Through Indigenous Eyes, the latest edition of indigenous artifact exhibition presented at the Alliance Française de Singapour, focuses this time on the aesthetics of the rare pieces of art from Southeast Asia and Melanesia, is set to entice the art lovers with the beauty of the objects, instead of viewing them from the regular Anthropological perspective of artifacts.

Collection of Southeast Asian and Melanesian
Indigenous Art by Mark Gordon

SINGAPORE 07 APRIL 2011 -- The indigenous cultures of Southeast Asia have been a source of artistic inspiration and highly valued art objects for Europe’s museums and elite collectors since the 18th century. Artists such as Giacometti, Picasso, Matisse and Man Ray were especially inspired by the hallucinatory styles and sophisticated abstractions that characterize Southeast Asian art from Nias, Sumatra, Borneo and New Guinea.

But curiously the art produced by the indigenous cultures of Southeast Asia is little appreciated here in its own region, where the few shows that are staged almost always present indigenous sculptures as cultural objects and ethnographic artifacts. Their striking beauty and decisive influence on 20th century Western art is largely ignored.

Through Indigenous Eyes, which will open at the Alliance Française de Singapour on 24 May 2011, departs from the usual anthropological perspective to entice Singapore art lovers with the striking and singular beauty of Southeast Asia’s very own indigenous art forms.

The more than 30 visually inspiring works in the show were carefully selected from the Mark Gordon collection of Southeast Asian indigenous art.

Mr. Gordon, a naturalized Singaporean, painstakingly assembled his collection over a period of almost three decades. With a special emphasis on aesthetics and sculptural form, his pieces offer a unique and compelling case for a greater appreciation of the region’s ancient but lesser known artistic traditions… traditions that are now sadly crumbling under the merciless onslaught of globalized commerce and religion.

Although portions of Mr. Gordon’s collection have been exhibited in Singapore at the Asian Civilisations Museum and the Alliance Française, and selected pieces have been featured in publications such as ‘Arts of Asia’ magazine, many major sculptures in the collection are being shown in Through Indigenous Eyes for the first time.

Through Indigenous Eyes is being staged to coincide with the publication and launch of ‘Ancient Echoes - The Mark Gordon Collection of Southeast Asian Indigenous Art’, a full-color 200-page catalog of the Gordon collection. This beautifully designed book contains a thoughtful foreword by José Ramos-Horta, Nobel Peace Laureate and President of the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste (East Timor), and is being distributed around the world by Thames & Hudson.