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Straits Times
21 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Straits Times
SAM Contemporaries returns for second edition with six large-scale installations
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox (Front row from left) Artists Chu Hao Pei, Lee Pheng Guan, NEO_ARTEFACTS, Masuri Mazlan, Syahrul Anuar, (back row from left) curators Angela Pinto, Joella Kiu, Siobhan Tang, Syaheedah Iskandar, Seline Teo, Berny Tan, Angelica Ong and Teng Yen Hui in the space for How To Dream Worlds at Singapore Art Museum. SINGAPORE – A recreation of a sandy excavation site with pop culture relics like Indiana Jones' Holy Grail. An eerie home occupied by tubular latex and a shower cubicle periodically spraying red mist. And 10kg of dried lalang corralled into metal frames. Singapore Art Museum's (SAM) second edition of its biennial platform, Contemporaries, returns on Aug 1 with six large-scale installations by emerging artists being shown under the title How To Dream Worlds, in Tanjong Pagar Distripark.
Forbes
20-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
Artist Heman Chong Finds Meaning In The Unfinished
Heman Chong, The Library of Unread Books, 2016-Present. Installation view of Serpentine Pavilion 2024, Archipelagic Void, designed by Minsuk Cho, Mass Studies Photo Heman Chong Singaporean artist Heman Chong has built a compelling, unconventional practice that spans painting, writing, performance, installation and what he calls 'situations'. Known for his sharp wit, conceptual rigor and fascination with systems of language, politics and infrastructure, his work often explores the gaps between information and interpretation, presence and absence. He represented Singapore at the 2003 Venice Biennale and recently exhibited 'The Library of Unread Books', a roving public reference library composed entirely of unread books donated by individuals that reflects the surplus of knowledge in contemporary life, at the Serpentine Pavilion in London in 2024. With his first major survey show, 'This is a dynamic list and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness', now on view at the Singapore Art Museum until August 17, 2025, he reflects on over two decades of restless experimentation and invites us to embrace the incomplete, the overlooked and the unresolved. Your Singapore Art Museum exhibition title 'This is a dynamic list and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness' is taken from Wikipedia's terms and conditions. What about the impermanence and incompleteness of digital information resonates with your practice? The title of this survey is itself an artwork. I borrowed the phrase from Wikipedia, where it appears on list pages. I feel a connection to it because many of the objects that interest me seem to constantly shift in meaning. Whether we like to accept it or not, the fact is everything around us is constantly changing on an atomic level. Every moment is different from the next. We can never recreate a moment in time because it is just physically impossible. I think we like to think about stability and consistency and how we all like to feel safe in that cocoon of fiction, but unfortunately, life is often made up of all these different things thrown at us and I've always felt, quoting a beautiful title from a book by Joan Didion, to 'play it as it lays'. Installation view of Heman Chong's Monument to the people we've conveniently forgotten (I hate you), 2008, as part of the exhibition "This is a dynamic list and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness" at Singapore Art Museum at Tanjong Pagar Distripark Photo courtesy of Singapore Art Museum Your exhibition is framed around nine thematic rooms. How did you decide on these themes, and what kind of journey do you hope visitors will experience as they move through the space? The nine parts of this exhibition form a constellation of a large part of myself, so in fact, the exhibition layout is somewhat autobiographical. The parts are: Words, Whispers, Ghosts, Journeys, Futures, Findings, Infrastructures, Surfaces and Endings. To be honest, I've never expected anything from the audience and they are free to experience whatever they would when they encounter my work. For your six new commissions in this exhibition, what was the starting point for them? Were they conceptually linked to your earlier projects or did they represent a new departure? Everything that I've ever made has a formal or sometimes emotional relationship to each other. One project spills into the other. Everything is a mess and I like this messy way of working. It is difficult to think of imaginary beginnings or ends for each of my works because, as the title of the exhibition would suggest, I am very invested in open-endedness and incomplete things. Installation view of Heman Chong's Calendars (2020-2096), 2004-2010, as part of the exhibition "This is a dynamic list and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness" at Singapore Art Museum at Tanjong Pagar Distripark Photo courtesy of Singapore Art Museum What do you feel is the role of the artist in society? What do you hope to achieve or what message do you hope to convey through your art at the end of the day? I view my role as an artist as a privileged individual whose job is to, hopefully, think differently from the norm. By offering alternative perspectives, I hope to create more open and meaningful spaces in our society to engage with complex topics such as inequality, identity, esthetics, existential questions and community. After this survey exhibition, what new projects or exhibitions are you working on? Are there new directions or themes you're eager to explore next? I am working on many projects at the moment. The first is a book that will be published by the wonderful Ivory Press in Madrid. The second is a new temporary sculpture for the Middelheim Museum in Antwerp that will be installed for a year in their beautiful outdoor gardens. I am also the artist in residence this summer at the Asia Art Archive in Hong Kong, where I will dedicate my time to thinking about a show curated by Hou Hanru at Tai Kwun Contemporary about my favorite artist, On Kawara. I am also working on a long-term publishing project with a bookshop called Page Not Found in The Hague that will become a dispersed exhibition in The Netherlands. Finally, my work is included in the 30th anniversary show at the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo this autumn. I am working on many other solo shows, but I am not allowed to discuss any details about them right now, so stay tuned!
