JULY 2010 / 1

6 Handy Road, #01-01 The Luxe Singapore 229234. T: +65 6337 6810 F: +65 6337 2234 E: mktg@yisulang.com
2 / CONFABULATION Tue to Sun - 11am to 7pm / Mon & Public Holidays - Close JULY 2010 / 3
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8 / CONFABULATION JULY 2010 / 9
CONTENTS

Dawvon @Flickr
Y

CM

18 COMING UP
Ming Wong: Life Of Imitation
23 SPOTLIGHT
Gallery in Focus – Art Trove
MY

CY

Life in 3D
CMY
Lim Yew Kuan – His Art and His Role
Deviants Defiant 26 COVER STORY
Lim Yew Kuan – His Art and His Role
K

Curators’ Tours: Why an exhibition on

Singapore 1960?
Soul of the Mothering Tree
Breath-Taking – Artist Talk
Night Festival 33 FEATURES
Hong Kong in 72 Hours
The Studios 2010 Explorations: Dance Workshop by
Lee Tae-sang
Super Mighty! Heroes of Asia
MÉLO
Selected Singapore Master Artists
Sumatra: Isle of Gold

10 / CONFABULATION JULY 2010 / 11

CONTENTS

26. 33.

40 REVIEWS
Realism in the Art of the Chinese Diaspora
62 DIRECTORIES
Singapore Art Guide
Staying in tune, Staying free: A duet of sorts from For Tourists
two modern painters
Malaysia Art Guide
The Virgin Started it All: A Review of Lower Depths
Memories + Moods

67 CREATIVE RESOURCES
Wine / Framing & Photography Services
50 THE INTERVIEW
PROJECT
Elizabeth De Roza and Shelly Quick
70 POSTSCRIPT
Surviving Hong Kong

57 SINGAPORE
ART MAP

12 / CONFABULATION JULY 2010 / 13

Issue #8 (July 2010)
ISSN 1793-9739 / MICA (P) 183/02/2010
www.confabmag.com

Cover
Lim Yew Kuan

Editor-in-chief // Sabrina Sit / s@confabmag.com

Art Director // Amalina MN / a@confabmag.com
Photography Director // Michael Tan (Ambious Studio)
Account Executive // Kayla Hoo / k@confabmag.com
Contributors // Choy Weng Yang / Yow Siew Kah / Yvonne Low /
Richard Chua / Emmanuel Ng

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COMING UP
Ming Wong: Life Of Imitation
22.04.10 – 22.08.10 / Singapore Art Museum /
www.singaporeartmuseum.sg
Life in 3D
01.07.10 – 30.09.10 / Mercedes-Benz Center
Lim Yew Kuan –
His Art and His Role
10.07.10 – 22.07.10 / NAFA and
23.07.10 – 10.08.10 / DaTang Fine Arts
18 / CONFABULATION
In this exhibition, we celebrate and reflect on the context of the
Golden Age of Singapore cinema in the 1950s and 60s: an era
of nation-building, struggle, rapid modernisation, and cinematic
utopia. This award-winning exhibition premiered at the Singapore
Pavilion in the 53rd Venice Biennale in 2009, curated by Tang
Fu Kuen and presenting artist Ming Wong who won Special
Mention from the jury. This is the highest accolade ever received
by Singapore at the world’s most prestigious art platform.
The Singapore Art Museum is proud to restage the show on
homeground - with a new design and additional exhibits - before
bringing it on tour to other cities.
Inspired by Singapore’s rich screen legacy, Ming Wong re-reads
‘national cinema’ as mediated by language, role-playing and
identity. He re-interprets films which engage with performative
notions of mis-casting and parroting, and reflects on Singapore’s
roots, hybridity and politics of becoming.
Image Credit: Designed by Ming Wong and painted by Neo Chon Teck Life
of Imitation (Billboard I) 2009 Acrylic emulsion on canvas 222 cm x 229 cm
Singapore Art Museum collection
Mercedes-Benz and Sunjin Galleries present world-renowned
Israeli artist David Gerstein, well-known for his stainless steel
cut-outs in 3 dimensional images. In this show, we are allowed
a rare glimpse of Gerstein’s recent masterpieces, a sizable
collection of new works never seen before in Asia. Pulsating
with colors, the works translate a sense of movement and vigor
within it, sucking the audience into the subject matter.
The exhibition also features Beijing born Wu Qiong with his
paintings of happy little boys, and sometimes little girls. Drawing
on his own childhood memories of growing up in China where
one child families of little princes and princesses were the norm,
Qiong has recreated a half forgotten world when the sun shone
every day, and in winter when the snow fell it was always clean
and fluffy.
The search to bridge the gap between art and life is a recurring
trope of art history, aesthetics and artistic practice. Working
in the gap between art and life expresses the condition of art
making itself, the need to maintain a distance from life so as
to take a step back to reflect on our emotions, thoughts and
feelings from the environment we live in. This is what makes
art making a distinct form of activity from other forms of human
activities.
It is in this gap between art and life that Lim Yew Kuan’s artistic
practice is located. His adherence to representing life not only
from his own lived experiences but from all forms of human
creativity – science, music, and dance – marks Lim as an artist
who draws from multiple fields of enquiries into his own artistic
practice. This relates to his own contributions as an art educator
who served as the principal of the Nanyang Academy of Fine
COMING UP
Arts (NAFA). As an educator, he was open to ideas from other
disciplines such as science and relates back to his own artistic
practice. His interest in nuclear physics from his student days
at the Chelsea School of Art translated into his explorations into
the effects of light in his paintings. The tempo and rhythm of
dance and music are made his own in the fluidity of his lines
and the spontaneity of his brushstrokes. The broadening of his
horizons beyond the narrow confines of fine art into other fields
of cultural production formed the foundation of Lim as an art
educator and artist who brought art closer to life.
Lim’s artistic journey might have been shaped by his late father,
and first principal of NAFA, Lim Hak Tai who envisioned and
encouraged artists to depict the ‘reality of the South Seas’
and the ‘localness of the place’. The desire to bridge the gap
between art and life, reality and the everyday through open
perspectives that are not bounded by rigid categories and
dogma shaped Lim not only as an art educator but an artist
as well. Lim’s artistic practice is entrenched in the affirmative
power of art, offering free and open approaches to engage with
an increasingly complex and globalised world. -- Kwok Kian
Chow (Director, The National Art Gallery)
Lim’s solo exhibition opens at Lim Hak Tai Gallery at NAFA on the 10th of
July and travels to DaTang Fine Arts on the 23rd of July.
In this performance, re: mix takes inspiration from the theme of
Deviants Defiant deviance as represented in various art forms. Social deviance has
12.07.10 / 7.30pm / Recital Studio, Esplanade /
provided many a foil for artists, as they broach subjects that are
S$20
taboo to society. Poet Richard Dehmel, takes on the sexual mores
www.esplanade.com
of the late 19th century. His poem, Transfigured Night, provided
Schoenberg with the inspiration for the original string sextet version
of the same title. At the crux of the poem, the human drama is the
dread of a woman’s confession to her new lover that she is pregnant
but the child is not his and how her new lover accepts this fact. The
poem can seem trite but this is also the poet’s ‘confession’ of sex in
society. Thus it is a description of deviance from sexual norms as
well as the self-censorship of a sexually active society.
Your Smiling Face is a Taiwanese movie from 1979 that shares
the same storyline as Transfigured Night. Through it, the reticence
about the democratization of sex in Chinese cinema is broken.
Three songs from the movie will be adapted for re: mix. Both stories
end with the transcendence of an impossible situation where these
men accept their loves and act in defiance to societal norms.
JULY 2010 / 19
COMING UP
Singapore in 1960 was a time of cultural awakening and
fervency driven by a fast evolving socio-political climate. It
was a time when many social and cultural policies made set
the foundation of how Singapore was to become, as a unique
society with its own brand of socio-cultural landscape today.
Come listen to our two curators, Jason Toh and Priscilla Chua,
who are Singaporeans born in post-65 Singapore, as they
share how they approached and dealt with issues related to the
language, politics and culture of a pre-65 Singapore.
Curators’ Tours: Why an
exhibition on Singapore 1960?
15.07.10 / National Museum of Singapore /
S$8
www.nationalmuseum.sg
This will be Sarbani Bhattacharya‘s first-ever solo art exhibition
that will launch her career as an artist. Her paintings in this
almost poetic collection exude a sense of fluid energy through
the culmination of the symbolic relevance of the Tree of Life and
the timeless concept of the mother and her child.
Soul of the Mothering Tree
15.07.10 – 25.07.10 / The Gallery of Gnani Arts /
www.gnaniarts.com
Breath-Taking is an installation of 200 portraits displayed in
individual inflated plastic bags. Each portrait is abstractedly
painted in acrylic, chinese ink and presented on media like
plastic, paper and duct tape. The audience is invited, through
the exhibition, to question how our past impacts on our
judgements, expectations and experiences. The process of
reading, understanding and relating to “others” is also a pivotal
theme of the exhibition
Breath-Taking – Artist Talk
16.07.10 / 7.30pm / The Substation /
www.substation.org
20 / CONFABULATION
Night Festival
16.07.10 – 17.07.10 / 7.30 pm – 2am /
National Museum of Singapore / Peranakan
Museum / Singapore Art Museum / Singapore
Management University Campus Green / The
Substation
The Studios 2010 Explorations:
Dance Workshop by
Lee Tae-sang
24.07.10 / 1.30pm / Rehearsal Studio, Esplanade /
$15
www.thestudios.com.sg
Super Mighty! Heroes of Asia
24.07.10 - 3.02.11 / Asian Civilisations Museum /
www.acm.org.sg
COMING UP
Dream of the past, live in the present and fantasize the future at
Night Festival 2010! Inspired by the charm of 1960s New World
Amusement Park, the Festival is a dazzling spectacle of street
theatre, magical lights and carnivalesque play that relives—and
re-imagines—the story of the halcyon days of early Singapore.
Combining contemporary art and video installations with thrilling
outdoor performances, Night Festival 2010 will also reveal a
surprising insight into our New World 2010! Come explore, enjoy
and be enchanted in this magical extravaganza brought to you
by the combined initiative of people in Singapore`s premier arts
and heritage precinct.
A dance workshop designed to help dancers better understand
their movements, physical capabilities and increase the
awareness of their own bodies. LEE Tae-sang introduces a
movement vocabulary focusing on the joints, which combine
intensity and softness through dance combinations.
Recommended for professional dancers or dance students. Class is taught
in Korean with English translation.
An exhibition specially for children, Super Mighty! Heroes of
Asia explores the legends behind some popular and well-loved
characters from Asian myths, many of whom are still well-known
and found in contemporary culture. Meet iconic characters such
as Hanuman, the Monkey God of India; Rustam, the dashing
champion of Iran who defeated dragons and demons; and
Mulan, the warrior-maiden of Chinese legends.
Featuring colorful displays, engaging artifacts and a fun zone
for hands-on learning for kids, Super Mighty! Heroes of Asia
promises a fun museum-going experience for the young and
young at heart.
Image credit: Page from a book called Haft Paykar (Seven Princesses)
Iran, 1570 – 1580.
Bahram Gur, the King of Iran, is fighting a dragon in a dark cave. He was
saving a donkey after its baby had been eaten by the dragon. As a reward,
he was given the dragon’s treasure.
JULY 2010 / 21
COMING UP GALLERY IN FOCUS

Paris, 1926. Two old friends, Marcel and Pierre, got together one
evening for a meal and to reminisce on old times. Marcel is now a
world famous virtuoso violinist while Pierre has settled down for a
quiet life with his wife, Romaine. From this first meeting, Romaine
and Marcel fall madly in love and have an affair. Their problem is
what to do about Pierre…

In French with English Subtitles

MÉLO
27.07.10 / 8pm / Alliance Francaise Theatre /
$7.20
www.alliancefrancaise.org.sg

Selected Singapore Master Artists celebrates the vibrancy of

Singapore’s art frontier years with a selection of works by key
Singapore master artists - Georgette Chen, Choo Keng Kwang,
Low Puay Hwa, Ong Kim Seng, Siew Hock Meng, Teng Nee
Cheong, Chen Wen Hsi, Lim Cheng Hoe, Chen Chong Swee
and Ang Ah Tee – whose unique takes on the subtle realities of
life have given rise to modern art as we know it today.

