The Gaze of TIme: Photographs by Hor Kwok Kin

artcommune gallery is pleased to present the second solo exhibition of Singapore photographer, Hor Kwok Kin (b. 1939, Ipoh). On view from 3 to 18 December, The Gaze of Time features a selection of 25 colour and 15 black-and-white photographic works dating from the early 1960s to the 2000s. The exhibition officially opens on 7 December, Saturday, 3-4.30pm with the artist in attendance. All Are welcome!

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Hor Kwok Kin’s style can be classified alongside the works of other modernist photographers, such as his friend and mentor, Yip Cheong Fun. The thoughtful use of geometric elements in his compositions particularly recalls the latter’s influence. More significantly, his black-and-white photographs were captured and developed personally using darkroom techniques in the period of 1960s-80s. Heavily influenced by humanist photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson’s pioneering street photography, he captured scenes of everyday Singapore with a strikingly modernist composition.

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As the period of Hor Kwok Kin’s photographic practice coincided with the transition of a post-independent Singapore, he managed to archive in the process a variety of environments, professions and social activities that once characterised life in Old Singapore. His identity as a working-class photographer also allowed him to effectively immortalise moments that proved intensely empathetic to his subjects, like the quayside labourers or the worker at a quarry, setting him apart from many of his contemporaries.

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Hor Kwok Kin began to explore colour photography in the 1990s, retaining his focus on portraying the lived lives and everyday interactions of local communities. In this later period, he also delved into a close-up examination on the social-emotional life of animals, such as the portrait of a growing Inuka – the first polar bear born and housed at the Singapore Zoo in the 90s.