Mrs Charles, Principal of St Andrew Secondary School, delivering her opening address 

Guest of Honour, Ms Ittogi, Chair, Singapore Art Museum delivering her opening speech.

   
Guests looking at works by Su Xiaoting

Berny presenting a gift to the Guest of Honor– Ms Jane Ittogi, Chair of Singapore Art Museum.

Benedict Tay presenting his works– ‘Night Lights’ to the guests.

  
 
Mr Tan Boon Hui, Director of Singapore Art Museum chatting with Artist, Teng Yenlin.

Su Xiao Ting explaining her works to the guests.

Group photo of all the Artists and Curators

Toon on Yen Lin’s “ladder”. What is amazing about this work is it’s ability to draw the viewer into exploring, walking around the work and discovering the various perspectives that can be seen from different angles…

On the second last day of the exhibition, we will have yet another group of artists leading you around the exhibition, explaining the works and answering your questions. Admission is free, but registration is still required, so do email nhb_sam_programmes@nhb.gov.sg to book your space!

Angela discusses Rachel Zheng's piece

Pondering Teresa's artwork

Rachel Ho discusses her own video

“If one thing can be said about my work, it is this: Linear Perspective has definitely not been a solo effort! My thanks and gratitude goes out to Mr Chia, for the long hours, advice, equipment, and help unquantifiable; my brother KY, for coming down on countless occasions; art class – Ben, Yong Feng, Berny, Jon, for dropping by and lending more than a hand despite being busy with NS and work; Ellen and Ai Lin for all your time and help; my juniors Justin, Rebecca, Yutian, Tzeqing (and Abigail!) for getting your hands dirty scrubbing at walls, and everyone else who has helped in one way or another. This work is yours as much as it is mine.

On another note, this exhibition made it clear to me what site-specific really meant. I’d always thought that it meant that a work had to be constructed again, from scratch, when transported to a different location. True, but I found it’s not just that! Recreating my work at 8Q was hardly a matter of transplanting the original, from the RJ gallery, into this new space. Instead, a lot of time was spent creating this work around the space I was presented with. I guess the word ‘recreating’ sums it up neatly – the idea of creating anew. For I found that as much as I had taken the work at RJ as a blueprint for the one at 8Q, what I ended up with was a rather different piece! In other words, site-specific = this work being specific to this particular site. And when the site changes, the work changes too.

And the change in space has made all the difference. Some things I had created in RJ I couldn’t bring here, but some ideas that I simply couldn’t have used back there were now made possible. Take the door, for example. The partitions allowed for the door to straddle two surfaces (and the gap between them), to create an image that the audience could actually interact with/be immersed in. Think I’ll stop here for now, because words are beginning to seem inadequate! Instead, I’d just like to say that many exciting things have happened in this new work, which you will be able to understand regardless of whether you’ve seen the previous version or not. (: So I hope you’ll come down, have a look for yourself, and take delight in what lines – and a bit of black tape – can do.”

While conducting Teresa’s interview, I couldn’t help but observe the similarities between her work and Cindy Sherman’s. A coursework like hers takes a lot of bravery on 2 levels:

Firstly, the performative elements of her work; the fact that she dared to transform her appearance and venture out in that form. How many of us, at the coursework level or otherwise, would be comfortable with shedding our own skin and pulling on an entirely different one for all the world to see? In a society that preaches acceptance and equality, what does that discomfort tell us about how tolerant we are of these characters?

Secondly, it is definitely a big risk to do a performative/photographic piece for coursework. Despite the diversity of contemporary art, there is still that stigma that we have to show a certain technical skill in our coursework – Teresa mentioned that the photos in the suitcases were meant to reflect the amount of effort she put into her piece. Are the 8 boards not enough? There still seems to be a formula that students have to follow – isn’t this counter-intuitive with regard to the practice of art? – Berny

It was such a relief when the SAM exhibition setting up team managed to take down the unsightly wiring. It was amazing of them to be able to do so in one day!

Do visit the show at SAM at 8Q! We won’t be posting up images of the final show as it’ll spoil the fun of going!