Showcasing artistic legacies from the 1960s, that still continue

to resonate today with their integration of Chinese and Western
Selected Singapore elements in both technique and medium - from the avant-garde
Master Artists Chinese paintings of Chen Wen Hsi to the definitive watercolour
30.07.10 – 29.08.10 / SBin Art Plus works by Lim Cheng Hoe - Selected Singapore Master Artists
www.sbinartplus.com brings together the spectacular synergies of these artistic
masters in a creative exuberance of colours, hues and strokes
that reminds viewers of the beauty in our everyday lives.

Known in ancient times as the ‘Island of Gold’, Sumatra was the

earliest entry point for Hinduism, Buddhism and Islam into Southeast
Asia. The island also witnessed the arrival of western colonial powers
who fought for their share of trade in the region. Its strategic location
made it a land of chiefs, princes, seafaring merchants, and home to
the powerful maritime kindom of Srivijaya (7th to the 13th century).

These cross-cultural exchanges through trade, religion, colonialism

Art Trove
and diplomatic relations, have created the unique and diverse
Sumatra of today, known also for its natural attractions like Lake Toba.
Sumatra: Isle of Gold Discover Sumatra’s forgotten histories and unexpected richness
30.07.10 – 07.11.10 / Asian Civilisations through 300 exhibits from the collections of the National Museum of
Museum / Indonesia, the Museum Volkenkunde (National Museum of Ethnology),
www.acm.org.sg Leiden, the Asian Civilisations Museum and other private collections
in Sumatra: Isle of Gold. Look out for famous royal heirlooms such as
the gold crown worn by the Sultan of Siak, older treasures recovered
from shipwrecks and ancient 2,500 year-old Bronze Age artefacts.
Modern German Art in Singapore:
Sumatra: Isle of Gold is the first international touring show about
Its Importance for Art Education
Sumatran culture and is the highlight of the National Heritage Board’s
(NHB) Fokus Indonesia Festival.
Ewald Platte Erntedankfest (Thanksgiving) Early 1970s Mixed media (Encaustic) on Paper 41.5 x 24 cm

22 / CONFABULATION JULY 2010 / 23

SPOTLIGHT
I n the 1950s, prominent Singaporean artist
Liu Kang (1911-2004) argued that in order
for Singapore to be an important cultural
center, it needed an art museum - one that
collected not only Asian art, but also works by
European masters. Liu’s view was representative
of a significant number of cultural elites in pre-
independent Singapore, who felt that a public art
collection was key to transforming the mercantile
culture of the emerging nation to one that valued
beautiful objects and creative ideas. For them,
the “European” component of such a collection
was important: modern art in Singapore, as
well as that in many parts of Asia, came about
partly from appropriating Western art. Access to
a good selection of European painting was thus
crucial for art education: artists needed to be
able to examine the art closely, so that they could
make attempts at “indigenizing” Western visual
elements, making them meaningful for the social
and cultural context of Singapore.
The Singapore Art Museum was set up in 1996,
some 40 years after Liu’s remarks, and has since
become a significant repository of modern Asian
art. By the first decade of the 21st-century,
however, Singapore still does not have a note-
worthy permanent European collection. In the
mean time, Western art history continues to
be taught in the schools. Using photographic
reproductions, students learn about the subject
matter and the visual forms in the art. But the
teacher will find it hard to communicate the
material qualities, such as texture, that can only
European Modernist in Los Angeles and Oakland,
be seen with the art works physically present.
USA (1927-8)
This is where a new initiative by a private
museum can benefit art education in Singapore.
Art Trove was set up in 2010 by Nicolai Baron
von Uexküll and Roy Quek Siew Ming. One
of its key objectives is to establish a permanent
collection of works by German modernist Ewald
Platte (1894-1985). Platte was a painter whose
24 / CONFABULATION
works show expressionist and abstract
tendencies. In pre-World War II Europe,
he exhibited regularly with artists who later
attained canonical positions in art history,
and his art was considered as intellectually
stimulating as theirs. For example, in 1927
and 1928, Platte’s paintings were shown
together with those of Klee, Nolde, Jawlensky
and Kandinsky in an exhibition entitled
“European Modernists” in Los Angeles and
Oakland, California.
Although Platte’s art is well-known in
German museum circles today, partly due
to the artist’s introspective character, his
dislike for limelight and the decision to
stay put in Nazi Germany during the war,
it never attained the level of prominence
as that of his peers. Under the Hitler-led
National Socialists, Platte’s paintings were
declared “degenerate” and were removed
from museums and galleries. A few of them
were included in a major “Degenerate Art”
show that travelled to different cities in
Germany and Austria. Consisting of some
650 works, the exhibition was designed
to denigrate European modernism: the
paintings were displayed in a haphazard
fashion, accompanied by labels with mocking
commentaries.
Art Trove, in consultation with artist’s family,
collectors and curators, hopes to elevate the
international profile of Platte’s art, so that it
can achieve the recognition it deserves. The
museum’s plans, to be executed from their
base in Singapore, include: a multi-city tour
of Platte’s paintings, putting into circulation
in the art market a part of his oeuvre, and
selecting a set of works that would form a
coherent collection that is representative of
the various stages of the artist’s career.
GALLERY IN FOCUS
Meanwhile, Platte’s art will be put on display
at Art Trove’s gallery space at Waterloo
Street beginning on 14 October 2010. It will
complement the Asia-focused collection of
the Singapore Art Museum, situated some
50 meters away. More importantly, it is a
cohesive body of works offering some of
the key features of European modernism,
including fragmentation of objects and
figures, primitivist tendencies, and the
amalgamation of “high” and “low” materials
- an invaluable education resource for
students of art history.
While the Platte collection is being put
together, the museum is currently featuring
the works of German painter and film-maker
Strawalde (b. 1931). Strawalde spent the
earlier years of his career in East Germany,
and attained national and pan-European
recognition after the re-unification. He has
exhibited widely in Germany and France,
and collectors of his works include the
German Chancellery. //
Details of the Museum and Exhibitions are:
Art Trove (www.art-trove.com), 51, Waterloo
Street, #02-01 to 03, Singapore 187969. Tel:
+65 6336 0915, Fax: +65 6336 9975, Email:
enquiry@art-trove.com. Opening hours:
Wednesday to Sunday, 11am to 6:30pm.
Strawalde
From now to 2 October, 2010. Artist talk on
26 August.
Ewald Platte
From 3 October, 2010.
JULY 2010 / 25
LIM YEW KUAN COVER STORY

