ICAS GUIDE

October - November 2011

ICAS, LASALLE College of the Arts, Singapore

OCTOBER

Ian Woo: A Review, 1995 - 2011

23 September - 30 October 2011, ICA Gallery 1
The exhibition presents a review of Ian Woos paintings and works on paper. Produced over the past seventeen years since his graduation, it offers insight into the development of his practice as an artist. This is the first review of a major artist and painter in Singapore and in Asia today. Throughout his practice, we see the exploration of space and colour that seems to defy gravity and challenge the borders of the canvas itself by turning inward or a movement of expansion that seems to beckon the space beyond the frame. We can come back time and again to discover a hitherto unseen dimension emerging out of the multi-layered surfaces. In such terms, we are witness to an unremitting intensity of engagement that demands of a viewer an equal intensity of response over time. Curated by Charles Merewether

Ian Woo, Jazz Rock Special (2008)

Tropical Lab 5: Masak masak

24 September - 7 October 2011, ICA Gallery 2
Tropical Lab is an annual International Art Workshop where studentartists from different cultural backgrounds and countries gather to research, experiment and collaborate in order to create contemporary art. The Lab explores the blurring polarities of the urban and nonurban by drawing upon the geo-political differences of the countries. It serves as a means to stimulate innovation and experimentation. This year featured 16 student artists from 8 countries who explored the theme of masak-masak a Malay term for make-believe cooking and childs play which is comparable to the process of art-making. From the preparation to the consumption of food as a basic need for survival or for pleasure, masak-masak foregrounds the desire to experiment in preparation and presentation. Organised by the Faculty of Fine Arts at LASALLE, this is the 5th edition of an intensive and highly engaging ten-day event. TROPICAL LAB 5 will include a series of workshops, talks and seminars culminating in an exhibition curated by Charles Merewether, Director of the ICAS. Presented by the Faculty of Fine Arts, LASALLE College of the Arts. Coordinated by Milenko Prvacki, Senior Fellow at LASALLE College of the Arts.

Charlotte Dore, Close your eyes and dream with me (2011)

Foris
5 - 16 October 2011, Earl Lu Gallery
Based on prepared mechanical systems and using simple structures and commonplace materials like wood and nylon, Foris opens up both imaginary and allegorical dimensions of the outdoors in sound, sculpture and space. This exhibition invites the audience to participate in an acoustic experience. This collaboration between Fine Arts and Media Arts staff and students explores the relationships between the artificial and the organic. 10 Participating artists: Riduan Mohamad, Jessica Gabrielli, Low Han Yuan, Andreas Schlegel, Lim Hong Zeng, Chen Kerui, Jeremy Sharma, Foo Hui Ping Lucinda, Ngiam Shi Xiong, Wong Sze Wei Fredrik Coordinated by Jeremy Sharma of the Faculty of Fine Arts and Andreas Schlegal of the Faculty of Media Arts, LASALLE College of the Arts.
Prilla Tania, Ruang Dalam Waktu #1 (Space Within Time #1) (2008)

Catching the High Tide: Video Art from Indonesia.

29 September - 16 October 2011, Brother Joseph McNally Gallery

The exhibition Catching the High Tide features a selection of groundbreaking positions of video art from Indonesia and covers ten years of artistic production in the field. The use of video for artistic purposes in Indonesia dates back to the early nineties when the pioneers Krisna Murti, Teguh Ostentrik and Heri Dono began to experiment with video in order to expand the scope of their artistic creations. After the downfall of Suhartos regime (also known as Era Reformasi) in 1998 and thanks to the freedom of opinion, a more personal and playful work succeeded the socially oriented focus of the previous years. This second and younger generation of video makers grew up with both television and internet, music videos and the use of mobile devices. 12 Participating artists: Wimo Ambala Bayang, Reza Asung Afisina, Muhammad Akbar, Nala Atmowiloto, Ariani Darmawan, Yusuf Ismail, Krisna Murti, Anggun Priambodo, Ari Satria Darma, Prilla Tania, Wok The Rock and Tintin Wulia Guest Curated by Katerina Valdivia Bruch

Looking In, Looking At

7 - 12 October 2011, Praxis Space
Looking In, Looking At offers a first and intimate glimpse of the final major project development by the BA (Hons) Fashion Communication students of LASALLE College of the Arts. The exhibition revolves around the exploration and experimentation by students as they envision and realise their concepts with the use of mediums such as photography, videography and illustration. By focusing on social, political or cultural agendas, their projects explore and investigate various innovative ways of communicating ideas and concepts through the language of fashion. The Fashion Communication students are an irrepressible group of young-at-hearts who live and breathe fashion everyday. Dipping into their wealth of fashion knowledge gained from having consumed various media such as film, music, magazines, these students manifest their ideas and concepts through exciting new forms of communication. Presented by the Faculty of Design (Fashion communication), LASALLE College of the Arts.

