JOHN LOW
Singapore Art Museum Proudly Presents Its Latest
Exhibition,
Sixties Now! you . me . here . now
Sixties Now! explores the relevance of the 60s on
contemporary culture in Singapore where history is not perceived as static and
rather, made up of memories, which may fade away and be forgotten. On the other
hand, it could become more vivid and significant over time. The exhibition is
held in conjunction with Heritage Festival ( 9 March - 16 March 2002), themed
"Colour Me 60s"
Opens Wednesday, 13 March 2002 Till 19 May 2002 (Upper & Lower Galleries,
Singapore Art Museum)
(1 March 2002) Singapore Art Museum is proud to present its latest exhibition,
Sixties Now! you me here now which is held in conjunction with Heritage Festival
( 9 March - 16 March 2002). The theme for the festival is "Colour Me 60s". The
exhibition will be held from 7 March 2002 to 19 May 2002 in the Upper and Lower
Galleries at the Singapore Art Museum.
Sixties Now! is not a show about the 60s. It does not attempt to present a
historical and chronological order of key events of the 1960s. As the exhibition
title sums it all, it is a show about you and me, here and now. The exhibition
explores the continuing relevance of the 1960s on contemporary culture in
Singapore. Designers reinterpret the 60s to create "retro" interiors and
fashion. Shops selling vintage clothing and furniture are now popular
alternatives to the mainstream. Spaces built in the 1960s continue to survive in
reinvented form or as mere memories.
There are four areas explored in this exhibition, namely: 'Collecting the 60s',
'Spaces from the 60s', 'Retromall' and 'Responding to the 60s'. This is an
attempt to examine the remnants of the 60s, which evokes our memories of what
that period was and essentially, deals with questions of identity.
Why does the 60s persist with us? As exhibition curator, Mr Low Sze Wee
explains, "Our perception of the past is influenced by the present. Likewise,
our perception of the present is also overshadowed by the past. So, in a way,
the 60s cannot be consigned easily to the "past" and it continues into the
present."
Collecting objects from the 60s ranges from functional objects like fans,
furniture to more recreational items like toys and vinyl discs. For whatever
particular reasons that people collect, be it a passion or reminiscent of the
'good ol' days', its very physical presence demonstrates the consumption of
these 'past' objects in the present day - where they could be used at home, put
on display or just stored away.
The most representative of the era's spaces is indeed, public housing, in the
form of the Housing and Development Board (HDB) flats. 85 % of the population
live in flats and nine out of 10 owns them. It was born in the 60s and continues
to be an overarching influence on the contemporary physical and social landscape
of Singapore. The HDB was set up in 1960 to solve the severe housing shortage
and also build other facilities like shops, hawker centres, offices, parks
community clubs and even bus interchanges for people to live, work and play,
creating memories within these physical and social spaces. The notions of home,
nationhood and self are interrogated through the artworks of installation
artists, Sherman Ong and Tan Kai Syng. Sherman's work is based on his case study
of Toa Payoh (one of the oldest HDB flats in Singapore). Whilst Kai Syng's works
include two video installations (titled "How Far From the Truths" and "Still
Life Every Now & Then & Again") and a wall collage of junk mail comprising
leaflets and advertisements from real estate agencies, gathered by the artist
over time. It examines issues of home ownership, home as a commodity and forces
of the free market economy.
What about our engagement and interpretation of the 60s and how it haunts us?
What is our understanding of the 60s and the 'authenticity' of our memories?
Artist John Low provides a personal perspective on an overlooked aspect of the
60s - newspaper stories of the supernatural, the bizarre and the unexplained.
The use of archival newspaper cuttings questions the authority of documentation
and the preoccupation with authenticity. Notions of the "ghost" run parallel
with notions of the past leaving "traces" on the present. Just as it is
impossible to categorically deny the existence of the supernatural, the past
also refuses to go away. This is an ongoing work as John hopes to add more
stories in the course of the exhibition.
The "Retromall" depicts the consumption of the 60s, particularly in the area of
popular culture in the present day. "Retro" is used to describe a style that
revives or harks back to the past. It is everywhere around us. Teenagers wear
70s-inspired fashion. Restaurant interiors are designed to recreate the ambience
of old Shanghai. New versions of old "pop" songs periodically top the radio
charts. Books, films, music from the 60s both inspire and influence contemporary
practioners. Motifs, colours and aesthetics associated with the 60s continue to
be reinterpreted or recycled by contemporary designers of furniture and fashion.
In an increasingly globalised economy, these retro products are consumed and in
turn, reinforce popular notions of what the 60s is supposed to be about.
In this last section of the exhibition, we invite visitors to relax, read books,
browse through magazines, listen to music, watch films and look at and touch
objects. A limited selection of books, magazines, music, films and design
products have been brought together to provide some examples of how the 60s
continues to be consumed and reinterpreted. Musician Philip Tan has also been
invited to create a sound installation for this section, which will be a collage
of sounds associated with the 60s and consumption.
As Mr Low Sze Wee adds, "Our memories make us who we are today. They help us to
make sense of the world we live in - our home, our country. Therefore, the idea
of home and identity seems inextricably linked to our memories of the 60s." He
asks an important and rhetorical question,"Yet, in a world where we are
bombarded with more and more information and images, how much can we remember
before we start forgetting ?"