Lim Yew Kuan -

His Art and
His Role
Text: Choy Weng Yang

26 / CONFABULATION JULY 2010 / 27

LIM YEW KUAN
F or decades, Lim Yew Kuan has been
in the forefront of the Singapore art
scene. His contribution to Singapore art
taking the form of three directions -- in
his capacity as an artist who took realistic
art to a high point, a senior art instructor
whose dedication and professionalism have
groomed countless artists for close to half a
century, he nurtured, with rare dedication
and demanding expectations, countless
painters and sculptors many of whom are
today influential artists in their own right and
as the principal of Nanyang Academy of Fine
Arts who, with unwavering determination
saw it through extremely difficult times –
is immense and of consequence. Privately,
in his capacity as a serious painter, he has
been fighting a daunting singular battle in
his art with relentless consistency. Despite
compelling models in realistic art flowing out
from its fascinating and illustrious history
being readily accessible for emulation, Yew
Kuan is determined to forge his own distinct
niche in the awe-inspiring march of realistic
art which has enabled geniuses such as
Caravaggio, Rembrandt, Goya, Courbet and
Ingre to ascend to the rapturous peak of their
dazzling visions enthralling generations.
Xiamen (Amoy), where Yew Kuan was born
in 1928, is an old city founded in the 14th
century. A bustling seaport and business
centre, it is endowed with a stunning visual
ambience: a breathtaking harbour view,
coastal charms, quaint architecture and
winding streets. All year round festivals,
recreating centuries old customs, and the
rustic beauty of Amoy ceramics further
reinforced the city’s visual feasts. Such is
the backdrop of Yew Kuan’s childhood.
However, when he was 10, war was looming.
He fled to Singapore to join his father.
As an artist and art educationist, Lim Hak Tai
– Yew Kuan’s father – stood out among his
contemporaries in Xiamen, China. Forceful,
in-depth, adventurous and innovative –
28 / CONFABULATION
these personal qualities were immediately
reflected in his traditional Chinese ink
painting and modern Western oil painting
in both of which he excelled. In 1937, he
accepted the challenge to establish an art
institute in Singapore to groom fine artists
for the vibrant seaport at the crossroads of
Southeast Asia. Within years, the Nanyang
Academy of Fine Arts itself became an
exciting crossroads for artists, students, ideas
and information in pursuit of art.
By the time Lim Yew Kuan enrolled in the
Nanyang Academy as a fine art student in
1948, he already had an overview of the
visual arts most young graduates would
envy. With the family residing in the campus
of the academy at 49 St Thomas Walk,
Singapore, Yew Kuan came into intimate
contact with countless demonstrations
of still-life painting, portraiture, water-
colours, Chinese ink-painting and Chinese
calligraphy. Normally escapes the uninitiated
and inexperienced, the overview gave him
insights into the intricacies into the all
important processes of artistic creativity.
In time, his two personal gifts -- his sharp
observation powers and his ability to render
his observations with stringent accuracy ---
became more and more evident.
1958 marks an important turning point in
Yew Kuan’s art career. With his observation,
dexterity and technical skills -- which had
been harnessed for close to a decade --
reaching saturation, he was now ready for a
fresh challenge, a challenge in keeping with
his ambition. In July that year, he boarded
the majestic Stratmore for an arduous 24-
day long voyage to England with a singular
vision: to penetrate into the influential
masterworks in Europe. The years in
London – three altogether – were happy
ones crammed with exciting discoveries and
rewards: a place at the prestigious Chelsea
School of Art, testing out new approaches in
figurative works in sky-light, spacious studio
COVER STORY
often interacting with prominent English
artists, analysis of the masterpieces at the
National Art Gallery such as Constable’s
Haywain and Rembrandt’s self-portrait. In
1959, he fulfilled a long cherished dream –
he crossed the English Channel and made
it to Paris, and with that, to the Lourve and
Montmarte.
By the time Yew Kuan returned to Singapore
in 1962 his painting had undergone a distinct
transformation. Two crucial factors had
influenced this change – light and colour. He
realized – specifically through Rembrandt’s
paintings in the National Gallery in London
– the importance of the distillation of light.
When distilled to its extreme, light becomes
fluid and mobile making it possible, under
the invisible hand of the artist, for it to move
within the painting with ease and at will, thus
achieving atmospheric effects, rendering
a mystical mood. Colour, on the other
hand, can go beyond being a slave to local
colours – always neutral and too rational.
Liberated, colour could take on a symbolic
meaning. Gauguin – a great inspiration for
Yew Kuan – instills power and ethos into his
monumental Tahiti paintings.
Although, through the decades, Yew Kuan has
worked on a great diversity of themes – still-
life, flowers, interiors, landscapes, cityscapes,
portraits, social themes – his series of nude
studies, all painted in London, remains the
culmination of his overall art involvement.
Noted for their clarity, concentration and
sensitivity, these exceptional works were
done under circumstances when he was
bursting with fresh ideas derived from his
contacts with the English and European
masterworks on the same theme. But they
were not identifiable with any notable
school of painting whether English, French,
Italian or Dutch. The most critical of all the
related factors in the creative process was an
exciting new discovery on Yew Kuan’s part –
a discovery which becomes the culminating
JULY 2010 / 29
LIM YEW KUAN
crest of his years of struggling with ‘light’. In
a flash of insight, he came to the thrilling
revelation that within a tone in the scale of
lights and darks is the interplay of nuances
waiting to be explored. Through such
interplay, the artist could suggest delicacy,
vibrancy, movement and time to an extent
often overlooked.
One of Yew Kuan’s widely admired strengths
is his ability to take his artistic repertoire
to its limits, exploiting his imagination,
experience, extensive knowledge and
technical savvy consistently achieving
exceptional results. In his culminating work
from his 1966 Woodcut Series titled After
Fire with its devastating aftermath, he came
very close to personifying his dictum that art
must reflect man’s dilemma in life.
For Yew Kuan, the Balinese Series 1996 is yet
another personal breakthrough in his artistic
endeavour. The series provided the rare
opportunity for him to exploit yet another
of his long standing beliefs that landscape
art should follow the law of nature that a
successful landscape painting must emerge
out of the atmospheric light with its distinct
sense of place, climate, time and culture.
Thus, in the Bali Series, Bali’s unparalleled
perpetual brilliant light of utter clarity and
pulsating tropical mood was his inspiration.
In 2002, at the height of his career, Yew
Kuan finds the thought of devoting an entire
series of paintings to one singular city, an
exciting challenge, testing not only his
technical ability but also his resourcefulness,
his imagination, his inventiveness and his
sensitivity. Paris – because of its physical
beauty, because so many artists have sunk
their roots into it, because it is a supreme
example of how a city has nurtured art and
how art in turn has shaped a city – is the
irresistible choice. For which matured artist
can resist painting the beautiful overview of
1. Nude Study 2 1959
2. London in Red 1959
30 / CONFABULATION
COVER STORY
the boulevard, the romance of the winding
Seine and the sidewalk cafés which Renoir,
Sisley, Van Gogh found so titillating. Yew
Kuan wants to pay a tribute to the great art
city which has influenced his life as an artist
beyond imagination. And the works on Paris
in his Paris exhibition painted during his
stay in the city constitute the token of the
tribute.
In 2008 wrestling with the assignment from
the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts on an
important sculptural artwork as a tribute to
Lim Hak Tai, the founder of the Academy.
Yew Kuan agonized over which of the several
possible directions to take. The eventual
outcome -- a sculptural artwork which
captures Lim Hak Tai’s inner strengths,
without undue glorification. There could
not have been a more revealing image of
Lim Hak Tai as artist visionary -- with a clear
vision of his art and an ambitious vision to
raise new generations of serious artists.
In recent years he and his wife travelled
extensively: firstly, through China --Beijing,
Shanghai, the Silk Road, the old cities and
then through London, Paris, Europe the
Suez Canal, the Alps. Throughout their
arduous journey, Yew Kuan would work
on the spot to capture the visual surprises
of captivating landmarks they encountered.
It was a fascinating journey of perpetual
visual discovery. The mass of sketches and
paintings from his recent travels now serve
as the starting points of a new series of
paintings.
At 82, Lim Yew Kuan’s passion for painting
and sculpture rages on. //
Lim’s solo exhibition opens at Lim Hak Tai
Gallery at NAFA on the 10th of July and
travels to DaTang Fine Arts on the 23rd of
July.
JULY 2010 / 31
LIM YEW KUAN
外师造化，中得心源
写在林友权先生八十二岁回顾展
- 刘岱松
人生天地之间，若白驹之过隙，忽然而已。文人
以文章传世，艺术家以作品传世。朝代有兴替，
钱币有更迭，艺术品却岸然不朽，赫然独立于时
间之外。古今中外，艺术品已然成为文化修养的
写照，身份财富的象征。
身处当代，个人收藏都以华人艺术家为核心，包
括新加坡，马来西亚，中国大陆以及台湾艺术
家。油画，纸上媒材，雕塑均有涉猎。尤其看重
学术背景深厚，形成个人创作语言，以内涵胜出
的作品。第一次见到林友权先生作品时，为其纯
净细腻的画面所吸引。巴厘岛农庄的风景清新怡
人，旷野上茅舍旁两三人物有种忙碌的悠闲，浪
漫地刻划出巴厘人特有的气质。远山如练。优美
而令人感动。受到作品吸引，很自然地会进一步
了解艺术家，到他的画室拜访，进而理解他的艺
术理念，创作过程以及学术素养。
林先生家学渊源，父亲林学大先生—“南洋艺术
之父”，是两所美术学院的创办人之一。在那段
乱世出英雄的时期，华北徐悲鸿（1895~1953
，江苏人）任北京的中央美院首任院长；华中林
风眠（1900~1991，广东人）时任杭州的国立艺
术院首任校长，即今天的中国美院；岭南林学大
（1893~1963，福建人）在1923年和1938年分
别参与发起成立厦门美专和南洋美专，并任南洋
美专首任校长，影响遍及岭南、台湾以及东南亚
地区。在那些动荡而困顿的年月，他凭着坚持与
决心，引领以新马独具的热带风情，多元文化为
特质的南洋艺术风格。
在父亲奠定的基础上，林友权先生遵循“实现美
感教育，发挥艺术精神”，“文化中心可以树立，
社会教育得从促进”的志向，继续发扬光大，并
开枝散叶，奉献于艺术教育及创作，培育英才无
数，同时亦留下许多经典动人的绘画作品，不愧
为南洋艺术界第二代领军人物之一。其成就已为
学术界推崇并肯定。
32 / CONFABULATION
FEATURES
HONGKONG
林先生是一位伟大而谦逊的长者。他接受欧洲正
in 72 hours
Text: Sabrina Sit
统的学院训练，早年在英国修习，写实功力深
厚，留英时期的人体油画作品保留了那一阶段优
雅的欧洲风貌。不论是主体安排，场景陈设，气
氛营造，再再令人惊叹张张精品。返国后，他在
执教南洋美专之余，潜心创作，作品多表达身边
的人物景致。他的南洋风情写实作品，或是呈现
灵魂深处须臾片刻的抽象作品，都执著于自己所
见所识所想，不趋附流行，谨守艺术家自属的那
片天空，也只有象他这样的艺术家才享有这样的
心灵自由！这些作品呈现出一个优秀艺术家多年
修炼的真我，以自己特有的艺术语言真诚表述，
温文尔雅，写意而动人，让观者能与这些作品共
通、交流，就像与艺术家对面而坐。在当下艺术
市场操作如火如荼的时刻，林先生的作品则是一
股清流，恬静而踏实。
艺术浩瀚广博，一法通百法通。得益于声乐和钢
琴领域的深厚造诣，林先生在创作和教学时，于
构图、明暗、结构等构成方面以外，特别讲究画
面的韵律。他亦精拳术，伸缩导引，以武强身。
但他坚持过一种淡泊的生活，诸般功夫少为人
知。在七十多岁高龄时，林先生还携家人背包旅
行，遍览名川，在本次展览中呈现的中国西部风
情及西藏系列即是彼时所作。
艺术创作不论是为献予社会，或谨为畅言自我；
不论是为长久流传，亦或是为瞬间绽放，艺术家
都应以真诚的态度来对待，真正的艺术不容半点
虚假和粉饰。林先生此次于南洋艺术学院个展，
其作品涵盖60年来的精品，集一甲子功力于一
堂，尽精微、致广大，必将在学术界和收藏界产 The Hong Kong Museum of Art plastered with posters for the Louis Vuitton: A Passion for Creation
生广大深远的影响。精彩可期。// exhibition from May to August last year.
The exhibition was jointly presented by the Leisure and Cultural Services Department, Louis Vuitton and
the Fondation Louis Vuitton pour la Création in collaboration with the Consulate General of France in
Hong Kong and Macau and organized by the Hong Kong Museum of Art.
A selection of works from the Fondation Louis Vuitton pour la Création was brought together to showcase
a number of significant large-scale works by European, American and Chinese artists to reflect an ener-
getic urban culture, leading to fictional landscapes located somewhere between dreams and adventure.
ncburton@Flicker
JULY 2010 / 33
HONG KONG
T he flight to Hong Kong was booked
online only 28 hours before I was
due to check-in at the Singapore Changi
International Airport and needless to
say, the hotel room reservations were
made even later. This is what happens
when you are a chronic procrastinator
but alas, what is one to do?
I was lucky to be able to get a flight
at all given the short time frame,
upcoming long weekend due to the
Vesak Day Public Holiday and the fact
that there were a couple of conferences
going on during the period that Art
HK is scheduled to take place as well.
In less then a day, emails to contacts
in Hong Kong were sent out in a
flurry, cabin-sized luggage filled with
only the essentials and Singapore
Dollars were traded in for Hong Kong
Dollars, never mind if the current
exchange rate is not too favorable.
Luis Calazans/Campana Brothers
34 / CONFABULATION
The trip was not intended solely for a visit
to Art HK 10, also known as the Hong Kong
International Art Fair, which runs from
the 27th - 30th of May. There was dim sum
to be eaten, shopping to do (tax-free!) and
of course, a whole long list of exhibitions,
events and talks to attend.
The Campana brothers, Humberto and
Fernando will make their Hong Kong debut
on the second floor of Louis Vuitton’s
flagship Hong Kong store on Canton Road.
Among the nine works on show is Panda, a
chair constructed of numerous bear plush
toys.
Another unusual venue - Quarry Bay - where
office and residential towers are a common
sight plays host to installations, paintings and
sculptures by British-born, Hong Kong-based
artist Simon Birch in an exhibition titled
Hope and Glory. The exhibition reportedly
costs some US$2 million to stage.
Simon Boswell Blink – Andy Warhol 2010 Audio-Visual Installation
The second rendition of BLINK by Boswell is an audio-visual installation commissioned by Hong
Kong’s Home Affairs Bureau that was projected on the facade of the Hong Kong Cultural Centre
in Tsim Sha Tsui at night for the Hong Kong Art Week.
Footage of celebrities is slowed down tremendously to capture the moment they blink to make
for a revealing portrait.
The Keitai Girl (a white-faced female in a
bodysuit covered with keypads from mobile
phones who poses, dances and marches)
by Japanese performance artist Noriko
Yamaguchi is expected to be going around
Hong Kong after her performance at the
fair’s vernissage.
Para/Site Art Space, a non-profit art
organization, who will be organizing the
regular introductory guided tours around
the fair will also host conversations between
Ai Wei Wei and Vito Acconc at their space
where the audience is allowed to eavesdrop
and participate in as the artists talk via
Skpye.
There will be alot of talking going on as well
during the period of Art HK with Asia Art
Archive, the Official Education Partner,
responsible for the panel discussions that range
from the topics of the Institutional Collections
and the History of Japanese Contemporary Art
to the Private Endowments in Contemporary
Art and the Aftermath of the White Cube.
FEATURES
The Intelligence Squared Asia, Asia’s forum
for live debate, will host its annual event
at ART HK 10, rallying international art
world personalities around the contentious
motion: “You Don’t Need Great Skill to be
a Great Artist”. Speakers for the motion are
Turner-prize winning artist Antony Gormley
and presenter, historian and Director of
Exhibitions at White Cube Tim Marlow.
Speakers against the motion are sociologist
and best-selling author Sarah Thornton and
critic and Serpentine Gallery co-director
Hans Ulrich Obrist. The debate is moderated
by Reuters Insider anchorwoman Deborah
Kan.
Christie’s will also coincide the duration and
location of their biannual auction with Art
HK. The highlight of the spring sale will be
the ‘The Sensational Six’, a selection of six
superlative gems which eventually realized
