REview by Lim Kok Boon
AT this boons cafehttp://boonscafe.wordpress.com/2007/06/24/extra-ordinary-the-9th-emerging-artists-show/
Exhibition postcards sometimes reveal a lot about an exhibition: it
is the first encounter a potential audience has with the
show.
The exhibition didnt bode too well, when you read the title twice
- there seems to be two opposing exhibits, rolled into one
exhibition. The postcard further read: Presenting works by -
Erica Lai, Genevieve Chua and Jennifer Koh, et al, Curated by Jason
Wee. Again, the words et al was an omen that perhaps the curator
didnt care, or it is a deliberate curatorial attempt to distant,
minuscule the context, artists or artworks.
The first space, had a minimalistic setting, exploring the
potential for proximity with the photographs by placing them on
shelves of varying height - presumably to create the illusion that
the works are well spaced out, giving room to breath. But the
problem is there is just too much breathing space that it starts to
feel intimidating, and you start to wonder if the prints could have
been a little bigger. They were neither personal objects -
treated with a reverence they are due - nor photographs - surely
theres a better manner, quantity, deliberation to exhibit these?
The display just didnt do the works justice.
To do the works justice would be to ignore the shelf and look at
individual prints. The works could be considered contemplative
gestures, with the camera in the traditions of snapshot
photography, interpreting everyday life and its significant
moments of interaction with objects. They are perhaps highly
codified and personal, except for its simple aesthetics gestures -
vignetting, play with composition, colour, out-of-focus, soft
focus. One can almost imagine the discipline of the artists,
carrying that camera or at least being near a camera when they took
these photographs. Despite the seemingly codified curatorial text,
that weighed more than the consideration for display of these
extra-lised the photographs, the curator seem to emphasize that
the three set of photographs in this exhibition are abundantly
ordinary, yet dealing with issues that the photographers may not
have necessarily agreed with. A curatorial text should bring the
audience closer to the work, not distance it. the gallery hand-out
seemed more like a distant foreword of the exhibition. This is in
that sense, a daring curatorial practice, treading on the
boundaries of an avant-garde exhibition or an incoherent one.
The next room perhaps sealed the fate of how I would rate the
exhibition. The walls were lined in an undulating horizon, with
pages cut/torn (not de-constructed) from recent art college
graduate catalogues, which included established names such as Susie
Wong, Rizman Putra just to name two. They seem to be selected pages
from all the catalogues, but the sad state of the red tape aside,
they are an interesting reminder of the number of visual art
graduates we have per year, in page form. The room seems to suggest
the potential for art, and art making by these 85 names and pages.
Is this perhaps the intention of the curator, a critique of the
faux pas branding of artists as emerging when some of them are
already practitioners? Or its a suggestion of the fate that
perhaps only 10-20% of yearly art graduates (my conjecture) will
make it somehow, to become practising artists? Is it a critique of
the market forces of the art world, or a bad pun on red tape?
Much remains to ponder about this less than ordinary show. This is
not an exhibition easy to read, and seems to be an indication of
the rocky start of returning budding curator/Singapore Biennale
artist, Jason Wee.
2.0 of 10 stars for extra ordinary.
1.0 of 10 stars for & The 9th Emerging Artists Show
>What do you think? [/url]