The 1960s was a colourful, dramatic and even turbulent period in Singapore. The
exhibition will examine how this period is remembered, erased, perceived,
reinvented and reconstructed in Singapore today.
The Singapore Art Museum would like to thank the following sponsors: APD
Singapore Pte Ltd, Apple Computer South Asia Pte Ltd, Philips Electronics
Singapore Pte Ltd, Space Furniture and Thames & Hudson (S) Pte Ltd.
We would also like to extend our gratitude to the following collectors who have
generously given their time and lent their collections for the exhibition: Y. F.
Chang, Ng Boon Long, Peter Tay, C. K. Toh and Singapore History Museum.
Exhibition Opens to the Public
: 7 March 2002 - 19 May 2002
Upper & Lower Galleries, Singapore Art Museum
ARX 5
Artist in Residence program involving artists from Australia, Hong Kong and
Singapore
from SINGAPORE: Jeremy Hiah, Khiew Huey Chian, Jason Lim, John Low, Suzann
Victor
from AUSTRALIA: Destiny Deacon, Jane Finlay, Joan Grounds, Erin Hefferon, Lucas
Ihlein
from HONG KONG, Cedric Chan Ho Fung, Anthony Leung, Fiona Wong Lai Ching, John
Wong Chi Wai, Zunzi Wong Ki Wan
ARX 5 wishes to gratefully acknowledge the support of the Australia Council, the
Commonwealth Government’s arts funding and advisory body; the State of WA
through Arts WA in association with the Lotteries Commission; the International
Foundation for Arts & Culture; the Myer Foundation; sponsorship from Healthway
to promote the Family Planning Association’s "Play it Safe" message; Arts
Victoria and the Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts.
ARX5 5 has been made possible through a partnership between Artists' Regional
Exchange, Singapore Art Museum, Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, Centre for the
Arts, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong Arts Centre,
Hong Kong Institute of Contemporary Culture.
ART IN CONVERSATION WITH TECHNOLOGY
Singapore may well be one of the
most wired cities in South East Asia, with ever increasing wireless LAN networks
in workplaces, Singapore ONE potentially linking all homes to the information
highway. The IT Master Plans launched by the Ministry of Education, assembling
impressive IT infrastructure, of different scale, into all schools, promises
engaged learning in an IT culture. With an increasingly techno-savvy,
techno-oriented audience, does it change expectations and perceptions of art in
Singapore?
Art and Technology are often seen as two different disciplines but with
convergent ideals, functions and audience. They can be said to hold the
principle that they are made by people, for people. ‘new’ Art or new ways of
seeing art and technological advances pushes set boundaries, questions the way
societies, communities and nations think and behave, or make money. Some live
on, for one or the other. Whilst the current generation of students in Singapore
are more IT-savvy, because of a greater promotion in the arts they may have had
more exposure to visual art than the previous generation did.
The relationship is symbiotic; art offers new or different perspectives of
looking at people and things, while technology enables artists to use new media
to express these perspectives. One may be specific and read the terms to refer
to contemporary art and contemporary Technology. The former will remind us of
artworks that are explicit to our socio-cultural context, the latter referring
to skills or equipment that are the epitome of our age: cloning, the Internet,
et al. One such intersection, we get cyber-arts. Where the two disciplines fail
to meet or are incompatible, we have possibly 3 scenarios. Firstly, artists in
caves; secondly, artists whose lives are engaged by technology but not
necessarily making works criticising modern technology since there is so much to
life; and artists with gadgets.
How one sees artists ‘engage’ technology in the process of art making is purely
a question of taste whether one likes or dislikes the technique.
Text: Lim Kok Boon
Concept: Vincent Leow
PKW is proud to present “Art in Conversation with Technology” as part of its
multi disciplinary talk on contemporary art in Singapore. Consisting of 3
sessions various practising artists will be presenting their works followed by
floor discussion. The focus will be on how and why artists engage or disengage
with technology in the process of art making.
The talk is free but limited seats available. Please call or email us early for
reservations to avoid disappointment.
For more information on the invited artists, please contact the Gallery at: T
+65 6292 7783 : F +65 6292 2936.
Programme
060903 Saturday
10.00 am
Introduction by Lim Kok Boon
Session 1 (10.15 am - 12.15 pm)
Does technology enable artists to express their art better?
Margaret Tan, Wil-kie Tan, Lim Kok Boon (moderator), Cheo Chai-Hiang and Cecily
Briggs
12.30pm–1.30pm LUNCH
Session 2 (1.30pm. – 3.30pm)
Is contemporary art defined by the usage of technology?
Lim Shing Ee, Ye Shufang, Venka Purushothaman (moderator), Colin Reaney, Michael
Lee
3.30pm. – 4.00pm TEA AND COFFEE BREAK
Session 3 (4.00pm – 6.00pm)
Do artists engage technology in their works, a question of choice or trend?
Lee Sze-Chin, Paul Lincoln, Pwee Kheng Hock (moderator), John Low, Khiew Huey
Chian
Artists involved:
John Low
John Low works with a variety of media for his installation works. He is
currently pursuing a PhD in Art at Curtin University and lectures at Nanyang
Academy of Fine Arts.