JASON WEE
Born: 21 Feb 1978, Singapore.
SINGAPORE BIENNALE 2006
Jason Wee was born in Singapore
and lives in New York.
He was awarded the prestigious Shell-NAC award in 2004. He is actively making
work internationally, having shown in Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, and New York. His
installations have included Tilt (Singapore Art Museum), Treasure Room (Chelsea
Art Museum), and The Okno Gallery (Peer Gallery, New York).
Wee’s work is best characterised by his history. He came to art after sojourns
in theatre, poetry, queer activism and political theory. Working across a range
of forms including photography, drawing, sound, writing, painting, and
site-specific installation, his practice focuses on failures and disappearances
in and of the cultural field. He is currently exploring the landscape as
technology, theatre as non-sites and the poetic in art. In 2005, He was a studio
fellow in the Whitney Museum Independent Study Program. He is recently appointed
to the faculty of the International Center of Photography, New York. His sixth
solo exhibition is opening in Utterly Art, Singapore in October.
“Landscapes: A View of The Ground” – Fresh from his S’pore Biennale installation, Jason Wee presents his homecoming photographic and digital solo show – 5th to 15th Oct 2006
Young Shell-NAC Scholarship
Awardee for 2004, Jason Wee, is back from the Parsons School of Design (remember
Project Runway?) in New York not just for his installation “1987” at the
Singapore Biennale, but also for his next solo show here. He presents a desolate
series of photographic landscapes and digital works which can be seen at Utterly
Art Exhibition Space, 229A South Bridge Road (2nd Level), Singapore 058778 from
Thursday 5th to Sunday 15th Oct 2006. The opening hours are from
Monday-Saturday: 11.30am - 8pm and Sunday: 12pm – 5.30pm. We can be contacted at
6226 2605 (Kenneth or Keng Hock) or through utterlyart@pacific.net.sg. The
opening reception will be held on Thursday 5th Oct 2006 7pm. Members of the
press are most welcome to attend. Attendance at the exhibition is FREE.
About the exhibition:
Jason Wee's sixth solo exhibition develops his ideas around the landscape as a
category of images. Continuing from his work in the Singapore Biennale and his
seminar at the International Center of Photography, Jason Wee creates two new
bodies of landscape images. The first are vanishing point photographs of places
devoid of most identifying features. These images, minimal and desolate, can
also be described as images of non-places. The second is another series of
non-places. A rendering program is used to recreate an 'old' landscape of
Singapore, using maps predating the 17th-century arrival of the East Indies
Company. These startling photographs, while photorealistic, are completely
digital creations; they call into question our attachment to place, and our
perception of solid ground.
Jason Wee was born in Singapore in 1978, and lives in New York. Recently a
Studio Fellow in the Whitney Museum Independent Study Program, Jason works with
photography, sound and installations. Multimedia installations have included
Farewell at 5pm (Singapore), and 1987 at the first Singapore Biennale. He was
awarded the prestigious Shell-NAC Award, Singapore’s largest award for emerging
artists, in 2004. He is actively making work internationally, having exhibited
in Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, and New York. Jason is also known for his critical
writing and poetry, which has been published in Art Papers, Vehicle (Singapore),
Softblow, the2ndRule, QLRS & The Substation. He graduated from the National
University of Singapore (BA (Hons) in Political Science), and Parsons School of
Design (MFA Photo). He begins a position as Adjunct Faculty at the International
Centre of Photography in New York this Fall.
Farewell At 5pm
Solo Exhibition by JASON WEE
23 June - 6 July 04 | Opening Date :
25 Jun 04, 7pm
SG Private Banking Gallery, Alliance Francaise de Singapour (Tel: 6833 9314)
1 Sarkies Road, S258130 (Newton MRT, parking facilities)
Viewing Times: Mon to Fri, 11am-7pm |Sat, 11am - 5pm | Closed on Sundays.
Admission is FREE
Exploring the difficulties of leave-taking and departures, as well as death as a
metaphor for abandonment and capitulation, "Farewell at 5pm" is a site-specific
exhibition that employs the gallery as a cultural site.
In his first solo exhibition for the year, digital photographer Jason Wee takes
photography to a new dimension as he explores cultural loss and memory in the
public space. Combining photography with film, poetry, visual text, and unusual
materials such as ash and pillows, the gallery is being transformed to a maze of
cultural memories.
