20 Projects

Maybank Foundation Artist Fellowship Programme

I developed the fellowship from HAO, the regional artist and curator development platform I convened from 2008 to 2012, giving it institutional backing and a dedicated budget. Twelve early-career artists from five Southeast Asian countries worked with 20 mentors in Bali, with emphasis on practice, cultural position, economic conditions and institutional power.

Second Movement

Using works produced across two decades of STPI residencies, I approached printmaking as an expanded field shaped by collaboration between artists, master printers and paper specialists. Installation, sculpture, sound and singular objects showed how technical exchange and material risk could alter an established artistic practice.

Selected artists Heman Chong, Heri Dono, Ryan Gander, Han Sai Por, Shirazeh Houshiary, Teppei Kaneuji, Rirkrit Tiravanija, Haegue Yang

Atypical Singapore

Commissioned by the Singapore Tourism Board, Atypical Singapore brought seven artists from different practices into a travelling exhibition combining physical works with augmented reality. Presented across Moscow, Yangon, New Delhi, Bangkok and Singapore, it used performance, sculpture, animation and participatory works to offer multiple artistic readings of Singapore.

Langkawi 1976–1980: Latiff Mohidin

The first exhibition devoted to Latiff Mohidin’s Langkawi series in more than 40 years, bringing rare sculptural paintings together with archival material and a publication. Working closely with Latiff and his studio, I situated the works within his meditative period and the artistic and cultural debates of Malaysia in the 1970s.

Perfect Stranger: Dawn Ng

I worked with Dawn Ng to develop a year-long private exchange with child psychologist Zehavit Efrati into 48 large-scale works on paper. Language, colour, scale and sequence carried the material from correspondence into exhibition, with visitors moving barefoot through the installation so that reading became spatial and bodily.

D/SINI

A nine-month programme of public commissions, exhibitions, performances, workshops and open calls across Gillman Barracks. I developed the curatorial framework from di sini, meaning “over here”, connecting the precinct to its military, ecological, religious and port histories while testing how a commercial art platform might assume a sustained civic and cultural role.

LOCK ROUTE

My first major independent project after Palais de Tokyo, selected through a closed curatorial call by the National Arts Council. Sixteen outdoor works by 15 artists from nine countries used movement through Gillman Barracks as the exhibition’s organising structure, linking contemporary commissions to the site’s former military use.

In Praise of Shadows: i Light Marina Bay

Co-curated with architect Randy Chan, the 2016 edition of i Light Marina Bay drew its theme from Jun’ichirō Tanizaki and questioned the assumption that brighter is better. Twenty-five light installations considered light, shadow, beauty and sustainability across the Marina Bay waterfront.

Artists teamLab, Loop.pH, Snøhetta, Jun Ong, Brandon Tay

The Light of the Light

Co-curated with Hugo Vitrani, The Light of the Light was Florian and Michael Quistrebert’s first large-scale monographic exhibition, occupying 1,000 square metres at Palais de Tokyo. New paintings, videos and light works used material, movement and optical effects to make the instability of perception central to the exhibition.

Secret Archipelago / Archipel Secret

More than 40 works by artists from Southeast Asia, many newly commissioned, occupied the basement of Palais de Tokyo. I used the architecture, live actions and unscheduled performances to connect distinct practices without resolving them into a single regional identity, giving the exhibition its archipelagic structure.

Selected artists Ahmad Abu Bakar, Reza Afisina, Aung Ko, Zai Kuning, Kamin Lertchaiprasert, Tran Luong, Zaki Razak, Tisna Sanjaya, Svay Sareth, Lee Wen, Anida Yoeu Ali, Speak Cryptic

Tianzhuo Chen

Tianzhuo Chen’s first major institutional exhibition in Europe came at a point when his visibility beyond China was still limited. Working closely with him, I brought installation, moving image, choreography, music and performance into a single environment, giving the practice institutional scale while its international position was still forming.

