This exhibition is an extension of Bakar's work from his 2012 exhibition Tanah Ini Ku Punya, (Land/Earth I Owned). This series was inspired by the artist's visit to the village of his birth a few years prior, where he experienced conflicting sensations of belonging and separation. Holding a Malaysian passport, but spending most of his life in Singapore, Bakar is no stranger to contrary affections. Through the mediums of ceramics, photography, and performance he often explores physical and symbolic connections and disconnections between land, identity, and faith.
Ahmad Abu Bakar (b. 1963, Malaysia) graduated from LASALLE College of the Arts with a Diploma in Fine Arts (Ceramics) in 1989 and received his Bachelor of Fine Art (Sculpture) from the University of Tasmania in 1995. Upon his return to Singapore in 1996, Bakar joined LASALLE College of the Arts as a full-time lecturer where he taught ceramics and 3D studies. He pursued his Master of Fine Arts with RMIT/LASALLE during his teaching period in the college and is currently an adjunct lecturer at Nanyang Polytechnic and the National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University.
Bakar has participated in numerous group exhibitions in Singapore, Malaysia, China, Thailand, the Philippines, Korea, Australia, and Indonesia. In 2007 he was included in the International Ceramics Festival at the National Art Gallery, Malaysia and in 2009 he was invited to the Jakarta Contemporary Ceramics Biennale. In 2012, his first solo exhibition Ini Tanah Aku took place at Jendela Visual Art Space at the Esplanade, Singapore. As part of the 2013 Singapore Biennale, Bakar's work Telok Blangah, a collaboration with inmates from Changi Prison, was installed in the foyer of the Singapore Art Museum. In 2015, he was included the group exhibition Secret Archipelago at the Palais De Tokyo, Paris, France.