Listly
15-07-2025
- Listly
How to Discover Singapore's Stories: A Journey Through Its Museums and Cultural Sites
REPORT Listly by Joanna James Singapore, the Lion City, is a country that is a top contender on the bucket lists of many travellers worldwide. Whether it is because of the pristine streets, the modern skyline, the iconic landmarks or a mix of everything, many travellers seem not to get enough of Singapore. The rich culture, passed down for many generations, as well as ancient history, is evident despite the country's modern aesthetic. The Lion City offers visitors a chance to explore a wealth of museums and cultural landmarks that tell the stories of its past and present. Whether you're a lover of history, an art enthusiast, or a traveller exploring their surroundings, discovering Singapore's museums and cultural sites is an essential part of experiencing the city. This guide will help direct you to the best places that are worth checking out on your next visit to Singapore. National Museum of Singapore: A Gateway to the Past The National Museum of Singapore is, in fact, the oldest museum in the city and truly is a treasure chest of the country's rich history and culture. Even the building that the museum is housed in is quite an elegant colonial-era structure, and it invites visitors to embark on a journey through time. Exhibitions are usually of the interactive variety and are pretty engaging. Highlights include the interesting 'Singapore History Gallery,' which uses cutting-edge technology to bring historic moments to life, and the 'Life in Singapore: The Past 100 Years' exhibition, which reveals personal narratives of everyday Singaporeans. Asian Civilisations Museum: Discover Pan-Asian Heritage For those interested in a broader cultural perspective, the Asian Civilisations Museum offers a fascinating look into the diverse cultures of Asia. Situated along the scenic Singapore River, the museum's collection features artefacts from Chinese, South Asian, Southeast Asian, and Islamic backgrounds. Singapore Art Museum: Contemporary Creativity Lovers of Art and creativity in general should not miss the Singapore Art Museum (SAM), which is located in a beautifully restored heritage building. SAM specialises in contemporary art from the local Singaporean populace as well as Southeast Asian pieces, showcasing works which both challenge and inspire visitors. Exhibits often show off current issues of society, like pressing social concerns, identity of one's own, and the environment, providing a thoughtful outlook to the city's historical museums. The museum's location makes it a short trip from lyf Bugis Singapore, which is a chic living space mixed in with everyday life. Peranakan Museum: Exploring Unique Cultural Identity The Peranakan Museum offers an interesting look into the heritage of the Peranakans, descendants of Chinese immigrants who settled in the Malay Archipelago. Situated in Chinatown, the museum presents beautifully designed costumes, jewellery, and household items that reflect this fascinating blend of traditions. Its exhibits allow visitors to appreciate the artistry and history of the Straits Chinese community in Singapore. Singapore Botanic Gardens: A Change of Scenery If you are looking for a place filled with nature, greenery and a change of pace, the Botanic Gardens of Singapore is a great spot to visit. While it is not the typical cultural or museum on your list, the Gargens have much to offer. The Gardens are a UNESCO heritage site and provide a peaceful escape from the city's busy life. This is also the oldest garden space in Singapore. For someone lodged at a hotel in Bugis, Singapore, the Gardens are just a hop, skip and a jump away. ArtScience Museum: Innovation Meets Creativity At Marina Bay Sands, the ArtScience Museum offers a fresh outlook on the controlled mixture of art, science, and technology. It's shaped like a lotus, and the structure is iconic. The exhibitions it hosts are usually quite captivating as well. From showcasing digital art to other interactive pieces dedicated to space and nature, the museum invites visitors to experience creativity through a scientific lens. Final Thoughts Exploring Singapore's museums and cultural locations are quite rewarding and offers a rich way to understand this dynamic city-state. From historical narrations at the National Museum of Singapore to contemporary creativity at the Singapore Art Museum, as well as the cultural treasures of the Peranakan Museum to the modern exhibitions at the ArtScience Museum, there is something to captivate every traveller.