Sous la lune / Beneath the Moon

A Palais de Tokyo extra-mural exhibition bringing 11 artists from Southeast Asia and France together through existing works and new productions. I developed the framework around art as a form of knowledge, using scientific method, observation and speculative research to examine perception, history, matter and human behaviour.

Artists Aung Ko, Hicham Berrada, Ade Darmawan, Marguerite Humeau, Dusadee Huntrakul, Emmanuelle Lainé, Lou Lim, Oanh Phi Phi, Vivien Roubaud, Yee I-Lann, Raphaël Zarka

Open SEA

Co-curated with Thierry Raspail across more than 2,000 square metres at macLYON, Open SEA brought together 31 artists from 11 Southeast Asian countries. The exhibition approached the region through maritime movement, trade and migration while retaining the historical and intellectual specificity of each artistic position.

Selected artists Lina Adam, Anida Yoeu Ali, Heri Dono, Yee I-Lann, Charles Lim, Nge Lay, Navin Rawanchaikul, Pinaree Sanpitak, Vertical Submarine, Entang Wiharso, Ming Wong, Muhammad “Ucup” Yusuf

Welcome to the Jungle

Co-curated with Eriko Kimura, the exhibition presented 28 works by 25 artists from eight Southeast Asian countries, drawn from the Singapore Art Museum collection, at Yokohama Museum of Art and later in Kumamoto. It introduced contemporary practice in the region since 1999 through the developing national collection.

Selected artists Zai Kuning, Lee Wen, Charles Lim, Yee I-Lann, Ahmad Fuad Osman, Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook, Navin Rawanchaikul, Tran Luong, Jun Nguyen-Hatsushiba, Nge Lay, Vandy Rattana, Poklong Anading

Singapore Biennale: If the World Changed

As a member of the lead curatorial team, I contributed to the biennale’s overall framework and held responsibility for 35 artists and collectives. My remit ranged across Malaysia, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam, from research and studio visits through selection, commissioning, production and installation.

Artists I worked with Ahmad Abu Bakar, Sharon Chin, Khvay Samnang, Lee Wen, Nge Lay, Nguyễn Trinh Thi, Po Po, Svay Sareth, teamLab, Ken and Julia Yonetani, Zulkifli Yusoff

Nouvelles Vagues: File Not Found

Developed with David Chew and Naomi Wang as The Black Ninja Faction, File Not Found was one of 21 projects selected from more than 500 proposals for Palais de Tokyo’s Nouvelles Vagues. Architecture, a museum collection work and a staged performance were brought together to examine institutional authority, absence and the framing of experience.

Collaborators Randy Chan, Zaki Razak, Joel Yuen

Lee Wen: Lucid Dreams in the Reverie of the Real

A major survey spanning more than four decades of Lee Wen’s practice. I structured the exhibition through live performance, collaboration and intergenerational exchange rather than chronology alone, while leading its curatorial delivery and the acquisition of key works for the Singapore Art Museum collection.

The Singapore Show: Future Proof

Co-curated with David Chew, Future Proof brought 26 younger Singapore artists and almost 40 works across SAM at 8Q and public sites around the museum. Drawing from the collection, new commissions and artists’ own holdings, it took stock of practices moving between galleries, streets, performance, design and subculture.

Artists Sookoon Ang, Genevieve Chua, Melissa Tan, Dawn Ng, Grace Tan, Speak Cryptic

Negotiating Home, History and Nation: Two Decades of Contemporary Art in Southeast Asia, 1991–2011

Within a three-person curatorial team with Tan Boon Hui and Iola Lenzi, I coordinated this survey of more than 70 works by 54 artists and led the acquisition of many of its key works. Those acquisitions strengthened the Singapore Art Museum collection and extended the project beyond the duration of the exhibition.

Selected artists Nindityo Adipurnomo, Arahmaiani, Alfredo and Isabel Aquilizan, Montien Boonma, Dadang Christanto, Heri Dono, FX Harsono, Yee I-Lann, Lee Wen, Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook, Pinaree Sanpitak, Tang Da Wu, Redza Piyadasa