Ava Tan: Woman, Body, Fetish

29 September - 19 October 2011, TriSpace
A graduate of LASALLE College of the Arts, Ava Tan engages in the subject of women and the fetishisation of their bodies. She moulds the body of a woman into a ridiculous homonculus of an over-sexed femininity that is ubiquitous across the landscape of contemporary society. Reduced to her archetypal erogenous centres, the female body remains pliant and yielding as the paint that forms her skin, frozen in a moment of imagined perfection. The artist, too, is entirely aware of her own commodification and the demand that seems almost outside of her control.

With her first Trispace exhibit, Ava continues her explorations of pornography and those who trade in sex as a reflection upon her own experience of modern life. She sees it as a constant struggle between the will to maintain ones identity and expectations borne out of survival and instinct.

Installation details of Woman, Body, Fetish, a series of 54 paintings (2011)

Found Object
7 - 16 October 2011, Project Space
The ICAS presents a sampling of projects developed by the students of the Faculty of Fine Arts. The subject was the objet trouv or Found Object, a term used to denote the idea of ordinary object/s transformed into an art object. This concept was developed by the French artist Marcel Duchamp in the first two decades of the 20th century and has had an extraordinary influence on the course of Twentieth Century art. More than that, Duchamp along with others of his generation, opened up the field of art to a direct engagement with everyday life. Even now the concept of the found object resonates in contemporary art and continues to produce a wonderful amalgam of the ordinary everyday objects and debris or, the off-cast of everyday life and materials. We present here a few examples to capture the creative and experimental spirit of this project. Presented by the Institute of Contemporary Arts Singapore
Nanaki Singh, Found Object, Flashlights and Explosions (2011)
Detail of work showing slowly disintegrating powder coated walls image courtesy of the artist (2011)

Ya-ad
28 October - 17 November 2010, Trispace
After finishing his MA at LASALLE College of the Arts, Rajinder moved to London. His focus is on making works that are fragile; which are on the verge of something perched on a precipice. Rajinders new installations are vulnerable to the slightest alteration of space around them. The smallest movement can cause the works to alter. They sit quietly, subtly in anticipation. The material, the positioning and the viewers senses are vital. Whether the viewer chooses to or not, if they are even aware, the viewers movements can and do disrupt the work. Rajinders background in philosophy and mathematics is the driving force behind his art practice. He is interested in the possibilities of knowledge outside the domain of traditional paradigms. Rajinders research today is based on sculptural interventions situated somewhere between the architectural space and the materials he uses to shape it. Opening reception: 27 October 2011, 6.30pm

The Green Room

15 October - 9 November 2011, ICA Gallery 2
A space for performers to relax and rehearse before or after going on stage. One stage, one electric guitar, one microphone and one performeryou. The promise of fame and adoration awaits. All is, however, not, what it seems. Initially the visual spectacle of the stage will call you like a moth to a candle, but it will soon become apparent that something is amiss. This stage only operates if you have a few friends or fellow visitors who are willing to assist your rise to the top. The Green Room is an interactive space, meant for hanging out and trying it out, whatever it may be. Dont forget to eat a healthy breakfastthe crowd wants energy! Vincent Twardzik Ching Opening reception: 14 October 2011, 6.30pm
The Green Room, an interactive, renewable energy artspace (2011)

Sonorous Duration Festival

20 October 5 November 2011, Earl Lu Gallery, Project Space, Praxis Space and Brother Joseph McNally Gallery
Sonorous Duration is a festival of cross art-form collaboration and experimental music from Singapore, Southeast Asia and beyond. Featuring performances and installation projects, the festival seeks to articulate a common ground shared by contemporary sonic and visual art practice. Drawing on the parallel of rendering (something) visible and rendering a duration sonorous, the festival proposes a withdrawal from the obvious distinctions between representation/technique and effect in both areas. It presents works that are based on contrary technical backgrounds which, simultaneously occupy shared expressive outcomes or affects. During the exhibition, talks by visiting artists will be held. Co-presented by the ICAS and the School of Contemporary Music, LASALLE College of the Arts. See overleaf for programme line-up.