a combined total of slightly over US$21
million (inclusive of buyers’ premium).
JULY 2010 / 35
HONG KONG
Speaking of which, it is unfortunate
that we have had both Christie’s and
Sotheby’s move their offices and
consolidate their Southeast Asian art
auctions in Hong Kong in 2002 and
2008 respectively. And now, Hong
Kong is the third largest auction
market in the world after New York
and London with the nouveau riche
from China (according to Forbes, there
are 60 billionaires in China alone this
year) making up a sizable portion of the
sales.
Having a healthy art auction market
is a good thing because the aggressive
marketing efforts put in by the auction
houses in turn stimulate general art
awareness and appreciation, something
that is sorely lacking in Singapore.
There has been a long-standing tussle
between Singapore and Hong Kong to
come up tops in trade and finance and
more recently, in arts and culture as well
and we are giving them a run for their
money. Our art scene has dramatically
grown since the government recognized
the ‘importance of culture and the
art’ in 1989 and we are well on our
way to becoming a ‘Renaissance City’
(eventually).
From 2000 - 2005, we have invested
more than US$1 billion1 in arts and
culture and this amount went towards
supporting arts development through
grants for arts program, the running of
museums and museum program, and
the promotion of arts and heritage to
the community.
In terms of infrastructure, there is The
Singapore FreePort, a state-of-the-art
facility dedicated to the secure storage
of artworks and other valuables, and
Christie’s Fine Art Storage Services has
opened a 64,500 square feet facility to
store and manage goods on behalf of
clients. The Esplanade - Theatres on
36 / CONFABULATION
FEATURES
the Bay, a 4000-seat complex of theaters,
studios and concert halls opened in 2002
and a number of museums has since
been built or retrofitted in colonial-
era structures within two decades with
the latest in the pipeline being the
National Art Gallery which will focus
on Southeast Asian art and is slated to
open in three years time.
The National Art Gallery will join a list
of existing museums that is long enough
to necessitate a separate paragraph.
The list follows: Asian Civilisations
Museum, MINT Museum of Toys,
National Museum of Singapore, NUS
Museum, Peranakan Museum, SAM
at 8Q, Singapore Art Museum and
Singapore Philatelic Museum.
Aside from the museums, we also have
spaces such as 72-13, Alliance Française,
MICA Building, Post-Museum, Singapore
Tyler Print Institute, Sculpture Square,
The Arts House and The Substation just
to name a few. These venues have played
host to several significant exhibitions and Damien Hirst The Inescapable Truth 2005 Glass, steel, dove, human skull and formaldehyde solution
events such as the Future of Imagination 222 x 176 x 74 cm
6, a time-based performance art event, © Damien Hirst Photo: Prudence Cuming Associates Ltd. Courtesy White Cube
at Sculpture Square in April this year Brought in by White Cube for Art HK 10 where they dedicated one of two of their booth space to the
and From Abroad… to Singapore, a solo showing of only Hirst’s work.
exhibition by photographer Simon Carr The Inescapable Truth is the first formaldehyde piece to be shown in Hong Kong and China. Intended
as an exhibition piece, it was eventually sold for £1.75 million.
at Alliance Française just last month.
Hirst (born 1965) is famed for his (now rotting) tiger shark in formaldehyde in The Physical Impossibility
of Death in the Mind of Someone Living (1991). In September 2008, he took an unprecedented move for
In the meantime, Hong Kong is struggling a living artist by selling a complete show, Beautiful Inside My Head Forever, at Sotheby’s by auction
to complete the development of the West and by-passing his long-standing galleries, removing the 50% dealer’s cut in the process.
Kowloon Cultural District, an integrated The auction exceeded all predictions, raising £111 million (US$198 million), breaking the record for
arts and culture neighborhood on 40 a one-artist auction as well as Hirst’s own record with £10.3 million for The Golden Calf, an animal
hectares of reclaimed land in the West with 18-carat gold horns and hooves, preserved in formaldehyde. The two-day auction ended just hours
before the collapse of Lehman Brothers, the US stock market crash and global financial crisis.
Kowloon district, an idea mooted 12 years
ago and a project with a US$2.8 billion
cash endowment to boot. There are plans
to include a museum in this project but
otherwise, in the past two decades, there
have not been any significant art museums
being built in Hong Kong.
In terms of festivals, the 33rd edition
of the Singapore Arts Festival recently
drew to a close last month and we have
JULY 2010 / 37
HONG KONG
Yan Pei Ming Portrait Officiel Rouge 2003 Oil on Canvas
49.4 x 9.5 x 16.9 cm
© Yan Pei Ming Courtesy of Bernier/Eliades Gallery
Tracey Emin Everything For Love 2005
Linton Meagher Golden Gun I 125 x 80 cm
© Linton Meagher Courtesy Cat Street Gallery
38 / CONFABULATION
the third edition of the Singapore Biennale
to look forward to next year. However, Hong
Kong also has their annual Arts Festival
and the Shenzhen Biennale of Urbanism\
Architecture taking place next year.
And in terms of education, besides the
Nanyang Academy of Arts and LASALLE,
Singapore has the School of the Arts when,
in 2004, the Singapore Government accepted
the recommendations of a Committee to set
up Singapore’s first independent pre-tertiary
arts school to nurture youths talented.
Sotheby’s Institute of Art also decided on
opening their third campus in Singapore,
after New York and London.
However, despite all that, we still do not
have the art collector base that is needed to
stimulate the art market and patronage to
drive the creation of more art, a reason why
the auction houses decided to move in the
first place. “Since moving to Hong Kong, we
saw a three-fold, four-fold increase in clients
who participated in our sales of Southeast
Asian art. Average values go higher as you
have more bidders,” says Andrew Foster,
Christie’s Asia president. Contradicting that
statement is Hong Kong-based Quek Chin
Yeow, deputy chairman of Sotheby’s Asia
who said that they “aren’t moving to Hong
Kong because there aren’t enough collectors
here, but because it fits with our corporate
strategy.”
Whatever it is, one place or event rather,
that is certainly drawing the collectors is this
year’s Art HK. Despite the downturn, The
Inescapable Truth by Damien Hirst, which
drew an endless stream of visitors, sold for
£1.75 million to a Taiwanese buyer. White
Cube director Neil Wenman comments,
“We’ve been pleased. It’s affirmation
that Hong Kong has become the hub of
contemporary art for Asia, and it’s amazing
that this fair is so sophisticated in its third
year. This year feels different from last year
— the economy’s improved, and the appetite
for Western contemporary art here has
increased rapidly. Right now the Chinese
are buying brand names — they know when
someone is important.” Gagosian Gallery
too, had no qualms bringing in pricey
works from Picasso, Giacometti, Renoir and
Warhol. Artinfo reports that by the fair’s
penultimate day, seven paintings of Beijing-
based artist Liu Ye brought in by New
York gallery Sperone Westwater had been
spoken for, including small ones priced at
US$200,000 apiece and a large meditative
depiction of bamboo stalks for US$650,000,
which went to a collector from mainland
China. Other buyers were Asians from Hong
Kong, Singapore, London, and New York.
There were crowds at the fair at any time
of the day and in the evenings, it is not
uncommon to find an elbow draped with a
Chanel in your rib. Art HK is easily the most
important art fair in Asia and they attained
this success within three short years. There
were 155 galleries from 29 countries this
year. Visitors to the fair include British
sculptor and Turner Prize winner Antony
Gormley, Guggenheim Museum curator
Alexandra Munroe, Japanese contemporary
artist Takashi Murakami and Tokyo
Museum of Contemporary Art curator Yuko
Hasegawa. Numbers were up 65% from last
year, totaling 46 000 for the 4-day period.
The fair has also attracted prestigious
galleries such as Ben Brown (London),
Emmanuel Perrotin (Paris), Lehman Maupin
(New York), Pace Beijing (Beijing), Sperone
Westwater (New York) and more. We had to
speak to Fair Director Magnus Renfrew to
find out how he does it.
CONFABULATION: How does ART HK
differentiate themselves from the other
art fairs in the region?
Magnus Renfrew: ART HK is the only art fair in
Asia to have such a rigorous selection process.
This ensures a truly international caliber
of gallery exhibitors. We also place huge
importance on education and outreach. ART
FEATURES
HK is able to attract an international exhibitor
base and a truly international collector-base.
We have Lorenzo Rudolf, invited by the
Singapore Authorities, to replicate the success
of Art Basel here in Singapore.
What are the problems you foresee he
might face in replicating the winning
formula in Asia?
I don’t think anyone should be trying to
replicate Basel in Asia. Art Fairs need to make
the most of their own natural character and
catchment areas. Art Fairs in Asia should
reflect the fact that they are in Asia.
What excitement have art fairs in Hong
Kong been creating?
There has been considerable excitement at
ART HK 10. The international art community
have decided in just three years that Hong
Kong is the place for a major international art
fair for Asia. Visitor figures are up around 65%
this year showing that there is huge demand
for contemporary art in Hong Kong and it has
been demonstrated that there is a market for
international contemporary art in Asia.
Where is the significance of art fairs
heading?
Art Fairs provide an excellent opportunity to
see art. The very best art fairs can have cultural
as well as commercial significance. We have
been delighted that ART HK has become
such an important platform for networking
amongst curators, collectors, galleries and
artists. It has been very exciting to see new
relationships being created that will lead to
projects and cultural collaborations. //
1. “In the last five years, the Singapore government
has invested some $120 million (US$76 million) per year in
arts and culture.” Speech by Dr Lee Boon Yang at Singapore
Biennale gala reception, 2 September 2006.
JULY 2010 / 39
REVIEWS
Realism in the Art of the
Chinese Diaspora
09.04.10 – 04.07.10 / Singapore Art Museum
Text: Yow Siew Kah
“Realism in Asian Art”, a three-month long
exhibition organized jointly by the National Art
Gallery, Singapore and the National Museum of
Contemporary Art Korea, is an attempt to offer
the museum visitor a vision of the “real” in modern
Asian paintings. The show features a selection
of works from Korea, Japan and Southeast
Asia. However, one could not help but to notice
the absence of art from two geographical areas
often considered to be integral parts of Asia:
South Asia and China. Despite this gap, the
visitor can still have an idea of what realism in
Chinese art means, by looking at works not by
mainland Chinese artists, but by artists of the
Chinese diaspora in Singapore.
Chinese artists feature prominently in Singapore
art history. Some of them spent their formative
years in China, moving to Singapore in the 1930s
and 1940s to continue their art practices. Others
were born in Singapore, and studied at the
Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (NAFA), which
was modeled after the modern art academy
of early 20th-century China. These diasporic
Chinese artists saw themselves as part of a
larger transnational Chinese community, and
despite being Singapore citizens, their art was
shaped to a considerable extent by cultural and
political concerns in China.
In the exhibition, the influence of certain
Chinese ideas of realism is evident in several
of the paintings by Chinese overseas artists. I
will focus on a work by NAFA-educated Koeh
Sia Yong. Koeh’s Persecution (1963), shows
a horrific scene of Japanese soldiers leading
Chinese prisoners to their place of execution.
The composition, which follows the common
rule of thirds, is tight. The right two-thirds of the
painting is occupied by a group of condemned
men. The left third is less busy, showing a lone
soldier with a rifle, behind whom we see more
40 / CONFABULATION
Chinese inmates, rendered in smaller shapes,
digging their own graves. The brushwork is
loose, but the artist has taken great care in giving
the prisoners-of-war individual expressions of
defiance. Using modulated colors, he has also
attempted a faithful reproduction of the effect of
light on the human figures.
The subject matter of Persecution is historical:
although the painting was completed in 1963, it
features an event that took place in Singapore
during the Japanese occupation some 20
years earlier in the 1940s. The practice of
producing art with a “photographic look” that
monumentalizes past occurrences has a history
that can be traced back to early 20th-century
China.
In the 1920s, there was a well-known exchange
of words between two groups of Chinese
intellectuals on the meanings of “reality” in
Chinese art. On one side, we had Xu Beihong
and his followers, who believed that Chinese
painting needed to be more “objective” in
the way it depicted the world. He argued that
modern Chinese artists should learn how to
paint like European academic artists such
as Pierre-Paul Prud’hon and Pierre Puvis de
Chavannes, who were primarily concerned with
using colors, lines and shapes to reproduce
likeness of the subject matter. The other side
of the debate consisted of a group of artists
and writers led by romantic poet Xu Zhimo.
Unlike Xu Beihong, the man of letters was of
the opinion that being “real” did not mean a
strict adherence to mimesis. For him, artists
and writers had different interpretations of what
the term meant, and should be given a large
degree of autonomy to express their individual
experiences.
REVIEWS
After China came under Communist rule in 1949,
Xu Beihong’s idea of “reality” became extremely
influential in shaping a type of transformative art
that emerged not only in China, but also among
the diasporic Chinese artists in Singapore.
This art aimed to alert the viewer to certain
inequalities in society, which needed to be
overcome by class-based social and political
action. In Singapore, artists such as Koeh Sia
Yong were attracted to Xu’s stylistic choice for
its ability to communicate with the common
people. They eschewed abstract art partly
because it was considered too different from
natural human vision: one had to be specially
trained to appreciate such art. Mimetic painting,
however, was thought to appear similar to our
everyday visual experience, and thus more
suited to communicating messages of social
change. For artists like Koeh, “reality” in art had
to do with heightening the public’s awareness
to social inequities, using a blend of visual
elements that could be easily comprehended
by the “untrained” eye.
Realism in art is a complex concept. It is made
even more complicated by how stylistic choices
take on different meanings as they travel from
one culture to another. Koeh’s Persecution is
an example of how a particular combination
of visual elements that originated in European
academic painting was adapted for use by
artists first in China, and then in the Chinese
diaspora – all for the purpose of communicating
their understanding of the “real”. //
JULY 2010 / 41
REVIEWS REVIEWS