Bangkok Post
08-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Bangkok Post
Unpacking postmodernity
Singaporean artist Heman Chong is a bricoleur. He does not care about the purity of a system and uses materials at hand for creation without regard to their original purpose. It comes as no surprise then his solo exhibition's title declares such provisionality -- "This Is A Dynamic List And May Never Be Able To Satisfy Particular Standards For Completeness." Appropriated from a disclaimer on Wikipedia, this unwieldy string of words signals a postmodern bent in his oeuvre. Chong grapples with the instability -- and loss -- of truth in a digital age. Running at the Singapore Art Museum, Chong's first exhibition features 51 works from the early 2000s to present, including six new commissions, charting the prolific course of his conceptualism against the rise of social media. He moves fluidly between photography, installation, performance and painting. At the core of his practice is an interrogation of infrastructures that underpin contemporary life. Chong challenges the common view that truth -- a product of objective, scientific inquiry -- is universal. As suggested by the playful title, some of his artworks express tendency towards reflexivity. In The Straits Times, Friday, September 27, 2013, Cover, he uses repetition and overlap to create a palimpsest of a daily newspaper sheet. The intentional glitch draws attention to its own status as something artificially constructed, highlighting that the media are ideologically mired in their service. In Foreign Affairs #106, he arranged photos of embassy back doors encountered during his trips, which evoke the omnipresence of surveillance technology that tracks, governs and commodifies everyday life. When language (signifier) no longer points to reality (signified), there are only surfaces, without depth. As Fredric Jameson puts it: "The past as 'referent' finds itself gradually bracketed and then effaced altogether, leaving us with nothing but texts." In Works On Paper #2: Prospectus, Chong attempts to revive a novel from the computer graveyard after a hasty deletion. In 2006, he wrote a 200-page book, Prospectus, which revolves around an artist accused of plagiarising a younger artist's novel also titled Prospectus (very metafictional). Frustrated, Chong deleted the novel only to recover just 239 words in 2024. Bits and pieces of his forever-lost work in English, with a translation to Mandarin via Google Translate, are presented out of context. There are only signifiers, with no signifieds. In Secrets And Lies (The Impossibility Of Reconstitutions), Chong presents mountains of individual lines of literary text. He put 326 espionage novels in a paper shredder, making it impossible to identify their origins. Developed in conjunction with Romanticism, modern literature comes to express human creativity in the face of industrialisation. As two centuries go by, it is razed to rubble. Technology necessitates a shift in the status of creative works from divine genius to content in a no-man's land. In Simple Sabotage, Chong presents an avalanche of fluorescent text on a black screen that evokes information overload in the hyper-networked digital age. It is a reproduction of a declassified wartime guide by the US Office of Strategic Services that describes tactics for undermining the Axis, but he repurposes it for a manual on hindrance to productivity in the workplace. His choice of material and display rejects the distinction between high and low culture. As universal truth is shown to be illusory, Chong rejects grand narratives and turns to small practices and local events. Stacks, for example, is an installation of his annual sculptural works, each conceived from everyday objects he used in the preceding year, like books and glasses. He celebrates the everyday rather than the big moment of one's life. Meanwhile, Perimeter Walk features 550 postcard photos showing Chong's exploration of Singapore's borders. As a suburban flaneur, he challenges the slick image of the island city state, documenting life at its fringes, such as cats, tents and workers resting by the roadside, and lush vegetation. His installation doubles as a pop-up store where visitors can purchase the postcards, facilitating the exchange and circulation of cultural objects. In the same way, Calendars (2020-2096) is a collection of 1,001 images of empty public spaces in Singapore, such as airports, schools and apartments, that Chong photographed from 2004 to 2010. Devoid of human presence, the work evokes the disturbing void of the pandemic lockdown. Presented as calendar pages of a fictional tomorrow from 2020-2096, his work disrupts the notion of progress and linear time, inviting viewers to speculate a dystopian future out of the real past. Because mini-narratives are provisional, contingent and temporary, Chong's artworks make no claim to permanent truth. In 106B Depot Road Singapore 102106, he collaborates with Jiehao Lau to reconstruct public housing, an expression of Singapore's modernity, from memory rather than architectural plans to counterbalance order and rationality. 