Singapore Art Week (17-26 January) brings together over 160 events for the city's biggest celebration of the visual arts. Read our special supplement here
Independent spaces and grassroots initiatives are as vital to Singapore’s local art ecosystem as the big-ticket shows during art week. Artist-run spaces like Comma Space and INSTINC create long-term programmes, fostering collaboration and discourse through their respective exhibitions The Other Detour (76 Guan Chuan Street, until 26 January) and Beyond 无边 (INSTINC, until 1 February). The former, a collaboration between Kar-men Cheng and Zai Tang, considers the experience of “othering”; the latter features new works by Boo Sze Yang and Yeo Shih Yun, for a fresh perspective on contemporary painting.
Active since 2019, Objectif’s annual Curator Open Call provides a valuable platform for emerging curators to realise an exhibition proposal in the not-for-profit space. The latest recipient, Lenette Lua, presents her curatorial debut Hope you are keeping well! (Objectifs Centre for Photography and Film, until 9 March), which unveils the invisible labours of artistic production.
Young practitioners initiate projects that critique conventions of exhibition-making and residency in expensive, land-scarce Singapore. Hong Shu-ying and Kirti Upadhyaya’s “bootleg” residency | | on paper (FARM@Waterloo Centre, 17 January-9 February) and Joshua Kon’s nomadic Con-Temporary Art (various venues, 17-26 January) playfully speak to these conditions of art-making and presentation. “As an artist and producer, I feel a deep desire for more space in Singapore, to allow for mistakes and experimentation,” says Hong. “Independent spaces and projects are essential because they enable different types of show-making, conversations and pace of engagement to happen.”
Such efforts also build community and allow creative processes to unfold organically. Reflecting on the art scene’s future, Lua asks: “How might we imagine journeying together sustainably, thriving within—and beyond—Singapore’s relentless pursuit of excellence?”