Staying in tune, Staying free:

A duet of sorts from two modern painters
08.07.10 – 29.07.10 / Sunjin Galleries
Text: Yvonne Low

Jolly Koh and Choy Weng Yang have come

together, as friends and colleagues, to showcase
their art at Sunjin Galleries (Singapore) from 8 -
29 July 2010. This is a rare showing. Their first
collaboration of such type – in this instance, aptly
titled, A duet exhibition of master works from
two modern painters – had also given them an
opportunity to carouse, argue and paint just like in
the good old days.1

Both Koh and Choy, like several others in the

region Singapore and Malaysia during the late
1950s and early 1960s, had left their hometowns
to pursue further studies in art overseas. Both
had enrolled in the Hornsey College of Art and
graduated in 1962 before attaining a teaching
certificate at the University of London. Those were
invigorating times. They saw firsthand the works of
artists they admired and at times emulated; artists
such as Ivon Hitchens, Francis Bacon and Mark
Rothko could have influenced them initially but so
would many others that they encountered in their
later years. We are quickly reminded by Koh that
“Life’s journey is an evolution, filled with twists
and unexpected turns and one’s artistic journey
is similar where one follows ‘the foul rag-and-bone
shop of the heart.’” 2

Koh had described the four and a half years there

Wild Flowers VIII, 2009 Oil & Acrylic on Canvas 76cm by 167cm.
in London as being “crucial to his development
as artist and thinker”. For him in particular, he
learned to appreciate music and poetry then.
Certainly, London must have presented strikingly
different realities from the Straits where they grew
up in. And all the more, we can imagine the bonds
they must have formed as young aspiring artists
with the mission to bring home all that they had
learned, eagerly absorbing new principles and
judiciously discarding less meaningful ones.

Their return, Koh to Malacca and Choy to

Singapore, marked the beginning of a new chapter
that brought them professional success in their

