Celebrate Legacies And New Frontiers At The 10th Edition Of Singapore Art Week 2022

Look out as Singapore’s signature visual arts season - Singapore Art Week (SAW) - returns in its milestone tenth edition.

Photo Credit: National Arts Council

Date: 14 to 23 Jan 2022

Presenting over 130 programmes across physical and digital realms, “Art Takes Over” the island into retail, industrial spaces, hawker centres, and beyond. Art aficionados, collectors and families of all ages can expect 35 new Singapore-based projects and offerings from close to 600 artists, creatives, curators and partners from countries, such as Singapore, Bangkok, China, Australia, Turkey, the United Kingdom and United States of America.

This year’s programmes celebrate the artistic legacies and diversity in Singapore’s vibrant arts scene. The public can marvel at the rich artistic practices of Singapore’s modern and contemporary artists, revel in the wonderful possibilities of art x technology, be empowered by art-inspired connections and dialogue, or expand their horizons with new perspectives presented from the inside out. Whether it’s art across three time zones, mukbang at Singapore’s iconic Lau Pa Sat, or an industrial artventure at Tanjong Pagar Distripark, there is something for everyone.

Here's a closer look at the programme highlights:

Celebrating Artistic Legacies

As the tenth milestone edition, this year’s programme line-up spotlights the rich artistic practices of Singapore’s modern and contemporary artists, looking at the cultural legacy of the past decade and beyond.

Bridging Through The Age: An Intergenerational Collaborative Exhibition

by: Angkatan Pelukis Aneka Daya (APAD)

Photo Credit: Bridging Through The Age: An Intergenerational Collaborative Exhibition

Venue: Maya Gallery, 57 Genting Lane, #05-00, Singapore 349564
Date: 13 Jan to 3 Feb 2022
Time: 11am to 6pm, Closed on Sun & Mon
Fee: Free admission

Angkatan Pelukis Aneka Daya or APAD, translates to Association of Artists of Various Resources, and is a non-profit art association of Malay artists in Singapore that aims to promote an appreciation of visual arts, develop the artistic talents of its members and contribute to the Singapore arts scene.

To mark the 60th Anniversary of the association, APAD presents an exhibition that represents the crux of the association through an intergenerational collaborative effort that bridges the creative minds of its member artists.

Addressing and overcoming marginalized issues of age-segregation, Bridging Through the Age: An Intergenerational Collaborative Exhibition showcases the conclusive works of nine pairs of intergenerational artists: with each body of work, a manifestation of a fantastical journey of unlearning and relearning differences, of experience and expertise shared, and the bridging of the ‘generation gap’ through the spirit of art making.

Island Time-Based Art

by: Hoi Kit (Kai) Lam

Photo Credit: Island Time-Based Art

Venue: Aliwal Arts Centre
Date: 14 to 23 Jan 2022
Time: TBC
Fee: TBC

Island Time-Based Art (ITBA) is an artist initiative, a multi-disciplinary platform for the live presentation and discussion of ephemeral art forms, which facilitates artistic practices in; performance art, sound art, live improvisations, installation art, video art, photography, art archiving and academic research.

Beyond The White Cube

Art steps away from the conventional white cube and takes over the island across arts and cultural institutions, public spaces, neighbourhoods and even hawker centres. With decentralised locations and multiple touchpoints that allow for the safe enjoyment of Singapore’s visual arts, anytime, anywhere, the arts are even more accessible for a wider audience.

Hawker! Hawker!

by: Yen Phang and Oh Yam Chew

Photo Credit: Practice Theory

Venue: Lau Pa Sat
Date: 7 to 28 Jan 2022
Time: 11am to 9pm
Fee: Free admission

Set in the historic location of Lau Pa Sat, Hawker! Hawker! brings together Singapore and New York-based artists, curators, and writers to shine a timely spotlight on Singapore’s evolving hawker culture. The 13 collaborators in Hawker! Hawker! bring rich approaches and diverse intercultural perspectives from across international borders and disciplines (including participatory installation, sculpture, photography, performance, digital art, and writing) to delve into the then and now of Singapore’s multifaceted hawker culture, as well as to imagine the future of this cherished “Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.” (UNESCO, December 2020).