Reviving censorship sensitivities, Wee targets a series of media photo-images
which are originally controlled or banned, and display them as microscopic
segments. For example, he takes scenes or portions from media elements such as
film, television, and magazines, so to extract, enlarge, and deploy them as
minimalist fields of colour. Hence, Wee examines the idea of the trace (a wisp
or ghost of objects that refuses to be erased, and returns as a vague yet
persisting memory).
The installations also allow Wee to further explore the subject of censorship
and what is hidden from the eye (for eg., the attached image is taken from the
banned series, SEX IN THE CITY). At the same time, it reinstates his notion that
memories of a forgotten past are not just a vague fragment of life.
A R T I S T ' S B I O G R A P H Y
Jason Wee is a photographer keenly interested in new art and new technologies.
He works primarily in digital photography, and his art has been exhibited in
both Singapore and Malaysia, including this year's Singapore Arts Festival's
'Reconstruction of a City' exhibition. He is also the Editor of vehicle, a
visual culture magazine, and Guest Editor for the2ndrule, an inter-media
journal. Literary pursuits include publication in the anthology Love Gathers
All, and being a co founder of Thursday Circle, a community of young writers. In
2000, he was a theatre reviewer with The Straits Times.
Reconstruction of a City
In the
installation, 70,000 one-cent coins were used to discuss the lack of arts
funding in Singapore.
Jason Wee, Artist of One Cent's Worth, said: "Also how art resists valuation -
sometimes you can't talk about art in money terms, so I wanted to explore this
contradiction in my work."
Email: Type hancwee followed by @singnet.com.sg
Medium/Dimensions: Installation
Curator/Project Mgr: Putri / Shir Ee / Lay Kian
Description:
Art funding rationale provides a profusion of capital towards the orientation of
particular physical sites as “art spaces”. In comparison, direct sponsorship of
art production and creation remains paltry. The ironic effect of over-investing
in the aura of art display and spectacle is to show up in harsh contrast the
poverty of local art.
Addressing the particular capitalization of the space itself, the space
allocated to the artist would be covered in coins , of the smallest available
legal tender. A pool of water lies above this as an open invitation for the
audience to offer their “wishes of coins. This wish-fulfillment is problematized
by eight begging bowls that directly appeal for contributions yet lie just our
of reach. In each bowl, a photograph of a yet to be completed artwork lies in
silent appeal for support.
Jason Wee - Jason is a digital photographer and poet. His writings have been
widely published, and his art has been shown in various places in Singapore and
Malaysia. He was awarded the Dean's Scholarship from Parsons School of Design,
New York, for graduate studies.
Title of work : One Cent's Worth
Year: 2004
Medium: Mixed media
Dimensions: Variable
CELESTIAL ENCOUNTERS
an exploration of the zodiac by Parvathi Nayar and Jason Wee.
Thursday 29th May 2003 7.30 pm
Utterly Art Exhibition Space
208 South Bridge Road 2nd Level, Singapore 058757
Tel: 6226 2605
Mon-Sat 11.30 am - 8 pm Sun 12 noon - 5.30 pm
The exhibition runs through to Sunday 8th June 2003.
Fortune-telling – do you really believe in that? Astrology? Humbug! Reading
one’s destiny in the stars might seem a trifle anachronistic at the start of a
new millennium, but many people continue not to make any major life decisions
unless an almanac is consulted or a fengshui master is called in. Even the
trendiest magazine has a page devoted to horoscopes so that one can chart one’s
future life (or one’s life for that week at any rate) in the comfort of knowing
that your fate has been foretold.
Artist
and art-writer Parvathi Nayar is aware that her medium of painting is also an
ancient and traditional practice – can it also be considered old-fashioned and
anachronistic? Like the zodiac, painting is much respected for historical
reasons, and present-day artists continue to find relevance in expressing
themselves through painting -but how is it to retain its ‘edge’? Enter
photographer and poet Jason – his medium is of a much younger vintage, and is
today undergoing its own transformation from film to digital imaging. By
exhibiting together, both artists seek to create a synergy that will invite
relooking and reexamination through contrast and juxtaposition. Parvathi
presents the Western zodiac, researched and reinterpreted from a personal
perspective. Jason investigates the Chinese zodiac as it wields its influence
over man, not from cosmic forces, but from its imposition over our bodies and
minds. From the celestial musings of the two artists, we encounter a multimedia
and multidisciplinary perspective that reflects the pluralistic outlook of our
ambiguous times.
