Contemporary Singapore is facing challenges not only environmentally and economically, but also, and possibly most importantly, culturally. The exhibition Facing Singapore presents a point-of-view from the perspectives of a Singaporean, a permanent resident and a foreign artist visiting Singapore. Their unique approach depicted in photographs, mixed-media, video and painting expresses the hidden state in the relationship between the growing economy and the individual humans within it.
From the position of an outsider, Aaron Yassin interprets his vision of the structured, yet often dizzying, encounter of Singaporean architecture with his multiplied photographic composites. Images ranging from the Art Science Museum and Orchard Central to historic sites explore the concepts of time, place, infinity and symbolic identity.
Guoyao painstakingly examines social and cultural issues affecting contemporary Singapore through the prism of his life in the country. His reductive mixed-media work uses both its material and its iconography, grains of rice and the Singapore flag for example, to create a matrix of complex signification.
Nina11 through her film, A Dream for a Perfect Condo, recorded continuously during 24 hours, interprets her experience of the social alienation between expats and local Singaporeans during the process of her relocation to Singapore. And her series of portraits featuring “A Helper, A Taxi Driver, A Real-estate agent, A Teacher” speaks about class related professional status, which in the end is equally important for the Singaporean economy.
About the Artist
Aaron Yassin is a New York based multi-media artist who works with architecture as his primary subject to create photographic composites, drawings, video, and installations. He has exhibited his work internationally at the Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery, the Hong-Gah Musuem in Taipei, PS122 in NYC, The Juan B. Castagnino Art Museum in Rosario, Argentina, and the Central Academy of Fine Art in Beijing. His large public installations have been presented at American University in Washington, D.C., and twice at the Kaohsiung International Container Arts Festival in Taiwan. His work has been written about in publications including the New York Times, the Star Ledger, artcritical.com, and NY Arts Magazine.
Guoyao is a Singaporean artist whose work focuses on social themes using video and photography. In addition to exhibitions in Singapore his work has been shown internationally in festivals in the United States and Korea. He has won numerous awards for his work including the Letter of Commendation from the Singapore Armed Forces. He holds a Diploma in Film, Sound and Video from Nee Ann Polytechnic and is currently working on completing his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree at Nanyang Technological University.
Nina11 is a visual artist and researcher at Nanyang Technological University School of Art, Design and Media. She is currently researching the sociology of Singaporean visual artists. She holds a doctoral degree from the University of Brighton, UK. Born in Moscow, USSR, Nina11 moved to London, UK after the collapse of the Soviet Union where she completed an MA in Arts Management at City University. She has curated, produced, and managed many exhibitions and festivals including: Random-ize Video and Film Festival in London and Taipei, Exhausted Body exhibition in London, and Flight at the Kaohsiung International Container Arts Festival.
