It depends…

Dan Lie, Ser Serpas, Chiharu Shiota, Tan Zi Hao and Danh Vo

Co-Curated by sputnikforest

For It depends …, Blank Canvas invites you to experience artworks in the gloaming.

The artworks in this show are all physical works by artists from various cultural backgrounds and spanning diverse artistic practices. A taxidermied bird encased within an intricate web of black strings. A rusting section of a spiral staircase. A copper section from a 1:1 replica of the Statue of Liberty. The spectral form of draped fabric recalling a disembodied outfit. And close-up micro photographs of the casings of household casebearers (or plaster bagworms).

Individually and collectively, and in any conventional white cube setting, these artworks would appear to suggest questions such as mortality and grieving, of entanglements and relationships, of power and societal arrangements, and of home and belonging.

Yet, are these questions amplified or distorted in, or otherwise affected by, the unique setting in which these artworks are now presented? Very deliberately, the gallery space has been transformed into an imagined scape betwixt dusk and dark, and redolent of the sounds and smells one might experience on a walk in the woods. The viewer is invited to stroll in this setting to encounter the five presented artworks.

The materiality of these artworks stands in sharp contrast to the sheer intangibility of the ambience, which provokes the question – Does it matter how a viewer encounters artworks? Put another way, the show asks whether context matters. The answer is probably it depends.

It depends … is presented by Blank Canvas in collaboration with co-curator sputnikforest, a Penang-based spatial designer. This show continues the practice of drawing upon the personal collection of the founder of Blank Canvas to explore societal and aesthetic concerns through contemporary art.