42 / CONFABULATION JULY 2010 / 43

REVIEWS
individual endeavours. The latter took office
as Curator of Art with Singapore’s National
Museum from 1978 to 1985 while the former
taught art at various Malaysian art Institutes
where he helped implement a National Fine Art
curriculum and set up the country’s first state-
run art school, MARA Institute of Technology.
While the paths they had taken took them along
markedly different journeys, both Koh and Choy
remained vigilantly in tuned with their passion
for art making, developing and evolving their
techniques and approaches prodigiously.
The works we see from both artists are colorful
and lively renditions of the world they perceived,
quietly informing us of the many worlds that
they had experienced. Throughout their artistic
careers, both Koh and Choy had held multiple
roles that enabled them to travel widely; this
had in turn enriched their worldviews and their
personal aesthetic developments. Choy for
example was invited by the Governments of
India and France to take a cultural tour of their
countries in 1979 and 1985 respectively. Such
prestigious opportunities gave him invaluable
insights to the art and artistic development
of other countries. In 1970, Koh on the other
hand was awarded a postgraduate Fulbright
scholarship at Indiana University in the United
States; this subsequently led to teaching
opportunities in Australia where he lived and
worked for the next three decades during
which he returned regularly to Malaysia for
visits. Despite obligations in their chosen fields,
be it curatorship or art education, both artists
remained committed to their practice and to the
making of modern art.
For this exhibition, Koh showed 13 paintings
that were developed over the last few years
as independent pieces. They are powerful
and beautiful renditions that took nature as its
source of inspiration. In Wild Flowers (2009),
he had captured the ethereal beauty of the
flowers all of which are depicted in bright bold
shades of red, green and orange, the colours
44 / CONFABULATION
REVIEWS
The Virgin Started it All:
A Review of Lower Depths
11.06.10 / Theaterstrays
Text: Richard Chua
mixing and blending with each other into a Image: Lin Wei Dong
kaleidoscope; the birds that you could almost
make out from sharp outlines of their beaks as
they fly from one petal to the other seem to be
partaking in the same symphony that comes
alive, resounding in the ears of the artist and all
who share with him such sentiments.
Like Koh, Choy embraces the opportunity to
experiment with colour. In all of Choy’s paintings
on exhibit, we see a unique painting technique
which he had developed and continued to
master over the years – the quick succession of
overlaying brushstrokes, the amalgamation of
contrasting tones and the decisive application
of colours – just to mention a few. Here, his
works took from familiar scenes around him as
a point of entry which he then re-created using
strong, sharp brushstrokes that seem to pulsate
with life – in Boat Quay (2010), his impressions
of the river is vivid with animation, dancing
rhythmically across the canvas.
In all the works that we have seen by Koh and
Choy, they have demonstrated a clear mastery
of skill and technique using different types of
media. What becomes critically apparent is
that the works shared a common conviction –
and that is to persist in the experimentation of
their art; the driving force behind this conviction
finds roots in their shared past, ones which
recalled the exuberance of youthful desires to
free oneself so as to immerse completely into
the spirit of modernity. Today, the same spirit
lives on. //
1. Jolly Koh, A word or two (Artist’s statement), Kuala
Lumpur, May 2010
2. Ibid.
3. Jolly Koh, Artistic imperatives: Selected writings
and paintings, (Petaling Jaya: Maya Press, 2004), p. 16.
JULY 2010 / 45
REVIEWS
Little did I know that it would be a new actor born
in 1988 – Lim Jun Jie, a recent graduand of the
Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts – who opened
the narrative for this review, for he – playing
N in the play – in a brief moment in the Little
India Shophouse space, became the writer’s
guide into Maxim Gorky’s world of wretched
characters in his play Lower Depths, reminding
him of the sacrificial virgin in the dance piece
that is considered a performance pre-requisite
for all good dancers: Rites of Spring. With her
came the rest of the characters: Peppel the
thief (performed by Matthew Heys), Ayesha
the landlady (performed by Sharda Harrison),
The Actor (performed by Oon Shu An) – living
out snippets of their lives while trapped in a
confined space.
To discuss this high problematic play by
Gorky’s, trying to understand the relevance
of the characters in the play in relation to
director Elizabeth De Roza and dramaturge
Shelly Quick’s world of characters might not
be productive. For the form and structure they
deployed in the play made more interesting
sense, than Gorky’s seemingly non-existent
literary intention in the play. The form and
structure has helped the actors, but also has
restricted their intellectual faculties.
In the Singapore theatre scene there is a silent
revolution, away from cliché theatre productions.
Theatrestrays – together with other groups such
as The Group of People and COLLAB – is one
theatre collective led by director Elizabeth
De Roza focusing on a unique method of
training, where Asian theatre practices are
combined with contemporary methods; contact
improvisation and view points are two of them.
Lower Depths is the result of the group’s two-
year training regime, with special emphasis on
using their physical, spacial and kinaesthetic
awareness in responding to the environment
they are working in. In this case – 61, Kerbau
Road shophouse. Lower Depth is reminiscent
of late William Teo’s theatre aesthetic – to quote
46 / CONFABULATION
late Singapore theatre doyen Kuo Pao Kun:
“Total Theatre”.
Grounded-ness – or staying rooted onto the
earth – is key philosophy in Asian theatre. It can
be seen in performing arts forms from great
civilisations: India (for example Bharatanatyam)
and China (in Taiji exercises such as 站桩).
Staying rooted to the ground gives an actor
strength and firmness in body and spirit. As
much as the actors in Lower Depths – Sharda
Harrison, Oon Shu An, Matthew Heys; strong
actors graduated from the Lasalle College of
the Arts performance department – are well-
trained and strong in their physical movements,
their ability to balance their physicality and their
“mental grounded-ness” needed more work
and attention. Mental stability and maturity
require the calm-ness of the mind, allowing
it to wonder imaginatively in the space. The
actor Matthew Heys could be used as a case
in point. There were times when a strong
connection was made with this audience, but
the connection was quickly cut off when he
fell into mechanical execution of the director’s
intentions. The actions in the scene when
he was in bed waiting for things to happen,
watching the TV screen, flipping his wallet
were obviously performed by Matthew Heys,
and not the character. Similarly, when Sharda
Harrison was executing the choreographed
movement, one could see that she was trying
to complete an action, rather than the character
trying to reach a state of arrival in her world.
Elizabeth De Roza’s form and structure was
clearly visible, much to a watching theatre
practitioner’s delight, but not to an ordinary
audience member, whose experience is more
instantaneous and non-pretentious (form and
structure will usually alienate general theatre
audiences, due to differences in understanding
theatre and its vocabularies).
But there were magical moments in the show
where this audience member actually felt for the
characters and forgot about the directorial form
and structure, akin to walking into St. Peter’s
Basilica in Vatican City seeing Michelangelo’s
La Pieta for the first time: the image of Mary
carrying Jesus took over the craft of sculpture
and the form, the marble. One of them – as
mentioned in the opening paragraph – is Lim
Jun Jie, when the character he was playing
was exploring his body in front of the mirror,
coupled with free exhibition of his fragility to the
other characters, not to mention every reaction
he initiated when different characters were
moving past him. Oon Shu An - in her incisive,
precise text delivery and movement as seen
in past performances such as her graduation
performance Three Fat Virgins, directed by Noor
Effendy Ibrahim – has captured the essence of
her character in total purgatory. Both of them
took the path of “not thinking too much” in their
mental strategies, allowing the space to interact
with them, changing images in their heads as
they went along. This could be seen through the
rhythms in their body movements, coupled with
the way their eyes moved with changes in time
and space of the theatre piece. Their bodies
took flight almost instantaneously at times, faster
and more agile, as compared to Matthew Heys
and Sharda Harrison’s more trained bodies,
where intellectual faculties – though much more
mature than Lim Jun Jie and Oon Shu An’s –
slowed them down, reducing the spontaneity
of the performance moments. As the theatre
saying goes, excessive intellectual work spoils
organic elements in any theatre production.
Another strength of the theatre piece is that
Gorky’s “hell on earth” hasn’t been created in a
cliché manner, but in a way that Singaporeans
could relate to: in the very place we call
“home”. The “home” is none other than a
typical room in a Singaporean house, coupled
with a bedroom and living area. The aesthetic
set-up of the space was akin to a painting in
the romantic period, filled with semiotically
significant objects, from the accordion to
the novels, reminiscent of Jean Rhys’ 1931
novel After Leaving Mr. Mackenzie, where
REVIEWS
protagonist Julia Martin learns to overcome
her insecurities in a hard way after leaving
her lover Mr Mackenzie in the loneliness of
her cheap hotel room. The dressing table
belonging to Elizabeth De Roza’s N was
the one, where N’s extreme poverty in love
resided, a place where N accepted insecurity
as part of her existence. The use of the English
and Chinese languages in the Singaporean
context also rooted the theatre piece to the
site in the country’s most original cultural
area Little India, where countless lonely and
insecure souls roamed the streets looking for
survival away from their original cultural sites,
in this utopian city called Singapore.
Perhaps I have read too much into this
piece of theatre, and what I have just said
is just a load of bull. But in a country filled
with signs, where every building, object,
gesture represents class divides and power
differences, it would be great to let our
minds run wild with imaginations, albeit in
better quality, than the inane pursuits of
Singaporeans of the everyday. That’s what
theatre pieces are designed for: to provide
a safe sanctuary to meditate and ponder on
their existence in this world. Theatrestray’s
Lower Depth allowed just that to take place,
only to much annoyance when I was woken
up by the TV sets going blank, showing only
blue screens, reminding me that it was just
another theatrical experience and not the
Singaporean reality. //
JULY 2010 / 47
REVIEWS
Memories + Moods
15.07.10 - 31.07.10 / Fill Your Walls
Text: Emmanuel Ng
Firm believers in using art as a medium
to transcend the limitations of language
in expressing inexplicable human
experiences, Malaysian-born Benison
Chung, and self-taught abstract artist
Tony Chua will be collaborating on a joint
exhibition at Fill Your Walls from the 15 to
31 of July.
Aptly entitled Memories + Moods, Benison
and Tony have sought to concretise their
past and emotions in their paintings for the
exhibition. Both artists seek to render and
represent the world as viewed through the
lenses of the treasure trove that is human
emotion, taking the essence of objects and
places in their experiences, beyond the
limitations of the physical senses.
Benison, who has called Singapore home
for the past 10 years, revisits memories of
the natural world surrounding his childhood
in Ipoh, Malaysia. His paintings employ the
use of vibrant and bright colours to depict
the joy he experienced in places he spent
much time at as a child. In one of his works,
Benison forever enshrines a Yellow Flame
Tree he was fond of climbing, a tree which
regrettably, no longer stands today. Benison
also notably favours bold brush strokes,
effectively characterizing and enlivening
his work, with a sense of free-spiritedness
that he consciously seeks to capture. In
revisiting these fond experiences of his
past, he shares the immense happiness
one can relish from something as simple as
a tree or flower, if one only cared to take a
step back and appreciate it.
In his paintings, Tony has achieved a
breakthrough in both his artistic and
personal struggles. The freedom of abstract
Benison Chung: 1.Bougainvillea 61cm x 76.2cm acrylic on canvas 2.The Yellow Flame Tree 61cm x 76.2cm
acrylic on canvas. Tony Chua 3.Oh! What a Beautiful day! 91.44cm x 91.44cm acrylic, oil pastel and charcoal
4.Monday Blues 91.44cm x 91.44cm acrylic and oil pastel
48 / CONFABULATION
REVIEWS
enables him to access a state of cathartic
revelation through which he depicts the
sights and experiences of the world we
live in. Tony uses his experiences from
travelling around the world and the intensity
of the emotions from his daily struggles,
rendering them into a profound distillation
of meaning and a unique perspective of the
otherwise mundane. Through his careful
control and experimentation with lines,
contrasts and texture, he seeks to move
the basic appreciation and portrayal of our
environment to a level of greater intensity
and depth. This ever so apparent when he
espouses traditional painting with collage
work, palette knife scraping and scrubbing,
to achieve a truly unique visual impact.
Benison and Tony find common ground
in the midst of differences in their artistic
styles, through the mutual philosophy of
letting the energies of their daily lives, be
the primary inspiration and director of their
work. Both artists use their indulgence
in art to aid them in their pursuit of being
true to ones self. Their paintings serve to
help them in their search for balance and
happiness, in the midst of the pressure and
stresses of our modern living.
For both artists, their first collaborative
exhibition at Fill Your Walls will be a platform
for them to share their artistic journeys – their
art depicting the momentary and transient
turns of life that take us far from our point
of origin. Benison and Tony’s showcase
will be a raw and personal exposé, giving
light through different vantage points on
the varying fragments that makeup the
universality of the human experience. //
JULY 2010 / 49
ELIZABETH & SHELLY
Richard: Let’sstart with the opening
image? When you guys were working
on Lower Depths – 61 Kerbau Road on
the script – what was on your mind –
Elizabeth, or Shelly?
Going to
Elizabeth: Training was the starting point,
with a focus on body and physicality. When I
proposed devsing something around Gorky’s
Lower Depths to Shelly, I already knew it
the Lower
was a site-specific piece of work. As training
progressed, coupled with my hope to have all
13 characters in the play, I felt there was a
Depths
need for a dramaturge on the project team.
I invited her without telling her what I had
in mind. I love working with people. That’s
in Gorky’s
empowerment.
Shelly: We discussed how the process would
be. I am happy with my involvement as the
World
dramaturge, not in the old fashioned sense of
the word. It has to be more organic. I went
to all the rehearsals and watched the training
in The-
sessions. I tried to understand the physicality
of the actors. I read the script and did the
research.
atrestray’s
That was a lot of work. Elizabeth, what
was on your mind when you invited
Latest
Shelly on your project? In your opinion,
what was her strength?
E: Shelly is strong in developing structures
Theatre
for the work.
Text - wise?
Piece
S: More composition, I think, than text. I love
images and sounds, hence laying out the
structure of the piece in layers.
An Interview with Director
Elizabeth De Roza and How about you, Shelly? When you came
Dramaturge Shelly Quick on board, what was the thing you felt
Elizabeth could “jam” with you, if you
Text: Richard Chua would allow me to use that word?
Image: Lin Wei Dong
50 / CONFABULATION
THE INTERVIEW PROJECT
S: We have similar approaches to theatre. Both
of us believe in training. We value physicality
and imagery in theatre. Right after our Beckett
production, I was again interested in working
with her. Her group interests me. They have
been training for a while. I came in not just for
the play, but also the process of creation. I am
interested in text and words, with Elizabeth
being better in physical work. We compliment
each other.
Let’s talk about the space. This a site-
specific work.
E: It is a warehouse, slum-like.
Slum?
E: If you had been following my work, you
would know that I question a lot about
space; both the audience’s and performers’.
I want the audience to have a very holistic
experience. When the group started, we knew
that we were not going to stage our works in
conventional spaces, such as proscenium
staging. Audience configuration should
change, not just physically, but also within the
audience in the scene. This notion has always
been on my mind. The question of liminal
spaces, the threshold, what’s most tangible.
We train with the aim of actors transgressing
their form, transforming themselves and
releasing the container of energy within them.
I was also interested in spaces between the
actor, what’s going on in this body – the
vessel – how it is being communicated. I
deploy action images in my work, and through
this we developed a methodology of training.
It is called Soft Fireworks: We develop the
internal container in a human body allowing it
to release energy – something like Taiji. We all
know that theatre is an imagery thing, but my
curiosity lies in the spaces within the imagery.
Most people are mistaken about me, thinking
that I don’t like text. To me, visual images in
theatre are also a language, but we need a
balance between the text and imagery. I hope
JULY 2010 / 51
ELIZABETH & SHELLY
that when the audience members come in,
they will be physically transported to another
place, not at the metaphysical level, but rather
a shared space.
S: We were looking for a space, something
with possibilities, structures unfolding in many
ways.
Are you referring to the physical structure
of space?
S: The physical space in performance. I
was thinking about the text, its connection
with Singapore, wanting to find a space with
resonance, history, meaning.
So the space should have a certain kind
of possibility. It is physical. It has to fit
into the context of the performance?
S: The context - yes - we needed to find
the space quite quickly. I needed to know
the space first before I could visualize the
structure of the work. I was stressed. I needed
to understand the space we’d be working in
before conceptualising how we were going to
place what were devising. The space would
be an organic part of the organizing principles
of the play.
E: Actually I have already got the space
in mind. My aim was to work with the actor
in order to react to the space. They would
generate materials that would allow me to
make decisions on how the space could
react with the actors. This is where we differ.
So when we talk about director intention and
form, pieces of movement and gestures
were created from the result of training, and
because of that translation, they were able to
create them specifically for the production.
S: They also worked from the text.
E: Yes, when we sat down with the actors to
choose the scenes, we deployed a training
52 / CONFABULATION
technique shared with us by some Bulgarian
artists. It is a method of devising theatre,
where they chose the scenes and create
images by writing down words that describe
the scene. It first started with 20 scenes, then
10, 5, 3 to 1 . Then they started working with
the sensory glands – shaping tastes as well
– creating a very visceral response to the
scenes. These 8 elements – as trained in the
elementary workshop – helped us in coming
up with gestures. The actors came up with
physical gestures, reading the lines, crafting
the images – sort of like view-pointing. 3
months later, when Shelly came on board, it
became richer.
All these are soft fireworks? Let’s talk
a little more about it. As you said the
human body is a container. Are you
referring to the pressure within that
grounds the actors?
E: I don’t call it pressure. I would like to call it
container, the wheel within, constantly moving.
It is like a generator drawing energy from the
ground. That’s the impetus to move. Shelly
needed to come in. We had to move on to the
next stage. We create one part, then another
part. One structure to another structure.
Composition structure? It must have a
beginning, middle and end, narrative?
S: I tried to ensure that there would be
openings for the audience to enter. The
structure developed slowly over a period
of training and devising.When I came in –
seven months before the show – I began by
observing what they were doing and looking
for my own entry point.
Were they clear? Did they know what they
were doing?
S: They were still exploring. Certain physical
motifs kept coming out; certain lines,
movements and gestures. I looked at the
play constantly, connecting the dots with the
physicality of the actors – and characters –
and the original play. At first, we were just
watching them. I didn’t want to pre-empt what
they were working on and where they were
working from. They seemed to associate
themselves with particular characters in the
play. Or I should say, they reminded us of
some particular characters in the play.
E. As said, I knew the scenes they were working
from, right from the beginning of the working
process. I did not want to let her know. For I
needed Shelly to give a fresh take on them. I
needed her to see what worked and what didn’t.
I just recorded the notation to the scenes. This
is how I work: To start with what I want with
a clear vision, aesthetics and otherwise, but
it has to be put in the background. Lower
Depths – 61 Kerbau Road was not a director’s
piece. It was a highly collaborative process.
For one, you cant say where the design came
from. What’s interesting about the space is
that interesting things always crop up, to the
actors and audience. As the actors perform
their architectural work in the space, they
associate themselves with the items in the
space. For example, all of them seemed to
have gathered to the bed in the centre of the
room: Peppel’s bed. Well, it was our privilege
to be able to work in the space for a long time.
It allowed us more time to explore the space.
If we had limited time on the set, we might not
have been able to do lots of things. I would
have come in and more actively directed the
piece.
S: What’s also interesting is that traces of
actors’ work done outside the space were
also brought into the space. For example,
when they were rehearsing in Substation,
actor Shu An was very drawn to the window;
in our rehearsals in Lasalle College of the
Arts, actor Jun Jie seemed to use the mirror
a lot. Traces of what they had done in other
rehearsals were carried into the space and
the performance.
THE INTERVIEW PROJECT
It seems the director has already gotten
everything there. I suspect, at the
time, the show was already quite tightly
knitted. To Elizabeth, is your creative
process proven sound? Were your initial
strategies strong? Would you have felt
that the piece had changed from the
initial strategies you have planned for?
E: As I worked with Shelly, for she had been
sounding me off almost on a regular basis,
together with inputs from the actors, my
directorial decisions had to be thrown aside.
It has to be done in order to allow the creative
force to emerge. In our long arguments with
each other, there will be gems. Lines, certain
language, gestures have to be taken out. Any
director in contemporary work is a collaborator
in the group. As much as I know what my
aesthetics are, however the eventual piece
did not embody my aesthetics , but rather
Theatrestray’s.
S: It is because the actors have always been
honest, and they brought integrity to the
work. We could not impose things on them,
we only could observe, shape, edit their
work. Otherwise we would just be putting
masks on them. They would become artificial.
Honest responses to the text had to come
forth. Everything had to fit together. When we
looked at the structure of the piece, we saw
certain characters from the original play. For
example, actor Matthew Heys reminded us of
two characters.
E: Jun Jie reminded us of Nastiah – not the full
character, but the scene he chose, or to be
more specific lines from Nastiah.
S: We assigned them certain characters
based on what we were reading from their
devised work. We had to collapse the cast
down and assign our actors roles. We cut out
the characters keeping in mind that certain
characters, when combined, would create
certain dynamics within the play.
JULY 2010 / 53
ELIZABETH & SHELLY