2006 BIODATA
Jason Wee is born in Singapore,
and lives in New York. He is a studio fellow in the Whitney Museum Independent
Study Program. He works with photography, sound and installations. Multimedia
installations have included Farewell at 5pm (Singapore), and the upcoming
Singapore Biennale, opening in September. He was awarded the prestigious Shell-NAC
Award, Singapore's largest award for emerging artists, in 2004. He is actively
making work internationally, having shown in Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, and New
York. His solo exhibition is opening in Utterly Art, Singapore in October.
Jason is also known for his critical writing and poetry, which has been
published in Art Papers, Vehicle (Singapore), Softblow , the2ndRule, QLRS & The
Substation.
He is educated at the National University of Singapore (BA with honors), and
Parsons School of Design (MFA Photo).
Honors & Awards
2004, 2005 Dean's Scholarship, Parsons School of Design, New York.
2004 Shell-National Arts Council Award, Singapore's largest award for emerging
artists.
Lee Foundation Study Grant, Singapore.
2003 Highly Commended, 22nd OUB Painting of the Year,
Juried Competition, Singapore.
Solo Exhibitions:
2006 'Landscapes: A View of the Ground', Utterly Art, Singapore
2005 'Treasure', Substation, Singapore
2004 'Farewell at 5pm', Alliance Francaise de Singapour, Singapore
2003 Reka Art, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
2002 'Tilt', Glass Hall, Singapore Art Museum, Singapore
'Tilt', ArtMotion Gallery, Singapore
Exhibitions:
2006 1st Singapore Biennale, Singapore
Summer Show, Peer Gallery, New York
Whitney ISP, Chelsea Art Museum, New York
Bod/Mod, Utterly Art, Singapore
2005 Organized Spaces, Asian American Art Center, New York.
'Works in Progress' Open Studio, The Kitchen, New York.
2004 Slide Slam and Show, Society for Photographic Education Conference, Parsons
School of Design, New York
'Red + White = Pink', Utterly Art, Singapore
Electronic Exhibition, National Women's Studies Association Conference,
Wisconsin, USA
Visions & Illusions, Singapore Art Festival
'As It Is', Utterly Art, Singapore
ArtSingapore, Suntec City, Singapore
2003 'Singapore Forum on Politics 2003', National University of Singapore,
Singapore
'Berita Harian' (trans. Breaking News), The Substation, Singapore*
'The HouseWORK project', Alliance Francaise de Singapour, Singapore
'Art & Fashiontasia', ArtSeasons, Singapore
'The Big Small Show', ArtSeasons, Singapore
'22nd UOB Painting of the Year', The Esplanade, Singapore
2002 'Celestial Encounters', Utterly Art Gallery, Singapore
Recent Appointments
2006 Adjunct Faculty, International Center of Photography, New York.
2005-2006 Studio Fellow, Whitney Museum Independent Study Program.
2004-2005 Editor, Softblow Poetry Journal, Singapore's only journal dedicated to
poetry.
2003-2004 Editor, Vehicle, Singapore's only visual arts and visual culture
magazine.
2001-2004 Guest Editor, the2ndRule.com intermedia journal.
Forums/Talks:
2005 Participating Artist, The Kitchen's 7th Sidney Kahn Summer Institute, led
by artistic director Ong Keng Sen.
Artist's Talk, p-10 Art Space, Singapore.
2004 Speaker in the Visiting Artists' Lecture Series at Nanyang Academy of Fine
Arts, Singapore. Lecture titled 'Art, Writing and Politics'.
Featured writer at 'Voice & Place: Writers' Symposium', part of SeptFest04, the
Substation, Singapore.
Speaker on New Media in Contemporary Art in ArtSingapore, the annual Singapore
art fair.
2003 Member of the Comparative Contemporaries 2003, organized by the
International Forum for Inter-Media Arts, and the Contemporary Asian Arts
Centre, Singapore; held in the Substation, Singapore.
Speaker, Singapore Forum on Politics 2003, organized by National University of
Singapore; held in NUS Kent Ridge Hall. The youngest panelist in the history of
the conference.
