Latest news with #SingaporeArtMuseum
Straits Times
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Straits Times
TBR (To Be Read): In the digital age, books have become art and artefacts
Shredded books at Heman Chong's exhibition This Is A Dynamic List And May Never Be Able To Satisfy Particular Standards For Completeness at the Singapore Art Museum. ST PHOTO: KELVIN CHNG SINGAPORE – In 1855, French graphic artist and illustrator Gustave Dore conceived of a quixotic plan to publish large, expensive folio editions of 'all the masterpieces in literature'. His unique selling point: They would be richly illustrated with his romanticist sketches. The language of his publishers' rejection is strikingly contemporary. Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
Business Times
15-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Business Times
Heman Chong at SAM: Monuments to memory and forgetting
[SINGAPORE] Heman Chong, Singapore's quintessential conceptual artist, finally gets the career look-back he deserves at the Singapore Art Museum (SAM). But instead of mounting a typical retrospective, he has given us a characteristically strange and open-ended interrogation into what we choose to remember, what we choose to forget, and the absurdities of living in a hyper-networked world that remembers everything and nothing at once. The show carries a long and unwieldy title taken off a Wikipedia disclaimer: This is a dynamic list and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. For Chong, incompleteness is not a failure but a principle to celebrate. His work thrives in grey zones: the unread book, the closed door, the footnote that never gets read. His installations sprawl across nine thematically curated rooms – Words, Whispers, Ghosts, Journeys, Futures, Findings, Infrastructures, Surfaces and Endings – and each one feels like you have stumbled into the dumping ground of the information age. Heman Chong's Monument to the people we've conveniently forgotten (I hate you) (2008) is a sea of one million blacked-out business cards. PHOTO: SINGAPORE ART MUSEUM / HEMAN CHONG Take Monument to the people we've conveniently forgotten (I hate you) (2008), for instance. It comprises one million – yes, one million – blacked-out business cards strewn across the floor. You can walk over them, lie on top of them, bathe in them, if you like – but you will never know who these business cards belonged to. It is a sea of forgotten names and unrealised connections turned into a playground of amnesia. If memory is a battleground, then The Library of Unread Books (2016-ongoing) is its cemetery. It is made up of hundreds of books donated by the public – books that were bought but never read by their owners. Together, they make up a collective confession of good intentions not followed through. It is less a library and more a mausoleum of curiosity, celebrating the gulf between acquiring knowledge and actually engaging with it. The Library Of Unread Books by Heman Chong and Renee Staal is made up of hundreds of books purchased by hundreds of people but never read. PHOTO: SINGAPORE ART MUSEUM / HEMAN CHONG And then there is Calendars (2020-2096) (2004-2010), where Chong presents 1,001 calendar pages featuring images of emptied public spaces in Singapore. The dates extend decades into the future, flirting with the absurdity of planning for a tomorrow that may never come. Though created before the pandemic, its depictions of vacant spaces eerily foreshadow the emptiness of Covid-19 lockdowns. There are several new commissions. Among them is Wanderlust / Rebecca Solnit (2025), an exceptionally beautiful addition to his Cover (Versions) series, where Chong re-imagines book covers for titles he has not yet read but intends to. Other works such as Emails From Strangers (kami coar) (2025) and Oleanders (2023-ongoing) similarly celebrate the forgotten, the unread, the unspoken. A spam e-mail from a stranger is memorialised in Heman Chong's work Emails From Strangers (kami coar) (2025) . PHOTO: SINGAPORE ART MUSEUM / HEMAN CHONG Curation by June Yap and Kathleen Ditzig is masterful, shaping a space that is both clinically sterile and invitingly immersive. The show simultaneously asks you to step in and stay away, look closer and look away, question everything you think you know – or ignore everything you see. Somewhere in Singapore, Chong – archivist, agitator, provocateur, prankster – is having a laugh. The exhibition runs at the Singapore Art Museum until Aug 17
Business Times
14-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Business Times
Momcations gaining greater traction
IN THE past, mothers may have felt guilty for leaving their families behind for a quick getaway. Not anymore, it seems. These days, momcations – or vacations for mothers minus the shackles of parenting responsibilities – are getting more popular. Whether it is to spend time alone or with other mothers, such holidays allow mums to prioritise self-care, even if it's just for a few days. This way, they can – in their own words – become 'better mothers' when they return. In this week's BT Lifestyle, we look at this phenomenon that emerged in the 2010s but is now becoming more accepted. Speaking of vacations, don't we all want maximum mileage for our travel dollars? In Travel, we bring you tips on how to get the most out of your holiday budget, tell you when is the cheapest time to travel to this year's top summer hotspots, as well as the most affordable alternative destinations. In Arts, we take a look at the works of Singapore's leading conceptual artist, Heman Chong, as he holds a solo exhibition at the Singapore Art Museum. Then read our review of Singapore Repertory Theatre's Shakespeare in the Park: Macbeth. And in Dining, find out if the food at Violet Oon's new Dempsey Hill outlet is as impressive as its stunning premises. For all this and more, don't miss Friday's issue of BT.
