FIGURING A SCENE

Installation view, Figuring a Scene, National Gallery Singapore, 2024.

Discover a new perspective on exhibitions with Figuring a Scene, where we break free from traditional art history norms. Here, we believe exhibitions hold intrinsic significance beyond historical or societal contexts. Emotions, imagination, and sensory experiences take center stage in our understanding of art, defining how we make sense of the world around us.

Explore the process of creating art and the meaning of materials within specific settings, akin to the unfolding of a narrative or drama. As you navigate the exhibition, connect with your own experiences with the artworks on display.

Join us on a journey that encourages a deeper appreciation for the intricate process of art creation. Engage in thought-provoking questions about the production and reception of art, the collective staging of the exhibition scene, and the interconnectedness between artistic forms and the broader realms of history and everyday life.

Figuring a Scene presents different instances where elements from nature become signs that help us perceive and grasp social forms. These instances come via six episodes - shadow, fruit, fire, air, wax, and city.

RESOURCES

E-Catalogue

Richly illustrated, it includes an introduction to Dalam Southeast Asia and a curatorial essay that explores the transformative process of “figuring” through art, illustrating how events and objects are masterfully woven into narratives that resonate through history.

Download the free e-Catalogue

Room Sheets

The exhibition will be presented in English, with room sheets available in 3 other languages. Please click on the links below to access to them.

KEY HIGHLIGHTS

SHADOW

Sharon Chin. Creatures on the Move (In the Death of Night). 2023-2024. Plywood and printed posters, dimensions variable. Installation view of Figuring a Scene, National Gallery Singapore, 2024.

Sharon Chin juxtaposes nature and technology in her art. Living near an oil refinery, she addresses ecological tensions, climate justice, and displacement. Her linocut prints, which were initially used for book illustrations, became protest placards and workshop materials. The prints transformed into shadow puppets in an installation exploring the struggle between natural and social forces, posing the question: “Without darkness, how can we dream of the day?”

FRUIT

Installation view, Figuring a Scene, National Gallery Singapore, 2024.

Three works flesh out the durian, a fruit whose story and image have partly shaped the imagination of Singapore and Southeast Asia. A painting, a photograph, and a sculpture by Liu Kang, Robert Zhao Renhui and Anusapati articulate the durian in different ways. Reflect on the tropical fruit’s cultural significance for those seeking a sense of home, a connection to the past and an understanding of the role of colonisation in shaping the land and its people.

FIRE

Installation view, Figuring a Scene, National Gallery Singapore, 2024.

The tragic fire in 1961 engulfed villages and communities in Bukit Ho Swee, a slum of attap huts. It was a critical moment in the social history of Malaya. To a significant extent, the fire emergency paved the way for the development of the local urban form in Singapore. An important aspect of this modernisation was the intense pace by which the construction of public housing took place. See works by Liu Kang, Lim Hak Tai, Tan Choo Kuan and Lim Yew Kuan in this episode.

AIR

Installation view, Figuring a Scene, National Gallery Singapore, 2024.

It is visually difficult to represent air in art. Its invisibility poses a problem for artists, but its role and effect are visceral and vital. ‘Air’ features a painting titled Storm by Sun Yee and a photograph titled The Opposite is True #2 by Lim Tzay Chuen.

WAX

Renato Habulan. Tira (Remains). 2014–2023. Paraffin wax, sculpted wood, aluminium and found objects. Collection of National Gallery Singapore. © Renato R. Habulan

How does wax embed faith and terror? Renato Habulan’s artwork, Tira, encompasses various meanings in Filipino. Comprising driftwood, found statuary, and paraffin wax, it features a transfigured Christ sculpture resting on wax, referencing colonial Catholicism in the Philippines.

The work evokes the religious embeddedness, fragmentation and the horrors of war in southern Philippines.

CITY

Installation view, Figuring a Scene, National Gallery Singapore, 2024.

Two prominent signs of Singapore’s aspiration to a national and modern form are public housing and the art museum, traced to discourses emerging from post-colonial Malaya.

Architectural texts from the sixties independence underscore the role of art and culture in shaping national identity. Meanwhile, public housing, catalysed by the 1961 fire crisis, transformed “squatters into citizens.”

Amid this desire for belonging, a teak sculpture by Shui Tit Sing alludes to the excitement of change, but also to the trauma of death, complicating the narrative of development in a country where nearly 80% live in public housing.