Sonorous Duration: Programme Line-up

Earl Lu Gallery, Project Space, Praxis Space and Brother Joseph McNally Gallery
Installation Programme Thursday, 20 October Sunday, 23 October Project Space: Andreas Schlegel and Design students (LASALLE alumni) Praxis Space: Sachiko M, Yan Jun Thursday, 27 October Sunday, 30 October Project Space: Andreas Schlegel and Design students (LASALLE alumni) Praxis Space: Goh Lee Kwang, Robbie Avenaim / Timothy ODwyer Thursday 20 October Saturday, 5 November Earl Lu Gallery: Silica Variations by Brian OReilly and Vladimir Todorovic Silica Variations is a multichannel audio-visual installation that explores synthetic aesthetics with the use of generative visuals and analogue soundscapes. Even though these audio-visual forms look like they are not coming from this world; and even though they are generated by various technologies including computer code and analogue synthesisers, these abstract instances have loose connections to the life on earth. They represent variations on something that we cannot easily see with naked eye, something that comes from silica, a raw element and principal constituent of sand and some rocks Brother Joseph McNally Gallery: Interstices by Black Zenith (Brian OReilly and Darren Moore) Black Zenith presents Interstices - a series of three installation works which explore the space between sound and visuals. Drawing as much influence from noise, music and the electroacoustic music tradition as they do from the foundations of abstract video art, their works explore dense sonic textures that generate live visuals through the transformation of audio signals into images and video feedback. Performance Programme For details of nightly weekend performances, please check http:// www.lasalle.edu.sg/index.php/news-and-events/events/2011/838 Public Programme: Artist Talk Saturday, 22 October Brother Joseph McNally Gallery 2pm: Rully Shabara & Wukir Suryadi 3.30pm: Yan Jun Saturday, 29 October Brother Joseph McNally Gallery 2pm: Goh Lee Kwang 3.30pm: Robbie Avenaim

NOVEMBER
Atta Kim, Museum Project #001 (1995)

Expressions of Humanity
17 November 7 December, Brother Joseph McNally Gallery

Expressions of Humanity explores the concept of the human form as the artists endeavour to search issues of personal identity, governmental control and spiritual dialogue. This second exhibition of the LASALLE permanent collection continues to explore the diversity of the collection, here narrated through pivotal moments of figurative art. Highlighted in this exhibition are two photography artists, Atta Kim and Manit Sriwanichpoom, whose work explores radically different aspects of modern society through the use of the human figure. Atta Kim, from South Korea, photographs the subjects of his Museum Project series at their most vulnerable naked yet confined to a glass box and placed in archetypal settings - providing a mechanism to chronicle the search for human self-discovery and the meaning of existence. The series Horror in Pink, by the Thai artist Manit Sriwanichpoom, offers a far more sinister perspective of modern society and human nature. His works recollect disturbing, yet pivotal past events re-cast through a contemporary lens by the presence of the enigmatically garish figure of the Pink Man.

Deploying Passages
24 November 14 December, Earl Lu Gallery
A collaboration amongst 6 third-year students, this project takes individual situations that stimulate each of their practices, transforming them into a physical language. By using the physical presence of individuals as force, the works explore the possibilities of a collective language, deploying passages in both video and live performance for individuality to both emerge and submerge. Reacting to the possibilities of this collaboration, they respond to each others practice and to locate themselves in multiple situations. The video medium serves as a means to create non-sensical experiences through the methods of assemblage while, the live performances respond to the video and demonstrate to the audience the collaboration process. Opening reception and performance: 23 November 2011, 6.30pm

