The President’s Young Talents (PYT) is Singapore’s premier and only mentoring, commissioning, and award programme, which recognises promising artists aged 35 and below, whose practices chart new dimensions in Singapore contemporary art. Previous PYT artists include Boo Junfeng, Heman Chong, Charles Lim, Donna Ong, Tan Pin Pin and Vertical Submarine, to name a few, all of whom have gone on to develop outstanding work in and beyond Singapore.
Inaugurated by the Singapore Art Museum in 2001 to promote critically engaged practices through discourse and experimentation, the 2018 edition of the President’s Young Talents seeks to afford greater artistic and curatorial growth for the artists involved and curator-mentors respectively. Invited curator-mentors, ranging from past participating artists to independent curators, will form a curatorial committee to shortlist artists for this edition. An independent jury – which will include members from SAM – will be convened to award the President’s Young Talents prize.
Charcoal, chalk, gold leaf, steel plates (set of 10) and steel sheets (sets of 6)
The scars that write us adopts the keloid scar as its reference and offers a narrative on wounds and scars, and those that bear them.
Entering into a dark, quietened space, a visitor first perceives rather than sees the work directly, evoking a sense of anticipation, curiosity and uncertainty for what lies ahead, obscured.
The work unfolds in three types of spatial experiences: near, far and wide. The sense of proximity – or distance – alludes to the complex relationships between the audience, the person who bears the scar and the stories behind each wound. The installation also endeavours to provide a space to consider the unregistered contemplations for those who live with the ordeal of scars – the physical, and otherwise.
The scars that write us is dedicated to wounds, scars, markings, traumas of all kinds. It is an installation that speaks of the most personal of experiences that every person holds.
Shaped by the concept of the contingency plan, sft crsh ctrl by Weixin Quek Chong invites visitors to engage with a range of objects and series of material encounters that seem to evade traditional inquiry. The work unfolds, unfurls, suspends and drapes in ways that challenge the visitor’s understanding and expectation of materials. Its components evoke a sense of precarity and the notion of non-occurrence. It is an installation of ‘surfaces’ as explored through material form and transformation. sft crsh ctrl guides the visitor towards sensations underlined by uncertainty, persuading a disengagement from the instinct to rationalise.
Debbie DingSoil Works
2018
Mixed media installation, consisting of five parts
According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, soil is a “biologically active, phorus medium, that has developed in the uppermost layer of Earth’s crust”. Yet what is soil? In Soil Works, Debbie Ding unearths and isolates units of the composite excavated from concealed areas under expressways, overhead bridges, road triangles, carparks – public spaces which are usually overlooked as one travels through Singapore – and proposes, in her words,“a series of artistic investigations into soil in Singapore and its visibility and invisibility”.
The installation is presented in five parts: “Red Landscape”, “Home without a Shelter”, “Topsoil”, “Sand Weight” and “Soil Column”. Each ‘station’ beckons the visitor to observe soil in a range of alternative investigative approaches.
Through Soil Works, Ding considers the strategies of researching the physicality of soil in Singapore by highlighting both its perceptible and less perceivable qualities. In doing so, she destabilises the concept of the scientific laboratory by staging her own multi-station ‘testing’ gallery.
Hilmi JohandiAn Exposition
2018
Oil on canvas, three-channel video, digital print on vinyl, sticker molunted on wood, synthetic polymer paint, plywood and mild steel
An Exposition tells the story of the defunct ‘World(s)’ – New World, Great World and Gay World (formerly Happy World) – through fragments of material and memory. The schemas of these bygone-era amusement parks are used to introduce audiences to an assemblage of fragmentary elements. In doing so, Hilmi attempts to establish a speculative dialogue that traces the systems of production, consumption, pleasures and entertainment of these ‘World(s)’.
Visitors are welcomed to traverse a space marked out by components that together appear to resemble a deconstructed theatrical set. These range from paintings, wooden sculptures and silent animated videos to wall and wood mounted vinyl prints.
The installation is immersive whilst reminding the viewer of the void that exists within the theatricality of set designs and amusement parks. In a presentation of decontextualised signs and symbols, An Exposition engages with the local history and collective memory of Singapore.
Zarina MuhammadPragmatic Prayers for the Kala at the Threshold
2018
Bamboo, sandalwood powder, saffron, nine grains and spices, rose water, incense, glass jars and paper
Pragmatic Prayers for the Kala at the Threshold by Zarina Muhammad takes the penunggu or ‘guardian at the gate’ as its departure point and charts out a space that traverses beyond the physical.
The installation is laid out as three distinct divisions that serve as the hills, land and sea of Bukit Larangan, Bras Basah, as well as Kallang and the coastal areas of Singapore, respectively. Within each designation are a selection of material objects and modes of presentation that reflect and respond to the history, culture and memories of the zones they are housed in. These objects act as coordinates in which to map the histories and paths that the spirits of these realms may have resided and roamed in.
Historic and mythic, Pragmatic Prayers for the Kala at the Threshold aims to, in the artist’s words, “disrupt and irrupt time and move beyond the single narrative of place”.