From traversing thematic dimensions of our personal and collective stories to exploring dialogues surrounding community and the environment, Hawker! Hawker! will harness the transformative power of the arts to engage audiences in considering a more sensitive awareness of the issues around food in public spaces, as well as our rituals, histories, and relations with the players within.

DIASPORA

by: Artblovk

Photo Credit: DIASPORA

Venue: Basheer Graphic Books, Bras Basah Complex
Date: 14 to 23 Jan 2022
Time: Mon to Sat, 10am to 8pm | Sun, 11am to 7pm
Fee: Free admission

DIASPORA is a visual art exhibition helmed by Artblovk pop-up gallery and co-curated by Lim Cheng Tju. DIASPORA builds upon a narrative of the evolving conditions of visual artists in a time of turbulence and uncertainty, privacy issues and how they reach out to a changing audience. It is an invasion and a blurring of public and private space through art interventions.

Featuring illustrators and visual artists such as A Good citizen (Dan Wong), Comet girl (Cherie Sim), and other young local talents, DIASPORA investigates the movement of visual art from natural to digital territories and into uncertain spaces.

Held at Bras Basah Complex in the Basheer Graphics Bookstore, a cornerstone for educators in the arts and creative industry, DIASPORA takes over a part of the space and invites audiences to participate in discovering art and the nature of visual art.

Art x Technology

Exploring new ways of artmaking and appreciation, this year’s programme line-up features works that have innovative applications of arts and technology.

Happy House

by: MAMA MAGNET & The Council

Photo Credit: Happy House

Venue: Tanjong Pagar Distripark, #05-04
Date: 14 to 23 Jan 2022
Time: 10am to 7pm, Daily
Fee: Free admission

Featuring multimedia experiential installations that contemplate hacks for happiness, Happy House invites visitors to consider what happiness really means.

Presented by Mama Magnet and The Council, the exhibition combines creative output from emerging artists, as well as the community to investigate and understand happiness in our current climate. Is there happiness in seeking happiness today?

The site-specific experience directs attention towards each participant’s agency, to redefine personal relationships with feelings of happiness. Happy House is an ongoing study into the state of happiness, driven by Singapore's complicated relationship with it.

Happy House's debut at SAW 2022 takes a hybrid form — a warehouse takeover at TPD and digitally on happyhouse.sg. It is co-curated by Eileen Chan and Tulika Ahuja, and includes an audio-visual participative installation created by Singapore-born, internationally acclaimed artists Reza Hasni and Kin Leonn.

(W)AVE 2.0

by: Alina Ling

Photo Credit: Throbbingpixels

Venue: TBC
Date: 14 to 22 Jan 2022
Time: TBC
Fee: Free admission

(W)AVE 2.0 presents a multi-sensory art installation that uses wearable technology combined with light and sound as tools for navigation, presenting audiences with an opportunity to explore a constructed installation space with modified senses.

The objective of the programme is to highlight the development of interaction design and technologies with a focus on the experiential nature of space and place.

International Programmes

With its blockbuster line-up of international programmes, SAW 2022 continues to take the lead in bridging connections and conversations across Singapore with our global partners and artists.

HORIZONS

by: so-far, AORA and Metis Art

Photo Credit: HORIZONS

Date: 22 to 23 Jan 2022
Time: 9am to 9am 
Fee: Free admission

Stimulating the senses and connecting with the present, HORIZONS is an opportunity to travel the world in 24 hours and engage with limitless forward-thinking visions. Tuning in with global experts across art, business, technology, creative ventures, wellness and more, the journey is interactive, collaborative and nurturing. Dial in to a studio visit, embark on a culinary exchange, accompany an artist on a walking tour of their city, tune into a meditation - HORIZONS is a collection of meaningful and memorable physical meet digital moments from around the globe.

