This week, Singapore Art Museum (SAM) unveils new works by leading Southeast Asian artists, welcoming visitors to art experiences that encourage contemplation on the interplay between humanity and our physical surroundings.
From 12 January to April 2024, The Sea is a Field by artists Simryn Gill and Charles Lim Yi Yong, presents observations captured by Gill and Lim of a trip made along the Malacca Strait using a network of local ferries that connect small port towns across Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore.
This presentation reveals the inner workings of the collaboration between Gill, Lim and curators Chanon Kenji Praepipatmongkol and Selene Yap as part of the inaugural SAM Fellowship programme, an initiative by the museum to support deep, open-ended inquiry through long-term investment in artistic process.
Visitors can also look forward to 47 Days, Sound-less by Vietnamese artist Nguyễn Trinh Thi, an expanded cinema experience that offers new ways of looking and listening. By foregrounding our visual encounters with ecological forms as typically depicted in cinema, the artwork invites audiences to reflect on the entangled relationship between a place and its inhabitants.
Recipient of the Moving Image Commission 2021, Nguyễn’s installation is commissioned by the Han Nefkens Foundation, Mori Art Museum, M+, Hong Kong and Singapore Art Museum. Eugene Tan, Director of SAM, says,
“SAM is thrilled to present the works of leading artists from the region, whose prolific practices and innovative presentations are testament to the breadth of what contemporary art in Southeast Asia has to offer. We are committed to actively working
alongside our artists, partners and communities, while providing new platforms to showcase and cultivate diverse artistic practices.
Over the past two years, SAM has had the privilege of collaborating with artists Simryn Gill and Charles Lim Yi Yong through the SAM Fellowship programme, fostering a longstanding partnership showcased in the presentation of The Sea is a
Field.
We are also grateful for the partnership with global art institutions, the Han Nefkens Foundation, Mori Art Museum, and M+, Hong Kong, with whom we share the aim to support innovative moving image creation in Asia, as demonstrated by Nguyễn Trinh Thi’s captivating installation 47 Days, Sound-less, under the Moving Image Commission.
Through these new presentations, we hope more audiences will embrace the arts as a means to better understand ourselves, our worlds and each other.”
Simryn Gill & Charles Lim Yi Yong: The Sea is a Field
From 12 January to 21 April 2024
Level 1, Block 37, Tanjong Pagar Distripark
Driven by a shared interest in the movement of people and things across borders, The Sea is a Field is a reflection on the trips undertaken by artists Simryn Gill and Charles Lim Yi Yong as they traverse the space that separates them between Port Dickson, Malaysia and Singapore.
The Sea is a Field offers a glimpse into Gill and Lim’s collaboration over two years as part of the SAM Fellowship programme — an initiative where the museum commits to supporting the research and interests of artists that may not follow the boundaries of exhibitions or materialise as discrete artworks.
With Lim’s video footage and Gill’s photography and text that record and annotate a journey along the Malacca Strait and the small port towns of Indonesian Sumatra, the installation serves as an evocative reminder of how the culture and climate of the region we live in shape the way we navigate the world.
Presented at Block 37 at Tanjong Pagar Distripark, the portside warehouse, left in its raw state, becomes a place where the artists navigate distances and proximities between the space of collaboration. The artists consider this space a site that holds both their observations and reflections — a zone of convergence for solitary and private undertakings, now made public.
Tanjong Pagar Distripark’s proximity to the previously active Tanjong Pagar Port and Tanjong Pagar Railway Station also reflects themes around movement and migration explored in The Sea is a Field.
Nguyễn Trinh Thi: 47 Days, Sound-less
From 12 January to 14 April 2024
Block 39, The Engine Room, SAM at Tanjong Pagar Distripark
At SAM, visitors can look forward to the debut presentation of 47 Days, Sound-less by leading Vietnamese artist Nguyễn Trinh Thi. Visitors will be drawn into Nguyễn’s identification of the “peripheries”, featuring natural landscapes used as backdrops, uncredited characters and soundtracks from American and Vietnamese movies filmed in Southeast Asia.
Borrowing lines from Ursula K. Le Guin’s science fiction novels, the artist meticulously weaves reconstructed images of trees, leaves and the sky alongside echoing soundscapes of dripping water, chirping crickets and birds, interspersed with visuals and sounds of the Jarai people from Vietnam’s Central Highlands.
Challenging conventional ideas of spectatorship while questioning the dominance of vision in cinematic storytelling, a system of mirrors at the centre of the artwork reflects fragments of these footage onto the surrounding walls, offering new ways of meditating upon the inextricable relationship between a place and its inhabitants.
Through foregrounding these more-than-human perspectives, Nguyễn draws attention to the interconnectedness of nature and all living things and celebrates the richness of the human condition, indigenous cultures and their knowledge systems, particularly those found in Vietnam.