Did you set up main “pillars” to anchor
the play?
S: We needed power in the play, hence we were
looking at the landlords. Actor Sharda suited
the role of the landlord wife. So 2 characters
were used, and they were collapsed into
one single entity – the landlord’s wife – on
Sharda. Similarly, for Jun Jie, her character N
has qualities of another character, other than
Nastiah. As for actor Shu An, she naturally
became The Actor.
Has the process been difficult?
E: Well, it was quite easy, for the actors and
characters were quite clear.
E and S: What do you think?
As an audience member entering the space,
there was a sense of fear, but there was also a
sense of voyeurism. To quote my good friend
Noor Effendy Ibrahim, the artistic director
of The Substation: there is always a sense of
pleasure in voyeurism, especially in watching
violence unfold in front of us. To me, morality
and ethics come later. I take as a known
fact that self-respecting artists care about
humanity, although most works in Singapore
do not take that as a primary motive, I
personally believe that Lower Depths—61
kerbau Road does have a deep sense of
concern for humanity, through the lives of
these characters in Gorky’s Lower Depths. //

S: I had to read the play several times. I looked – to be continued –

at the themes. They are key to the play. The
key lines and dialogues reflect key themes
in the play; the characters, the people, the
lines.

E: We had to re-configure the lines, not trying

to fit them in. That’s why – as I reiterate this
again and again – that this is not a director’s
piece. The actors gave us lots of food, and
that made the process easy. 6 months into our
training, with the script ready in our hands,
we would be able to do a lot of things. But I
constantly knew that I didn’t want to follow the
script, not because I didn’t like it, but I wanted
it to be contemporary. Shelly came with the
glue. She gelled things down and helped us
put everything together. As said, I knew the
prologue and snippets of the characters,
but crossing-over was difficult. The thread
is the key, allowing actors and audiences
to look at different narratives from different
perspectives.

What’s the thread? Was it the story –

the narrative – humanity, journeys of
the characters? Or, was there different
threads in different trajectories?

54 / CONFABULATION JULY 2010 / 55

 Pop and Contemporary
Fine Art

Art Trove
51 Waterloo Street #02-01/2/3
Singapore 187969

T: +65 6336 0915 F: +65 6336 9975

E: enquiry@art-trove.com
W: www.art-trove.com

Opening hours:
Wednesday - Sunday,
11am - 6:30pm.

Art Trove

Mercedes-Benz Center
DIRECTORIES
SINGAPORE ART GUIDE
SAM at 8Q 8 Queen Street
33 Auction www.33auction.com
72-13/TheatreWorks 72-13 Mohamed Sultan Road
2902 Gallery 11 Mount Sophia Block B #B2-09
Alliance Française de Singapour 1 Sarkies Road
AndrewShire Gallery 5 Swiss Cottage Estate
Antiquaro 19 Tanglin Road #02-42
Asian Civilisations Museum www.acm.org.sg
Aratong Galleries 26 Mount Pleasant Drive
Art Forum 82 Cairnhill Road
Art Galleries at NAFA 80 Bencoolen Street
Art Glass Solutions 30 Kuo Chuan Avenue
Art Retreat (Wu Guanzhong Gallery) 10 Ubi Crescent #01-45/47
Art Seasons 7 Kaki Bukit Road 1 #02-12
Art Tree Gallery 333A Orchard Road #04-11
Art Trove 51 Waterloo Street #02-01/2/3
Art-2 Gallery 140 Hill Street #01-03
artcommune 133 New Bridge Road #02-77
Artesan 793 Bukit Timah Road #02-01
Artfolio 328 North Bridge Road #02-25
ArtGoGo 402 Orchard Road #02-08
ARTSingapore www.artsingapore.net
ArtSpace at Royal Plaza Hotel 25 Scotts Road
Arty Art Gallery 686A Woodlands Drive 73 #15-52
Aryaseni 10A Bukit Pasoh
Barrosa Studio 4 Woking Road #01-02
Black Earth Culture Arts Center 352B Joo Chiat Road
Bhaskar’s Art Academy 19/21 Kerbau Road
Borobudur www.borobudurauction.com
Cape of Good Hope 140 Hill Street #01-06
Changi Museum 1000 Upper Changi Road North
Collectors Contemporary 5 Jalan Kilang Barat #01-03
COMBINART 27 Woodlands Industrial Park E1 #01-08
d’Art 5 Westbourne Road #02-03
D’Peak Art Space Kaki Bukit Road 1 #01-07
DLR Gallery 22 Marshall Road
Dynasties Antique & Art Gallery 18 Boon Lay Way Singapore Art Society 10 Kampong Eunos
DaTang Fine Arts 177 River Valley Road #02-09A
Esplanade 1 Esplanade Drive
Eagle’s Eye 39 Stamford Road #01-01
Echo Art Galerie 19 Tanglin Road #02-59
Emily Hill 11 Upper Wilkie Road
fill your walls 21 Tanjong Pagar #04-02
Fortune Cookie Projects www.fortunecookieprojects.com
FOST 65 Kim Yam Road
Gajah Gallery 140 Hill Street #01-08
Galerie Belvedere 168 Robinson Road #36-01
Galerie Joaquin 1 Cuscaden Road #01-03
Galerie Waterton 39 Keppel Road #02-01
Gallery NaWei 6 Raffles Boulevard Level 4
Geeleinan Art Gallery & Studio 1 Whitchurch Road #02-03
Give Art 65 Spottiswoode Park Road
Gnani Arts Space 190 Middle Road #02-30/31
HaKaren 19 Tanglin Road #02-43
Heng Artland 290 Orchard Road #04-08
Indigo Blue Art 33 Neil Road
Impress Galleries 1 Kim Seng Promenade
INSTINC 12 Eu Tong Sen Street
iPRECIATION 1 Fullerton Square #01-08
Jalan Bahar Clay Studios 97L Lorong Tawas
JENDELA (Visual Arts Space) 1 Esplanade Drive Level 2
Jeremy Ramsey Fine Art 16 Bukit Pasoh Road
Kelly Reedy - Studio Arts 27 Woking Road #01-01
Ketna Patel 35 Jalan Puteh Jerneh
Kwan Hua 19 Tanglin Road #02-09
La Libreria 50 Kent Ridge Crescent Level 3
Larasati www.larasati.com
LASALLE 1 McNally Street
62 / CONFABULATION
Li Fine Art 19 Tanglin Road #03-32
Little Red Shop www.littleredshop.org
Linda Gallery 15 Dempsey Road #01-08
Lukisan 110 Faber Drive
M Gallery 1 Kaki Bukit Road 1 #03-19
MAD Museum of Art & Design 333A Orchard Road #03-01
Marisa Keller 28 Woking Road #03-05
Masterpiece www.masterpiece-auction.com
Mercedes-Benz Center 301 Alexandra Road
Metakaos 1 Kaki Bukit Road 1 #03-22
MINT Museum of Toys 26 Seah Street
Momentous Arts 20 Lor Telok #02-01
Mulan Gallery 19 Tanglin Road #02-33
Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts 38/80/151 Bencoolen Street
National Museum of Singapore 93 Stamford Road
Ngee Ann Cultural Centre 97 Tank Road
Night & Day 139 A/C Selegie Road
NTU (School of Art, Design & Media) 81 Nanyang Drive
NUS Museum 50 Kent Ridge Crescent
Ode to Art 252 North Bridge Road #01-36E/F
Opera Gallery 2 Orchard Turn #03-05
Osage 11B Mount Sophia #01-12
Peter’s Frames 19 Tanglin Road #02-02
Peranakan Museum 39 Armenian Street
Post Museum 107/109 Rowell Road
Pop and Contemporary Fine Art 390 Orchard Road #03-12
Public Art Space (Pan Pacific) 7 Raffles Boulevard
ReDot 39 Keppel Road #02-06
Red Dot Design Museum 28 Maxwell Road
Red Sea 9 Dempsey Road #01-10
Renate Kant Studio 8 Shrewsbury Road
RSAF Museum 400 Airport Road
S.bin Art Plus 140 Hill Street #01-10/11/12
School of the Arts 90 Goodman Road
Sculpture Square 155 Middle Road
Sealey Brandt Photography Studio 1 Westbourne Road #01-02
Sinema 11B Mount Sophia #B1-12
Singapore Art Museum 71 Bras Basah Road
Singapore Coins and Notes Museum 2 Trengganu Street Level 3
Singapore Contemporary Young Artists www.contemporaryart.sg
Singapore Navy Museum 32 Admiralty Road West
Singapore Philatelic Museum 23B Coleman Street
Soobin Art International 10 Ubi Crescent #04-90/92/93/95
Sotheby’s Institute of Art 82 Telok Ayer Street
Sun Craft 19 Tanglin Road #02-08
Sunjin Galleries 43 Jalan Merah Saga #03-62
TAKSU 43 Jalan Merah Saga #01-72
Telok Kurau Studios 91 Telok Kurau Lorong J
Tembusu 140 Hill Street #01-05
The Art Gallery 1 Nanyang Walk
The Arts House 1 Old Parliament Lane
The Gallery (SMU) 90 Stamford Road
The Gallery of Gnani Arts One Cuscaden Road #01-05
The Luxe Art Museum 6 Handy Road #02-01
The Peach Tree 129 Tanglin Road
The Picturehouse 2 Handy Road
The Republic Cultural Centre 9 Woodlands Avenue 9
The Substation 45 Armenian Street
Third Floor – Hermès 541 Orchard Road
Utterly Art 229A South Bridge Road 2nd Level
Valentine Willie Fine Art 39 Keppel Road #02-04
Victoria Theatre & Concert Hall 11 Empress Place
VITRIA 17 Chee Hoon Avenue
Xuanhua 70 Bussorah Street
Y2ARTS 140 Hill Street #01-02
Yang Gallery 19 Tanglin Road #02-41
Yisulang 6 Handy Road #01-01
Your MOTHER gallery 91A Hindoo Road
LIFESTYLE
Lai Chan 1 Beach Road #02-10
STYLE: NORDIC 39 Ann Siang Road
Papa Palheta 140 Bukit Timah Road
FOR TOURISTS
Armenian Church 60 Hill Street
Battle Box 51 Canning Rise
Botanic Gardens 1 Cluny Road +65 6471 7361
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CHIJMES 30 Victoria Street +6336 1818
Chinatown Heritage Centre 48 Pagoda Street +65 6221 9556
Chinese Garden 1 Chinese Garden +65 6261 3632
Crocodilarium 730 East Coast Parkway +65 447 3722
Escape Theme Park 1 Pasir Ris Close +65 6581 9112
Fort Canning Park 51 Canning Rise +65 6332 1302
Goethe-Institut Singapur 163 Penang Road #05-01
Emergency
- Ambulance / Fire 995
- Non-emergency Ambulance 1777
- Police 999
- Traffic Police 1800 547 1818
Haw Par Villa (Tiger Balm Gardens) 262 Pasir Panjang Road +65 6872 2780
Hospitals
- Alaxandra 378 Alexandra Road +65 6472 2000
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- Parkway East 321 Joo Chiat Place +65 6344 7588
- Raffles Hospital 585 North Bridge Road +65 6311 1111
- Singapore General Outram Road +65 6222 3322
- Tan Tock Seng 11 Jalan Tan Tock Seng +65 6256 6011
Information
- Directory Assistance (Local) 100
- Directory Assistance (International) 104
- Flight Information 1800 542 4422
- IDD 001
- Immigration Enquiries +65 6391 6100
- Postal Enquiries 1605
- Time 1711
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Kranji War Memorial 9 Woodlands Road
Lim Bo Seng Memorial Esplanade Park
Malay Heritage Centre 85 Sultan Gate +65 6391 0450
Malay Village 39 Geylang Serai +65 6748 4700
Mandai Orchid Garden 200 Mandai Lake Road +65 6269 1036
Marina Barrage 8 Marina Gardens Drive +65 6514 5959
Marina Bay Sands 10 Bayfront Avenue +65 6688 8868
Masjid Sultan Kampong Glam
Merlion Park Fullerton
Mount Faber +65 6270 8855
National Archives of Singapore 1 Canning Rise +65 6332 7909
National Library Singapore 100 Victoria Street +65 6332 3255
National Parks Board 1800 471 7300
Night Safari 80 Mandai Lake Road +65 6269 3411
Parliament House 1 Parliament Place +65 6336 8811
Raffles’ Landing Site North bank of the Singapore River
Reflections at Bukit Chandra 31K Pepys Road +65 6375 2510
Resorts World Sentosa 39 Artillery Avenue +65 6577 8888
St. Andrew’s Cathedral 11 Saint Andrew’s Road
Science Centre Singapore / Omni Theatre 15 Science Centre Road +65
6425 2500
Sentosa 1800 736 8672
SIA Hop-on +65 9457 2896
Singapore Botanic Gardens 1 Cluny Road +65 6471 7361
DIRECTORIES
Singapore Cable Car +65 6270 8855
Singapore City Gallery 45 Maxwell Road +65 6321 8321
Singapore Discovery Centre 510 Upper Jurong Road +65 6792 6188
Singapore Expo 1 Expo Drive +65 6403 2160
Singapore Flyer 30 Raffles Avenue +65 6734 8829
Singapore Turf Club 1 Turf Club Avenue +65 6879 1000
Singapore Zoo 80 Mandai Lake Road +65 6269 3411
SKI360° 1206A East Coast Parkway +65 6442 7318
Snow City 21 Jurong Town Hall Road +65 6560 2306
Sri Mariamman Temple 244 South Bridge Road
Sun Yat Sen Nanyang Memorial Hall 12 Tai Gin Road +65 6256 7377
Supreme Court 1 Supreme Court Lane +65 6336 0644
Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve 301 Neo Tiew Crescent +65 6794 1401
Taxis
- Comfort/YellowTop +65 6552 1111
- CityCab +65 6552 2222
- Premier +65 732 2516
- Smart +65 6485 7777
- Tibs +65 6555 8888
- Transcab +65 6555 3333
Thian Hock Keng Temple 158 Telok Ayer Street
Touristline 1800 736 2000
Underwater World 80 Siloso Road +65 6275 0030
Universal Studios 8 Sentosa Gateway +65 6577 8888
War Memorial Park Bras Basah Road & Beach Road intersection
MALAYSIA ART GUIDE
+Wondermilk Art Gallery www.theclickproject.com
12 (Art Space Gallery) www.12as12.com
A2 Gallery www.a2artgallery.com
Annexe Gallery www.annexegallery.com
Art Case Galleries www.artcase.com.my
Art Expo Malaysia www.artexpomalaysia.com
Art House Gallery www.arthousegallery.biz
Art Loft www.artloftgallery.net
Art Salon @ Seni www.theartgallerypg.com
Artseni Gallery www.artseni.com
CHAI (Instant Cafe House of Arts and Idea) www.instantcafetheatre.com
Edi.A Art Gallery www.ediarts.blogspot.com
Galeri Chandan www.galerichandan.com
GALERI PETRONAS www.galeripetronas.com.my
Galeri Shah Alam www.galerisa.com
galleriiizu @ Shangri-La Hotel www.galleriiizu.com
House of Matahati (HOM) www.matahati.com.my
Islamic Arts Museum www.iamm.org.my
Lookiss www.lookissgallery.com
Lost Generation Space www.lostgenerationspace.blogspot.com
Malaysia National Art Gallery www.artgallery.gov.my
MERAH: Mansion for Experimentation, Research, Arts and Horticulture
www.facebook.com/pages/MERAH/148050170487
Metro Fine Art www.metro3gallery.com
NN Gallery www.nngallery.com.my
Pace Gallery www.pacegallery.net
Pelita Hati www.pelitahati.com.my
Pinkguy Gallery www.pinkguymalaysia.com
Richard Koh Fine Art www.rkfineart.com
Rimbun Dahan www.rimbundahan.org
RougeArt www.rogueart.asia
Shalini Ganendra Fine Art www.shaliniganendra.com
The Gallery @ Star Hill www.starhillgallery.com
Valentine Willie Fine Art www.vwfa.net
Wei-Ling Gallery www.weiling-gallery.com
Y 2 S Art Space www.y2sart.com.my
ZINC www.zinc.com.my
JULY 2010 / 63
LISTINGS LISTINGS

