Space and place are explored and glimpsed through mirrors and cartography, conjuring symmetrical and asymmetrical parallel worlds where the real, surreal, abstract and imaginary overlap.
Paracosmos (2016) by Harumi Yukutake
The ‘membrane’ of hand-cut mirrors dissolves the definition between foreground and background by dissipating the single image into an explosion of reflections.
Enter the Parallel World (2001 – 2016) by H.H Lim
This installation comprises two video works. The first, About 60 kilos of wisdom, recalls a favourite saying of Lim’s mother, that wisdom is nothing more than the ability to keep a balanced state.
The second video, The falling wisdom, represents the moment when this balance is broken: Lim’s fall from the basketball suggests the reality of corporeal limits.
Kentaro Hiroki handpicks everyday objects discarded on the streets to form the basis for his works. The things he chooses are intended to be reflective of time and space: unique to the localities in which he finds them, each object has its own story to tell of the communities it was found in.
Desert Islands (2009 – 2016) by MAP Office
The 100 mirrored islands presents a collection of islands that, despite their overlooked status, have played significant roles in shaping the global consciousness, and have become a point of reference for global desires, as well as fears and secrets today.
Behind the Light (2016) by Melati Suryodarmo
‘Behind the Light’ proposes an exchange between the two sides of a mirror, illuminating the relationships between self, surface, society and the spiritual world.
SONI Creflection (2016) by Zulkifle Mahmod
In exploring the micro-universes of Singapore’s cultural hodgepodge, Zulkifle’s work foregrounds the otherwise overlooked auditory character of each community and the space it inhabits.
Is it possible for an artist to look beyond officially constructed maps, and imagine a different past or an alternate future? Pothupitiye attempts to do so in this series, where he re-crafts the official version of maps to tell a different story.
The maps he constructs are like palimpsests where he overlays, juxtaposes and transforms portraits of voyages, landscapes, mythical figures and other maps to re-inscribe stories of Sri Lanka’s past and present, interspersed with his own personal history.
The Panji cycle is a collection of stories revolving around the legendary Prince Panji, which originated in Java around the fourteenth century and spread to what is now modern-day Malaysia, Cambodia, Myanmar, the Philippines and Thailand.
Image’s outlines are rendered in scripts, starting with Javanese script, then flowing out into scripts reflecting the various regions and localities that this narrative has travelled to: a calligraphic cartography charting the movement of the Panji cycle throughout Southeast Asia.
Treasure Islands (2012) by Made Wianta
‘Treasure Islands’ delves into overlooked chapters of Indonesia’s colonial past, threading together geographies as disparate as the tiny spice island of Rhun in Maluku, Indonesia, and the metropolis of Manhattan in New York.
Growing (2016) by Hemali Bhuta
‘Growing’ is informed by the Buddhist concept of dependent co-origination: human beings are a unique species, yet form part of the larger whole that is Nature; both are subject to the same cycles of birth, growth and death.
In this respect, we are like the single incense stick that aspires to be singular and ‘pure’ with its own novel fragrance, yet is also part of a larger perfumed environment.
I Wander, I Wonder (2016) by Dex Fernandez
This site-specific mural comprises of two counterpoint sets. One suite is based on the surviving possessions of people in Tacloban who lived through the deadly typhoon in 2013; the other suite centres on Filipinos in Singapore and depicts the objects they brought with them here.
Singapore Biennale 2016: An Atlas of Mirrors
Exploring shared histories and current realities within and beyond the region, Singapore Biennale 2016 presents a constellation of artistic perspectives that provide unexpected ways of seeing the world and ourselves.
Titled An Atlas of Mirrors, the international contemporary art exhibition features site-specific and never seen before contemporary artworks by more than 60 artists across Southeast Asia, and East and South Asia.
Singapore Biennale 2016 is organised by the Singapore Art Museum, commissioned by National Arts Council and and supported by the Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth of Singapore.
Singapore Art Museum
The Singapore Art Museum (SAM) focuses on international contemporary art practices, specialising in Singapore and Southeast Asia.
Housed in a restored 19th-century mission school, Singapore Art Museum opened its doors in 1996 as the first art museum in Singapore. Also known as SAM, the museum is now a contemporary art museum.
SAM has built one of the world’s most important public collections of Southeast Asian contemporary artworks, with a growing component in international contemporary art. SAM draws from its collection and collaborates with international contemporary art museums to co-curate and present contemporary art exhibitions. Contemporary art of the region is also given international exposure through SAM’s travelling exhibition programme and collection loans.