Vietnamese Artwork “Steam Rice Man” at “medium at LARGE” in Singapore

25 Apr 2014 – 25 Apr 2015
Singapore Art Museum, 71 Bras Basah Road, Singapore

Whoever interested in contemporary art, especially in terms of medium, should not miss this exhibition. If traditional art has long been classified by genres and disciplines such as painting, sculpture and photography, contemporary works behave in shape-shifting ways – and you feel it right here in “medium at large”.

Could you recognize any of these two men? Needs a hint?

Both are Filipinos. Need a second hint?

They are both politicians and considered “heroes” of the Philippines.

Well, now you might know their names: “Pepe” is the childhood name of Jose Rizal and Marcial Bonifacio is Benigno Aquino Jr. – the father of the current President of the Philippines. Why two of them? What’s the reason? Pepe was executed by firing squad and Bonifacio was an opposition senator assassinated at Manila International Airport. In each portraits, an entire bullet shell is literally and metaphorically spent in making the work – an implement of death is now the medium of creation, and the very instrument of their demise is the one that captures their images for perpetuity…

Artist Ian Woo used pencil and paintbrush to create the series of four abstract works – First Heart, Head, Neck, Wing

At the edge, precise pencil lines detail the fine structures that suggest an organism, landscape or otherworldly terrain. The central part is treated like paint. The work treatment and charged expressions evoke the idea and feeling of radical change, alluding to the trauma of the subject matter: that of the Old Testament biblical story in which Lost was told by the angels to leave the debauched city of Sodom. As he fled with his family, his wife looked back at Sodom with longing and was transformed into a pillar of salt.

The other interesting one is Quiet Rooms by Nadiah Bamadhaj.

Quite Rooms draws upon a technique that artist Nadiah Bamadhaj developed in the early 2000s that combined drawing and collage, a process involving the painstaking layering of paper with varying charcoal tones and shades.

Moving to another room, you might find the this work familiar. Yes, it’s “Steam Rice Man” by artist and curator Tran Luong (but long ago).

You can still check it out before it ends in Apr 2015.

Reported by Tran Thi Minh Hue from Singapore.