Path. 15, Cosmic Strangers by Boedi Widjaja
Can all of Singapore’s MRT stations look this stylish while serving high concept art?
That was the thought that popped to mind at the sight of Indonesia-born Singaporean artist Boedi Widjaja’s cosmic photographs in an idle corner of an MRT station during Singapore Art Week (SAW).
You might not know what you are looking at when you see these vivid discs of light on the wall, but they immediately emit a kind of scientific beauty. These, in fact, are visually and experimentally translated electronic traces of muons – components of invisible cosmic rays that enter the earth and frequently come into contact with human bodies.
Then there is the other strangely captivating part – text running across the corridor that seems to make little rational sense. Experimental poet Tse Hao Guang has unfolded a dialogue between the artist and a muon using artificial intelligence – layering another dimension of larger-than-life mystery to this transient work.
Why muons, one might ask? Widjaja’s work is concerned with ideas of diaspora – a playful rendition of a Tang Dynasty poem on-site is a small key – and his work often questions what it is like to be other. The migration of the muon can be read, therefore, as a veiled comment on movement and belonging.
Widjaja, who was trained in architecture and design, says: “In this scenario, art and site had to learn the other’s language in order to negotiate and to get a sense of where each was coming from. The process hasn’t been easy.”
Amidst the plethora of public art that can be seen around the island during SAW, Widjaja’s work stands out as one that both beautifies and provokes.
Where: Orchard MRT Station (TEL), Exit 10
MRT: Orchard
When: Till Feb 16, during station opening hours
Admission: Free
Info: str.sg/fqzR
Disobedient Bodies: Reclaiming Her at Sundaram Tagore Gallery
Burmese artist Soe Yu Nwe’s glazed stoneware sculptures feature in Disobedient Bodies: Reclaiming Her at Sundaram Tagore Gallery.ST PHOTO: SHAWN HOO
The standout Singapore Art Week (SAW) show at Gillman Barracks is undoubtedly the curated slate of Asian – mostly South-east Asian – women artists at Sundaram Tagore Gallery challenging the expectations that come with womanhood.
Burmese artist Soe Yu Nwe’s glazed stoneware sculptures reinterpret the Mandalay ogress Sanda Mukhi – usually represented sitting on her heels and offering her own breasts to the Buddha – in soft forms scattered thoughtfully around the exhibition.
Soe’s work finds resonance with Vietnamese artist Le Hien Minh’s serpentine fingernail sculptures which are embedded in violent phallic objects such as a knife and a rifle. The possibilities of bodily form recur in the exhibition, which also includes artists from Malaysia, Thailand and Timor Leste.
A pity that Singaporean artist Charmaine Poh’s What’s Softest In The World Rushes And Runs Over What’s Hardest In The World (2024), which examines queer parenting and kinship in Singapore and showed at the 2024 Venice Biennale, was not shown and is merely represented by an unlit projection area in the gallery.
The film was classified as R21 by the Infocomm Media Development Authority, according to a curator’s note on-site by Loredana Pazzini-Paracciani, which posed problems for the work’s presentation.
Where: Sundaram Tagore Gallery, 01-05 Gillman Barracks, 5 Lock Road
MRT: Labrador Park
When: Till March 8; Tuesdays to Fridays, 11am to 6pm; Saturdays, 11am to 7pm
Admission: Free
Info: str.sg/Ngv6
Li Xianting solo at iPreciation
Jilin-born art critic Li Xianting’s calligraphy works are on show at iPreciation gallery.PHOTO: IPRECIATION
Dubbed the “godfather of Chinese contemporary art”, Jilin-born art critic Li Xianting is recognised as the go-to figure for understanding Chinese art, coining terms for influential art movements such as “cynical realism” and “political pop”.
A new solo show, Li – Tales In Calligraphy, at iPreciation offers a chance for art lovers to see the critic as an artist. His calligraphic works – executed in bold and broad strokes running to the borders of the rice paper – are hefty visual statements that draw viewers in.
What he chooses to write also reveals an unorthodox approach to tradition – rotten, demon, chaos, clique, madness and speechless are just some of the words Li’s calligraphy embraces.
Where: iPreciation, 01-01 HPL House, 50 Cuscaden Road
MRT: Orchard
When: Till Feb 8; weekdays, 10am to 7pm; Saturdays, 11am to 6pm
Admission: Free
Info: str.sg/emgg
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