Straits Times
07-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Straits Times
Artist Heman Chong's SAM survey whittles data down to visual aphorisms
Singaporean artist Heman Chong's survey, This Is A Dynamic List And May Never Be Able To Satisfy Particular Standards For Completeness, features more than 50 works across 25 years. ST PHOTO: KELVIN CHNG SINGAPORE – Singaporean artist Heman Chong's survey at the Singapore Art Museum (SAM) begins with a veritable textual barrage. Over 2,000 unread books in various languages are set against posters carrying 239 words from a failed meta-fictional novel and its stilted machine-translated Mandarin. No surprise then that the exhibition's title, lifted from a legal clause on Wikipedia, is a mouthful – This Is A Dynamic List And May Never Be Able To Satisfy Particular Standards For Completeness. These 16 words, printed simply on a banner hoisted above the reception desk, constitute the exhibition's first artwork. Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
Vogue Singapore
07-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Vogue Singapore
The Luminary Artist Charmaine Poh
Working at the intersection of performance, moving image and installation, Charmaine Poh's evocative artistic practice unravels questions related to memory, care and embodiment. Her works have been presented at the Singapore Art Museum, Seoul Museum of Art, REDCAT in Los Angeles, and the 60th Venice Biennale. Based in Berlin and Singapore, she is the co-founder of independent online publication Jom and is also a member of the Asian Feminist Studio for Art and Research. Named Deutsche Bank's Artist of the Year for 2025, she continues to gain international recognition for her nuanced, interdisciplinary practice and powerfully feminist diasporic lens. What drives you as a creative? With every work I make and every encounter I have, I hope something shifts. What, exactly, is less discernible, but broadly a sense of closeness and intimacy with oneself. What is the one achievement to date you are proudest of and why? Someone once messaged me about my photographs. Their brother, who was gay, had a tragic death and a troubled life. They said my photographs made them see their brother's face a little clearer. I remember reading the message when I woke up, and then immediately bursting into tears. I have received more responses like this since, but this was one of the first and it has stayed with me. How have you overcome the most significant challenges you have encountered in your journey? One of the most important things one can do is to let go of one's ego. Sometimes, there is no need to justify, beg, compensate, defend or be validated. Knowing when and when not to respond has given me a lot of peace. Why is pushing the boundaries of film, photography and performance important when it comes to cultural storytelling? In the same way that our worlds were constructed, they can also fall apart. We know this about any world order. Having different ways in which things can come together and disperse can help us think of more prevalent affinities. Sitting in ambiguity gives us more empathy. Looking forward, what is one change you want to see in the art industry and what can we do to get there? A practice that I've come across in Europe has been to have a fee calculator for freelance artists and arts workers, which can be applied across forms of labour, from exhibitions to grant applications. Some examples are Kreativ Kultur Berlin's resource centre, and Kunstenaars Honorarium's artist fee guideline. I would like to see this in Singapore.
