The year’s biggest contemporary art festival is back – and we’ve got you covered if you’re feeling overwhelmed by Singapore Art Week 2024’s dizzying array of more than 150 events and exhibitions. Here’s FEMALE’s guide to some of the most essential exhibitions – and a couple more below that are taking place this weekend only – more details below.
Being a woman, especially today, is many things and Singapore interdisciplinary artist Sarah Choo Jing has poetically interpreted it in a new series of videos titled Gestures of Affection. A commission by Roman luxury house Valentino (the brand is returning to Singapore Art Week once more after making a triumphant debut last year with Thai artist Pinaree Sanpitak), Gestures of Affection is a set of seven unique videos and print artworks, each featuring a female protagonist expressing a notion Choo sees as central to the female experience – sensuality, resilience, empathy, individuality, freedom, passion, and vulnerability.
You’ll notice that each of the work is bathed in a predominant colour palette of pinks and reds – nods to Valentino’s house codes of course. Each video captures a woman’s small gestures and facial expressions that might go unnoticed in real time and are deliberately showcased in slow motion, forcing the viewer to contend with the woman’s unapologetic presence.. P.S. These women and Choo developed closer relationships through the collaborative making of the work – thus the title Gestures of Affection.
Choo is well-known for her striking visual works that combine photography, video and installation to explore notions of solitude in contemporary life, and for this commission, the work was inspired by Valentino’s Spring Summer 2024 L’Ecole womenswear collection, which reaffirms women’s agency over their own bodies, independent of the male gaze or any societal expectations. Gestures of Affection will be unveiled at the lobby of Soho Residency Singapore (located within The Warehouse Hotel) from January 16 and remain on display till SAW concludes on January 28. Following this, the work will be sold, the net proceeds from the sale will go to gender equality non-advocacy group AWARE.
Jan 17 – 28, at the Soho Residency Singapore at The Warehouse Hotel, 320 Havelock Road
The new mall GR.iD on Selegie Road is playing host to several art exhibitions and spaces – if you’re there to visit the work-in-progress experimental show Nothing But a Day Dream, make sure to pop by another show just next door. Organised by the art group Critical Craft Collective (CCC), the pop-up show took inspiration from conceptual artist Joseph Kosuth’s seminal One and Three Chairs work (1965), which challenged viewers to step away from the physical representation of an object and to instead, embrace the ideas behind them.
With CCC’s show, artists have been invited to bring their own chair to a communal setting – the purpose of which is to reimagine sharing of power in a more egalitarian manner; the concept of the “chair-person” (geddit?) is periodically handed from one artist to another, dismantling traditional structures of hierarchy.
Jan 17 – 21, and Jan 27 – 28, 12pm – 8pm, at GR.iD, Level 7, 1 Selegie Road
Artist Priyageetha Dia is presenting a new aural installation titled Sap Sonic at NTU CCA as part of the institution’s group show titled Passages – but stay on for the afterparty this Saturday. Priyageetha will be throwing a rave titled Spirit World, where she’ll be spinning (as DJ DIA.HRD) alongside three others – artists Rifqi Amirul Rosli and Taufiq Rahman aka DJ C2AC and Fatimah respectively, as well as designer Arianna Aleezon aka DJ Aleezon. A special edition created just for Singapore Art Week 2024, the DJs’ sets will respond to sounds from Priyageetha’s sonic installation.
Jan 20, 7pm till late, at 38 Malan Road, Gillman Barracks
Tang Da Wu is a giant in Singapore’s art history – the 81-year-old artist founded The Artists Village (Singapore’s first art colony), in 1988, has had his works collected by the Guggenheim Museum and is one of the earliest pioneers particularly in the performance art sphere. This Saturday, the artist will be re-staging Our Children, a seminal performance piece inspired by a story of a boy who comes across a mother goat nursing its child.
Tang has been preoccupied with Our Children for more than a decade (it represents notions of filial piety to him) and has staged it many spaces across the years but this time, he hopes to keep it more open-ended. Given Tang’s stature, it’ll likely be a full house, so get there early. Alongside the live performance piece, there’s also an exhibition by the same name that accompanies it that’s ongoing at non-profit institution Art Outreach, with a large-scale tapestry piece (pictured) by Tang, as well as a variety of works from private collections that similarly speak of themes of filial piety and familial bonds.