Art Incubator 3
10 November - 7 December 2011, Praxis Space
The Art Incubator is a communitybased programme based in Singapore that emphasises on interaction amongst artists, writers and curators. This is the third of an annual exhibition featuring those artists who are awarded a residency to create new work. It features artists Fran Borgia (Objectifs, Singapore), Genevieve Chua (Centre for Creative Communication, Shizuoka), George Wong (Grey Projects, Singapore) and the art collective Vertical Submarine (Gertrude Contemporary Art Spaces, Melbourne). Opening reception: 9 November 2011, 6.30pm
Vertical Submarine, Incendiary Texts (2011)

Cover Stories
12 November - 7 December, Project Space
Cover Stories presents the imaginative sketches and illustrations by a group of young student artists from LASALLEs Animation Art (Faculty of Media Arts) and Design Communication (Faculty of Design) programmes. These were produced under the guidance of faculty lecturers and in collaboration with Moleskine Asia. Each student was provided Moleskine notebooks and asked to design a series of potential illustrations and covers. The resulting designs were then submitted to the online worldwide gallery of Moleskine, centered in Milan, Italy. Some of the artists will have their designs incorporated into the companys Cover Art Collection for mass circulation. Of the participating LASALLE students, 11 come from the Animation Art programme and 18 were in their final year of the Design Communication programme. The ensuing outcome of the collaboration displayed within this exhibition presents an eclectic mix of 29 individually illustrated notebooks, encompassing mediums of painting, sketching and drawing.

Inkimage
17 November - 7 December 2011, ICA Galleries 1 & 2
This exhibition showcases the continuous development and new explorations in contemporary Chinese-ink painting today. Chineseink paintings are based on the artists perceptual understanding of visual impressions, and conceptual manipulation of the medium. The exhibition shows both recent work of Lim Choon Jin and fifteen of his student artists of ink painting. The selection of work by Lim in ICA 2 begins from 2004 up until 2011 while, ICA 1 includes a selection of work produced by his student artists over the past year. The significance of the exhibition is to demonstrate that Chinese inkpainting continues to not only to flourish but renew itself through a tacit dialogue with other forms of contemporary artistic expression. ICA Gallery 1: Alexis Noakes, Andrea ORyan, Chua Chai Chen Christina, Huang Yifan, Koh Pei Chen, Lena Ah-Tune, Lim Siewli, Norreen Bte Rahmat, Peh Jiahao, See Shu Wen, Sng Geok Teng Shaynvin, Song Yiying Jenny, Tan Jack Ying, Yang Xiuting, Yapp Poi Chee ICA Gallery 2: Lim Choon Jin Curated by Charles Merewether Opening reception: 16 November 2011, 6.30pm
Lim Choon Jin, Beyond the Brush-stroke (2011)

Institute of Contemporary Arts Singapore

The Institute of Contemporary Arts Singapore (ICAS) is the curatorial division of LASALLE College of the Arts. It runs seven galleries, comprising some 1,500 square meters of gallery spaces dedicated to exploring new and experimental art across the Fine Arts, Design, Media Practices and Performing Arts. Its programme focuses on showcasing international, Asian, Southeast Asian and local contemporary arts. Its outreach programme includes regular publications, seminars and symposiums, visiting artists talks and events of contemporary performance, installation, design and music/sound practices. The ICAS is committed to providing a cultural and educational tool for students and the Singaporean audience to advance their knowledge and appreciation of the contemporary local, regional and international arts, that is not otherwise available in Singapore today. The staff include Dr. Charles Merewether (Director), Jody Neal (Curator), Kimberly Shen (Senior Executive), Isrudy Shaik (Senior Exhibitions Officer), Redzuan Zemmy (Exhibitions Officer), Jessica Anne Rahardjo (Curatorial Assistant) and Jasmine Yoo JungWon (Curatorial Intern). Gallery Opening Hours: Daily from 10am 6pm (except Mondays and public holidays)

Rochor Canal Road Sim Lim Square Prinsep Street Short Street Institute of Contemporary Arts Singapore Bencoolen Street

Middle Road Sunshine Plaza

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Institute of Contemporary Arts Singapore LASALLE College of the Arts 1 McNally Street, B1-03 Singapore 187940 Tel: +65 6496 5070 Email: icas@lasalle.edu.sg Website: http://www.lasalle.edu.sg/index.php/galleries Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/ICASgalleries

Cover image: Ian Woo, The Antidote Number Two (2010)

Burlington Square

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