components. Through her ongoing interest in deciphering the enigma of the unseen landscape of ordinary things, they also force us to rethink what our minds already know and rediscover what our eyes have already seen.

 

Yu is a recipient of the Cultural Center of the Philippines 13 Artist Award (2009) Ateneo Art Awards (winner in 2007, shortlisted in 2011/2012). Sovereign Asian Art Prize finalist (2010) and Goethe-Institute-Climate Change workshop grant (2014)

She received her BFA in Painting from the University of the Philippines and completed residencies with Big Sky Mind, Manila (2003), Common Room Bandung Residency Grant (2007) and Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris, France (2013) A.I.R. Deck Singapore (2023)

In his art practice, Poklong Anading often foregrounds positionality—including the relationships between audience and artwork; artist and medium; people and the environment.

 

In his “anonymity” series, for example, various human subjects hold mirrors in front of their faces to reflect the blinding light of the sun back at the camera. These unrecognizable figures become legible only through the social and economic markers of their clothing and their surroundings. In another series titled “every water is an island,” Anading video-records the light reflected by water in reservoirs, waste treatment plants, and other bodies of water. He cups his partly opened hand over the lens to create a shifting aperture, as though to hold and sift the flow—meditating on how civilization is shaped by water and how water, in turn, is shaped by civilization.

 

Anading was born in Manila, in 1975. He earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) in painting from the College of Fine Arts, University of the Philippines (1999). He also completed residencies with Big Sky Mind, Manila, Philippines (2003 to 2004), Common Room, Bandung, Indonesia (2008), Bangkok University Gallery, Thailand (2013), Selasar Sunaryo Art Space, Bandung, Indonesia (2013), Philippine Art Residency Program—Alliance Francaise de Manille in Cite Internationale des Arts, Paris, Centre Intermondes, La Rochelle in France (2014) and das weisse haus, Vienna Austria (2018). He had solo exhibitions in Galerie Zimmermann Kratochwill, Graz, Austria (2010, 2012 and 2020), Taro Nasu in Japan and Athr Gallery in Jeddah (2016), Silverlens Gallery in Manila (2022). He has also been included in notable group exhibitions such as: Gwangju Biennial, South Korea (2002 and 2012), No Country: Contemporary Art for South and Southeast Asia, the first exhibition of the Guggenheim UBS Map Global Art Initiative in New York, Hong Kong and Singapore (2013 to 2014), 5th Asian Art Biennial: Artist Making Movement, National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, Taiwan (2015), The Shadow Never Lies, Minsheng Art Museum, Shanghai, Afterwork, Para Site, Hong Kong, China, Architecture Biennale for the 15th Exhibition, Philippine Pavilion: Muhon: Traces of an Adolescent City at Pallazo Mora, Venice, Italy (2016), Constellations, Photographs in Dialogue, SFMOMA, California, USA (2021) and Living Pictures: Photography in Southeast Asia, National Gallery Singapore (2022).

 

Wilfred Lim (b.1988) graduated from Nanyang Technological University’s School of Art, Design and Media. He lived and grew up in a small fishing village at the seaside in Pengerang, southern Malaysia for 18 years before pursuing his education in Singapore. Drawing reference from classical paintings, his photographic images are often carefully staged to resemble surreal and whimsical tableaus.

 

Wilfred is the international winner of Undergraduate Award 2014 (Visual Art Category). He has also been awarded Noise Singapore Awards (Photography), 1st prize for Invisible Photographer Asia Photo Book Asia Award and 2nd place for Nikon Photo Contest 2016-2017, Next Generation Award: Photo Story category

Co-founder and Director of DECK and Singapore International Photography Festival (SIPF)

 

After six years of experience in museum industry, Gwen Lee went on to pursue her first love for photography and founded Singapore International Photography Festival (SIPF), the longest running photography festival in Southeast Asia. In 2010, Lee received an arts award from the Japan Chamber of Commerce & Trade for her contribution to the Singapore arts community. In 2013, she embarked on curatorial research in Germany supported by Goethe-Institut Singapore and National Arts Council. In 2022, Lee is a Recipient of Chevalier, Ordre des Arts et des Lettres conferred by Ministry of Culture, France.

From 2013 onwards, SIPF has received grant support from the National Arts Council to further develop public photography education in Singapore. In 2014, Lee and her team built DECK, an arts centre dedicated to photography arts to provide year-round programming for the community and residency programmes for photographers. DECK received the Singapore President’s Design Award 2015 for its innovative architectural design and place making with the arts . Since 2016, DECK is a recipient of the NAC Major Company Grant as a dedicated space for photography arts in Singapore.

Lee has curated over 60 photography exhibitions in Singapore and overseas. Some of these highlighted exhibitions are: Margins: Drawing Pictures of Home (2020) at the ArtScience Museum, Flux: Contemporary Photography from China (2014) at the ArtScience Museum, STEIDL DECK: 1001 Steidl Books (2016) at DECK, Southeast Asia premiere showcases Daido Moriyama: Prints and Books from 1960s – 1980s (2016) in 6th SIPF and Between Love and Death: Diary of Nobuyoshi Araki (2018) in 7th SIPF, and The Natural History of an Island at Jimei x Arles International Photo Festival 2021. She has served as a jury member and portfolio reviewer on international platforms FOAM Paul Huf Award, New Cosmos Japan, FORMAT UK, KL PHOTO Award, KG+, DIPE China, Houston Fotofestival, Daegul Photo Biennale, Recontres d’ Arles and Ballarat International Foto Biennale. 

 

The National Arts Council (NAC) is a statutory board established on 15 October 1991 to oversee the development of arts in Singapore. The National Arts Council (NAC) champion an arts sector that inspires society, sparks creativity and connects Singapore to the world.