The exhibition is on now till Feb 4, 11am – 7pm daily, at Art Outreach, 5 Lock Road, #01-06, Gillman Barracks, while the one-off performance piece takes place Jan 20, 6pm, at 10 Lock Road, Carpark B, Gillman Barracks
Art lovers got a treat last year when art collector Pierre Lorinet opened his private collection and showcased it, themed around the notion of Minimalism (there were major names like Donald Judd). This year, Lorinet returns to Singapore Art Week with a second showcase titled “Rough” – as you would expect, the show, curated by Edward Mitterrand, focuses on works that specialise in raw and unrefined textures, with works by 14 blue chip artists, such as Ai Wei Wei, Raf Simons regular collaborator Sterling Ruby (pictured), Rirkrit Tiravanija, Cai Lei and more – most of which have never been publicly showcased in Singapore previously, so don’t miss out.
On now till Jan 28, 11am – 7pm daily, at 22 Lock Road, #01-33, Gillman Barracks
Music fiends should make a beeline for the Esplanade – the institution puts on All Things New, its annual series where you can expect to discover emerging musicians and/or new music from more familiar names, throughout the month of January. This weekend for example, there’s the feline-obsessed rock and roll band Ultra Mega Cat Attack (pictured) – fans will want to turn up, as they’re playing the entirety of their debut album HEARTBREAK. REVENGE. DISCO., in its entirety, along with several other tracks that have never been played live.
Rappers Abangsapau and Mary Sue, and producer Cravism’s (all members of the buzzy collective New Mongrels) are also debuting a new joint album titled OK!. The trio banded together to craft a record that pushes the boundaries of Singaporean hip hop – the album is said to explore themes such as love, unfiltered vulnerability, hip-hop mastery, and self-discovery.
For the full line-up of acts, head here.
Ongoing throughout January, various times, at Esplaande, 1 Esplanade Drive
The Singapore Art Museum has several new exhibitions and activities ongoing for Singapore Art Week – the first being leading Vietnamese artist Nguyen Trinh Thi’s debut presentation of her multimedia work 47 Days, Sound-less (pictured). In this showcase, Nguyen focuses on what she calls the “peripheries,” showcasing natural landscapes used as backgrounds, uncredited characters, and soundtracks from American and Vietnamese movies shot in Southeast Asia. This experience is further brought to life through physical mirrors that reflect pieces of these visuals onto the surrounding walls, inviting visitors to immerse themselves into her work through multiple modes of seeing and listening.
Another new exhibition is Southeast Asian artists Simryn Gill and Charles Lim Yi Yong’s The Sea is a Field, which offers a perspective on what it’s like to travel to Indonesia along the Straits of Malacca. Housed at Block 37 in Tanjong Pagar Distripark, Lim’s video footage and Gill’s photography and text showcase the transformation of a portside warehouse into a lively canvas. This space reflects the delicate dance of distances and closeness in their collaboration, reminding viewers on how the culture and climate of our region shape the way we navigate the world.
Audiophiles will also want to stay late – there’ll be late night music performances across both weekends of Singapore Art Week by a wide variety of musicians and artists, including venerable names like avant garde rock outfit The Observatory, artistic duo NADA (Rizman Putra and Safuan Johari) and Indonesian collective Raja Kirik (Yennu Ariendra and J. Mo’ong Santoso Pribadi), sound artist and musician Bani Haykal; experimental musician and composer George Chua and music arts group NUS Electronic Music Lab.
For the full line-up of activities, head here.
Simryn Gill & Charles Lim Yi Yong: The Sea is a Field is on now till April 21, at Level 1, Block 37
Nguyen Trinh Thi: 47 Days, Sound-less is on now till April 14, at Block 39, The Engine Room
The late night music sessions take place on Jan 19 (6pm – 9.15pm), 20 ((5pm – 8pm), 26 (5pm – 9pm) and 27 (5pm – 8pm), at SAM at Tanjong Pagar Distripark, 39 Keppel Road