Everything In Its Right Place: The Body Politic and the Body
By Nabilah Said (1,400 words, 7-minute read) “You’re a guest, you’re a guest, you’re a guest.” This anodyne version of the Beauty and The Beast song played in my head as I walked through the exhibition The Body Politic and…
An Interview with Dr June Yap: President’s Young Talents 2018
The seventh edition of the President’s Young Talents exhibition (PYT) opened 4 October 2018 at the Singapore Art Museum (SAM). Since its first presentation in 2001, the platform has presented 38 artists, including this year’s Chen Yanyun, Chong Weixin, Debbie…
Book Review: “Writing the Modern: Selected Texts on Art & Art History in Singapore, Malaysia & Southeast Asia”
By Carmen Nge (1300 words, five-minute read) In the vast firmament of Singaporean-Malaysian art history, no star illuminates as radiantly as T.K. Sabapathy. An art historian by training, Sabapathy initially began his career in the early 1970s by reviewing art…
Singapore Biennale 2016: A/political Performance – Atlas of Mirrors in Context
By Wei Er Xun, Finalist, Best Essay by an Emerging Art Writer Competition* (2700 words, 30-minute read) Introduction The stakes of exhibitions have always been high. Before the advent of the cinema, television and other mass media, large-scale exhibitions and…
Singapore Biennale 2016: The Myth, the Mirror and the Map
By Elaine Chiew, Finalist, Best Essay by an Emerging Art Writer Competition (2996 words, 30-minute read) Much of our ideas about maps today are reduced to their function: their ability to tell us where we are and how to get…
Singapore Biennale 2016: The Performative Curator
By Eunice Lacaste, Finalist, The Best Essay by an Emerging Art Writer Competition* (2900 words, 30-minute read) Introduction Entering the Singapore Art Museum[1] during the media preview of the Singapore Biennale 2016[2], we could barely disregard the museum staff installing…