Galleries
Art Trove Lukisan Art Gallery Xuanhua Art Gallery The Luxe Art Museum
51 Waterloo Street #02-01 to 03 110 Faber Drive 70 Bussorah Street 6 Handy Road
Singapore 187969 Singapore 129421 Singapore 199483 #02-01 The Luxe
+65 6336 0915 +65 6774 1609 +65 6392 2556 Singapore 229234
www.art-trove.com www.lukisan-art.com www.xuanhuaart.com +65 6338 2234
www.thelam.sg

Cape of Good Hope Mercedes-Benz Center Yisulang Art Gallery

140 Hill Street 301 Alexandra Road 6 Handy Road
#01-06 MICA Building Singapore 159968 #01-01 The Luxe Art Services
Singapore 179369 +65 6866 1888 Singapore 229234
+65 6733 3822 www.mercedes-benz.com.sg +65 63376810
www.capeofgoodhopeartgallery.com www.yisulang.com Ray’s Transport & Services
Artwork Installation &
Delivery Services
All other Art related services
+65 91522511
DaTang Fine Arts Singapore Mulan Gallery artswithray@gmail.com
177 River Valley Road, 19 Tanglin Road
Liang Court , #02-09A #02-33 Tanglin Shopping Centre Dealers / Consultants
Singapore 179030 Singapore 247909
+65 9846 2098 / +65 9721 3718 +65 6738 0810 Y2ARTS
www.9911art.com www.mulangallery.com.sg 140 Hill Street
#01-02 MICA Building Framers
Singapore 179369
+65 6336 8683 Impress Galleries
Dynasties Antique & Art Gallery Pop and Contemporary Fine Art www.y2arts.com 429 East Coast Road
18 Boon Lay Way 390 Orchard Road Singapore 429016
#01-136 TradeHub 21 #03-12 Palais Renaissance +65 64404533
Singapore 609966 Singapore 238871 www.impressgalleries.com
+65 67383268 +65 6735 0959
www.9911art.com www.popandcontemporaryart.com
Auctioneers
Black Earth Auction Peter’s Frames
fill your walls S.Bin Art Plus 367 Joo Chiat Road 19 Tanglin Road #02-02
21 Tanjong Pagar Road 140 Hill Street MICA Building Singapore 427559 Tanglin Shopping Centre
#04-02 #01-10/11/12 +65 6346 3767 Singapore 247909
Singapore 088444 Singapore 179369 www.blackearth.com.sg +65 6737 9110
+65 6222 1667 +65 6883 2001 petersframes@hotmail.com
www.fill-your-walls.com www.sbinartplus.com

Galerie Joaquin Sunjin Galleries

1 Cuscaden Road 43 Jalan Merah Saga
#01-03 The Regent Hotel #03-62 Work Loft @ Chip Bee
Venues / Associations / Groups Antiquities and Furniture
Singapore 249715 Singapore 278115 Gnani Arts Space
+65 6725 3113 +65 6738 2317 190 Middle Road
Antiquaro
www.galeriejoaquin.com www.sunjingalleries.com.sg 19 Tanglin Road, #02-42 Tanglin
#02-30/31, Fortune Centre Shopping Centre
Singapore 188979. Singapore 247909
+65 6339 1230 +65 6737 4822
www.gnaniarts.com www.antiquaro.com
Impress Galleries The Gallery of Gnani Arts
1 Kim Seng Promenade 1 Cuscaden Road
#02-07/08 Great World City #01-05 The Regent
Singapore 237994 Singapore 249715
+65 67362966 +65 6725 3112
www.impressgalleries.com www.gnaniarts.com

64 / CONFABULATION JULY 2010 / 65

LISTINGS

Conservation and Restoration

Benaka Art Conservation
Private Ltd
64 Taman Warna
Singapore 276386
+65 9105 4377 / +65 6100 2707
www.benakaartconservation.com

Artists’ Studios
Chieu Sheuy Fook Studio
Studio 102
91 Lorong J
Telok Kurau Road
Singapore 425985
+65 96690589
chieusf@gmail.com

Ketna Patel
35 Jalan Puteh Jerneh
Chip Bee Gardens, Holland Village
Singapore 278057
+65 6479 3736
www.ketnapatel.com

Koeh Sia Yong 许锡勇

10 Kampong Eunos
Singapore 417774
+65 9671 2940
www.yessy.com/koehsiayong
www.koehsiayong.artfederations.com

66 / CONFABULATION JULY 2010 / 67

 Featured on

is a registered charity with

IPC Status that may provide up to
250% tax-deductibles for
donations received.

We do Community Art.
Art to the Heart: Heartlanders into Artlanders.
Art for everyone and anyone.
68 / CONFABULATION JULY 2010 / 69
To learn more about our Public Murals or donate please email: info@socialcreatives.com
POSTSCRIPT

Surviving
Hong Kong

The official name of Hong

Kong is ‘Hong Kong Special
Administrative Region’.

If you are not careful when ordering, C

you might find 1000-year-old eggs

sliced up in your noodles. Buried in a M

clay, sand and salt mixture, the yolk in

Y
the duck or quail eggs turns a dark
green and the shell, a brown – black. CM

MY

CY

CMY

K
Keep walking and
walk briskly. You
WILL get trampled on Stand on the right side
if you slow down. of the escalator and yes,
everyone does it.

Shopping Mall Delay No Mall in

Causeway Bay boasts of Pacman-
themed toilets where a light and siren
goes off after you flush. You have
been warned.

70 / CONFABULATION JULY 2010 / 71

72 / CONFABULATION