This 24-hour virtual programme — commissioned by the National Arts Council in partnership with so-far, AORA and Metis Art — allows for a long-haul trip from Singapore to Guatemala, Istanbul to Dhaka, Seoul to London, and beyond. HORIZONS widens our sense of latitude — emotional, social and geographical — and furthers horizontal, collaborative, sensual and interdisciplinary crossovers.

SAW Digital

Festival-goers can enjoy a myriad of digital offerings that supplement SAW’s physical line-up, allowing audiences from around the world to discover and experience Southeast Asian art.

In Suspension

by: Hothouse

Photo Credit: In Suspension

Date: 21 to 23 Jan 2022
Time: 2pm to 11pm, Daily
Fee: Free admission

In Suspension is a three-day broadcast that engages the boundaries of art and life.

On each day, invited panellists are given the opportunity to ruminate and share their life experiences, catalysing conversations about art and life that are often kept private. Bernice Lee, Marc Gloede and Daisuke Takeya are invited as moderators to offer three intersecting frames through their personal research and networks in art, academia and collectivity.

Looking at art practices through individuals and forms of collectivities that negotiate, pivot or even cease their artistic praxis due to ideological, environmental or personal reasons, this symposium seeks to reinvigorate the art ecology while envisioning new forms of sustenance.

In Suspension is convened by Hothouse as an expansion of their Mindspace programme.

Other Highlights

Arts lovers will see their favourite precincts and neighbourhoods come alive with new launches, intriguing perspectives, expanded programmes, and the return of signature SAW events and crowd favourites.

Creative Intersections: In The Year of The Tiger

by: Chan + Hori Contemporary and Funan

Photo Credit: Creative Intersections: In The Year of The Tiger

Venue: Funan
Date: 14 Jan to 13 Feb 2022
Time: 10am to 10pm
Fee: Free admission

Curated by Chan + Hori Contemporary in partnership with Funan, Creative Intersections: In the Year of the Tiger presents newfound collaborations between artists and brands across unique products and services. Creative Intersections will be rooted in a specially commissioned fictional tiger narrative, crafted by a local writer.

The mall-wide activation delves into Singapore’s unique connection with tigers - the creatures inscribed in our history and whispered about in mythology and folklore. With each brand pairing, aspects of conservation, science, habitats, and pop culture will inform the artists’ visions.

Bringing artists and brands together to engage both art lovers and adventurous  shoppers, visitors will be able to effortlessly access art and observe its unique relationship with products and services. This month-long, art-meets-retail programme emphasises Funan’s role as a creative intersection in the Civic District, bringing art into the areas of fashion, food, lifestyle and more.

Time Present Time Past

by: DECK

Photo Credit: of Lai Yu Tong

Venue: DECK, 120A Prinsep Street
Date: 11 to 28 Jan 2022
Time: 12pm to 7pm
Fee: Free admission

On Prinsep Street, a time portal manifests as a traditional Chinese street opera stage to present new works by five artists who explore this traditional performing art and its relevance in our contemporary society. Rendering context to this installation are 150 photographs and video footage from Ken Cheong’s personal documentary on Chinese street opera made between 1989 to 2007.

Mary Bernadette Lee investigates the meanings behind opera ritual plays and symbolic mythical creatures on the stage backdrop and opera costumes. Inspired by traditional stage painting, Wu Yanrong attempts to deconstruct the stage in collaboration with Mr. Liang, the last opera stage painter in Singapore. Drawing inspiration from the hand gestures performed in Chinese opera, Lai Yu Tong uses images of hands from the internet to tell stories about the modern world. Loudly occupying the space at different time intervals, Yenting Hsu’s sound performance based on street opera in Singapore and Taiwan prompts collective memories and encourages visitors to trace the diaspora roots of Chinese opera and its presence within the public space.

For more information and full SAW 2022 event line-up, you may visit this link.