106B Depot Road is the address of Chong's former home, where he lived and worked for 16 years. While most of his works are playful, a few lament the meaninglessness of contemporary life. In Monument To The People We've Conveniently Forgotten (I Hate You), he presents thousands of blacked-out name cards that engulf the floor, inviting visitors to tread on the superficial nature of human connections in the digital age. Like friends on social media, these business cards are just signifiers, with no signified deeper relationships. As a bricoleur, Chong improvises an antidote from unrealised potential. In collaboration with Renée Staal, he asks the public to contribute to a social sculpture, The Library Of Unread Books. It imagines the transition of unused items from private property to a common pool, where individuals can share resources and build rapport in silence through the medium of books. "This Is A Dynamic List And May Never Be Able To Satisfy Particular Standards For Completeness" is running until Aug 17 at Singapore Art Museum. Visit
Straits Times
18-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Straits Times
Singapore artist Charmaine Poh wins Villa Romana Prize, Germany's oldest art award
Charmaine Poh, the first Singaporean to receive the prestigious Villa Romana Prize, will enrol in a 10-month residency from February to November 2026 in the historic Villa Romana in Florence, Italy. PHOTO: COURTESY OF CHARMAINE POH SINGAPORE – Video artist Charmaine Poh has won the Villa Romana Prize, Germany's oldest art award. The 35-year-old was among four fellows selected for the 2026 prize – its 120th edition. This makes her the first Singaporean to win the award aimed at emerging artists based in Germany. As is tradition, Poh and fellow winners Mikolaj Sobczak, Gulbin Unlu and Susanne Sachsse will enrol in a 10-month residency from February to November 2026 in the historic Villa Romana in Florence, Italy. They will each receive a monthly stipend of €2,000 (S$2,955) and participate in art shows in Florence and Germany. Their stay will culminate in an artists' book, incorporating their respective practices which span video, sound, object installation, performance and painting. Poh tells The Straits Times that she considers the residency, with its generous resources, 'a holistic demonstration of an investment in my practice'. 'These are resources that enable me to think more expansively and ambitiously about my practice, including working with mediums that I didn't have the space for before. Working more consistently with performance is one of them,' she adds. Britain -born Nigerian artist Karimah Ashadu, whose work was opposite Poh's at the Venice Biennale in 2024, nominated her for the prize. Ashadu was encouraged to do so by her producer Leonardo Bigazzi, who had selected the Singaporean artist for the Visio-European Programme in 2024. This is a residency, research and production project for artists who use moving images in their work. 'I want to express my gratitude to the both of them,' says Poh. She shares some artistic interests with her fellow nominees, including mining alternative archives, queer activism and critiques of social norms. Once a child actor in the Singapore TV series We Are R.E.M (2008 to 2009) – about three teenage girls who form a detective agency to bust crime – she has harnessed her experience to discuss the non-consensual proliferation of her image online, situating this in artificial intelligence-generated techno-futuristic worlds. Poh, currently based in Berlin for her doctorate in contemporary art, visual culture and performance, has been racking up accolades since showing at the 2024 Venice Biennale. Since then, she has been accepted for Arkipel, Jakarta's international documentary and experimental film festival, secured shows in Los Angeles and Hong Kong, and completed a six-month Singapore Art Museum residency. In December 2024, she was named Deutsche Bank's Artist of the Year for 2025 – also a first for Singapore. Poh's first solo and institutional exhibition in Berlin will take place at the PalaisPopulaire museum during Berlin Art Week in September. During Singapore Art Week in January, one of her videos shown in Venice, What's Softest In The World Rushes And Runs Over What's Hardest In The World (2024), was given an R21 rating by the authorities. It was eventually represented by an unlit projection area at Sundaram Tagore Gallery, in part due to logistical difficulties of enforcing the age requirement. Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
