Exhibition: Don’t show me | 唔好俾我睇

An exhibition by Donna Chiu
Curated by Zhuang Wubin

19 Jul to 18 Aug 2024
Objectifs Lower Gallery 2

Opening: Fri 19 Jul 2024, 7pm – 9pm
Free admission

Related events
Artist Talk with Donna Chiu & Zhuang Wubin (Please register here)
Date & Time: Sat 27 Jul, 2pm – 3pm
Location: Objectifs Annexe
Free admission

Psychodrama Workshop:Untangling Family Web (Please register here)
Date & Time: Sat 3 Aug, 4pm – 7pm
Location: Objectifs Workshop Space
General Admission: $20/pax
Open to participants aged 18 years and above.

“唔好俾我睇 [‘Don’t show me’ in Cantonese]!” That was the retort of Donna Chiu’s mother in one of her quarrels with dad. With the phrase as starting point, Chiu begins a journey of introspection, using the processes of photography and painting to move beyond her initial frustrations and misconceptions towards her mother. Chiu realised she has often downplayed her mother’s experiences; over the years, her mother has had to survive within the patriarchal structure of family and society in Hong Kong before external circumstances forced her and her children to relocate and live in different cities. By using her artmaking to dialogue with her mother, Chiu hopes to better understand her mother and see her in a different light.

This exhibition is supported by

National Arts Council Singapore
Objectifs Centre for Photography and Film

About Donna Chiu

Donna Chiu is a Singaporean visual artist. Her practice focuses mainly on photography and painting. Using art to make sense of the world, Chiu’s work unfolds an introspective dialogue with herself and often takes the form of abstraction. In recent years, her artistic process has evolved into a cathartic journey of self-reflection, delving into the depths of emotional trauma experienced by herself and the people around her. As a result, her work has become an exploration of intimacy and human vulnerability, and the intricate interplay between individuals and the circumstances that confront them.

Chiu’s work has been exhibited in Asia and Europe. In 2023, she mounted her first solo exhibition, titled Sitting by the Window, Looking at the Painting Dry, at Lumenvisum, Hong Kong. Her work has also been featured in group exhibitions, including the Singapore International Photography Festival (2016), Obscura Festival of Photography (Malaysia, 2018), A(R)TITUDE Festival (Italy, 2022), and the International Exhibition of the Society of Modern Photography & Video (South Korea, 2023).

About Zhuang Wubin

Zhuang Wubin is a writer who makes photographs, publications and exhibitions. Zhuang is the major grantee of the Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Greater China Research Grant 2018 and a recipient of the Prince Claus Fund research grant (2010). In Singapore, Zhuang is the recipient of the National Library (NL) Digital Fellowship 2023 and the Lee Kong Chian Research Fellowship 2017 at the NL. He has been invited to research residency programmes at Institute Technology of Bandung (2013), Asia Art Archive (AAA), Hong Kong (2015), Kuandu Museum of Fine Arts, Taiwan (2017) and the Ha Bik Chuen Archive Project at AAA (2018). He is the contributing curator of the Chiang Mai Photo Festival (2015, 2017, 2020).

Published by NUS Press, Photography in Southeast Asia: A Survey (2016) is his fourth book. The Chinese translation is published in 2019 by VOP BOOKS, Taipei. Zhuang is a founding member of Writing Foto (writingfoto.wordpress.com), a growing collection of writings on photography loosely directed at the imaginaries of South/east Asia.