Presented as an “expanded cinema”, 47 Days, Sound-less creates a contemplative environment where visuals, sounds and forms of listening prompt a re-evaluation of being present in the natural world while reflecting on our modes of seeing.
Nguyễn’s 47 Days, Sound-less is commissioned by the Han Nefkens Foundation, Mori Art Museum, M+, Hong Kong and SAM as part of the biennial Moving Image Commission grant, which supports contemporary artistic production within the field of the moving image in Asia.
A joint effort by participating institutions, the co-commission seeks to nurture the development of new forms of image-making and provide artists with the opportunity to present their work in renowned institutions.
[caption id="attachment_512103" align="aligncenter" width="670"]
Installation view of Nguyễn Trinh Thi's ‘47 Days, Sound-less’ (2024) at SAM at Tanjong Pagar Distripark. Image courtesy of Singapore Art Museum.[/caption]
Creating More Avenues for Memorable Art Encounters
During Singapore Art Week (SAW) 2024, visitors can enjoy a wide range of programmes catering to audiences of all ages and backgrounds. Film enthusiasts can enjoy thought-provoking screenings, while those seeking interactive experiences can participate in workshops and join in insightful discussions with SAM’s curators and artists.
At SAM’s Residency Studios, Critical Alliances showcases the diverse practices and research threads of SAM’s resident artists, curators and community organisers from the ongoing Cycle 2 of the international residency programme through captivating soundscapes, screenings and dynamic explorations of public space in Singapore.
Other programmes during SAW include dynamic music performances, an audio-visual concert by Choy Ka Fai, and accessible live performances that blend spoken text, contemporary dance and shadow play. From sonic explorations to visually stimulating performances, SAW 2024 at SAM promises a vibrant celebration of the arts, inviting everyone to
participate and enjoy memorable programmes.
Artwork commissions from SAM’s public art initiative, The Everyday Museum, will also be given a refresh for SAW 2024. At Block 39, Tanjong Pagar Distripark, Grace Tan’s The fruit of deceitwill adorn the exterior staircase and passageway on Level 2 with alluring visuals inspired by the nutmeg, a response to the colonial history of Tanjong Pagar and its evolving identity.
Drawing from the artist’s explorations for an earlier commission Sea of flags that can be viewed at the side of the building,
The fruit of deceit extends the ideas behind the colour compendium of Tanjong Pagar to focus on a slighted history of nutmeg cultivation in Singapore.
On view from 15 January 2024 to 15 March 2026, more information on The fruit of deceit can be found in Annex C. More than a year after its launch, Ming Wong’s Wayang Spaceship, a reimagined Chinese opera theatre, will take off from Tanjong Pagar Distripark and land at Empress Lawn on 19 January 2024.
The lights, colours and sounds of Chinese opera scenes from a distant space and time will come to life for Light to Night Singapore 2024, right in the heart of the Civic District, where it will remain on view till 10 March 2024. Along with the nightly activations, visitors can also access the memories of the scholar-warrior, a time-travelling consciousness of the Wayang Spaceship, through self-guided aural compositions.
Beyond SAW 2024, a line-up of programmes for The Sea is a Field and 47 Days, Sound-less will continue to run throughout the exhibition period.
For The Sea is a Field, Simryn Gill will be in conversation with NUS Associate Professor of Architectural Theory and Design Lilian Chee and SAM curator Selene Yap.
A forthcoming publication, Shallow, produced by Stolon Press as part of The Sea is a Field will also be launched in April 2024. The publication brings together writings by curators Chanon Kenji Praepipatmongkol and Selene Yap, publisher Tom Melick, and materials from both Gill and Lim. It delves into the question: ‘What does it mean to observe life from this side of the world we are located in?’ The publication launch will be accompanied by public programming.
For 47 Days, Sound-less, visitors can look forward to a curated reading workshop of Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Word for World is Forest, led by Nurul Huda Rashid and Raksha Mahtani, and special screenings of two films by Nguyễn — Vietnam the Movie (2015) and How to Improve the World (2021) — that will give greater insight into the artist’s sound and moving image practice.
Simryn Gill & Charles Lim Yi Yong: The Sea is a Field will run from 12 January to 21 April 2024 at Level 1, Block 37, Tanjong Pagar Distripark, with free admission for all visitors. Nguyễn Trinh Thi's 47 Days, Sound-less will be on view from 12 January to 14 April 2024 at The Engine Room at SAM at Tanjong Pagar Distripark. General Admission (free for Singaporeans and PRs) applies.
To provide visitors with the opportunity to explore the exhibitions and a diverse range of exciting programmes during Singapore Art Week, Singapore Art Museum will extend its opening hours until 10pm on SAW weekends (19, 20, 26, and 27 January 2024), and offer free entry to all exhibitions throughout SAW from 19 to 28 January 2024.
More details will be shared on SAM’s website and social channels.