People And Places

Presenting twenty Southeast Asian contemporary art works from the Singapore Art Museum's permanent collection that looks at the people, places and spaces around us. Revolving around ideas of identity, urbanisation, globalisation and the environment, these works raise pertinent issues on urban living in the modern cityscape and prompt us to consider how the artists have translated their visions about these issues into works of art.

Singapore Idols Skateboarders (Edition 5 + 1 A.P) (2006) by Jing QuekSingapore Art Museum

Jing Quek celebrates common, everyday situations and environments with a stylised take on these individual communities that have their own unique sense of culture and identity, capturing the spirit of the people who make up the ‘face’ and landscape of Singapore.

Singapore Idols Grasscutters (Edition 5 + 1 A.P) (2006) by Jing QuekSingapore Art Museum

By capturing the subjects in unexpected poses and compositions, the artist attempts to address (and subvert) constructions of identity, stereotypes and communities.

The Grass Is Always Greener On The Inside (Bedok Reservoir Road) (2010) by Dawn NgSingapore Art Museum

Walter, a curious colossal bunny that pops up across Singapore, is artist Dawn Ng's attempt to draw people’s attention to Singapore’s unique and changing landscape, and to celebrate the ordinary by making people look at the city of Singapore from the perspective of a child again.

Ann Siang Hill (2009) by Safaruddin DynSingapore Art Museum

Safaruddin Dyn's works reference the idea of memory and absence, using images from old photographs to serve as visual diaries of specific landmarks in order to trigger feelings of nostalgia and longing in the viewer.

Maxwell Road (2006) by Safaruddin DynSingapore Art Museum

By painting landmarks in Ann Siang Hill and Maxwell Road as objects in a distorted manner, Safaruddin Dyn displaces the buildings that are featured, reflecting an uncomfortable, eerie stillness and emptiness brought about by the absence of human life. This sense of displacement is further highlighted through the use of muted colours for the objects featured, set against the bright bursts of luminous colours as the background.

It's All About Coalition (2008) by Eko NugrohoSingapore Art Museum

Eko Nugroho’s It’s All About Coalition is typical of the artist’s signature style which is heavily influenced by popular and comic culture featuring strange, hybrid characters. Two figures approach each other, seemingly to offer friendship or peace by means of the universal gesture of a handshake. However, the outstretched hand of one character has taken the form of the head of a wolf, its jaws open and ready to snap off the other party’s extended hand.

The other party is not defenceless either – his other hand, resting by his side, has taken the shape of pincers or claws, ready to retaliate. Both figures are caught in a moment of tension and anticipation – will they attack in mutual distrust, or will there be true coalition between them? What do you think each of the figures is thinking at this point of time?

Illusion (2007) by Eko NugrohoSingapore Art Museum

Drawing on his familiarity with the cartoons and comic books that populated his childhood, Eko Nugroho’s Illusion illustrates a scene of “crispy crisis” where the environment is depleted of its greenery by monster-like machines in his signature comic-graphics style. With the absence of living forms, what’s left of the sterile landscape is a harsh, jagged terrain, exposed to the dangers of over-heating and “crisping” up as a result of environmental destruction.

The hooded figure – who resembles an astronaut, a common "hero" or wish fulfilment in boys’ comics and cartoons – represents the artist’s aversion of depicting stereotypical face-types that could lead to discriminatory thoughts or interpretations of his work, while at the same time, adding a sense of ominous foreboding about the state of the environment depicted here.

The Killer From Electricity Authority (2009) by Yuree KensakuSingapore Art Museum

Yuree Kensaku created The Killer From Electricity Authority after witnessing staff from the electricity authority cut down trees growing above the power lines outside her house.

With this work, Yuree Kensaku contemplates the future of the world for the younger generation by addressing the issue of climate change.

Does Yuree Kensaku’s choice of materials affect the way you feel about this work? What if she had simply painted how she felt on canvas instead of using found, discarded objects like a wooden window frame and a plastic blind?

Uh... (Edition 2/7 + 2 A.P) (2007) by The Propeller Group (Tuan Andrew Nguyen, Phunam Thuc Ha & Matthew Charles Lucero)Singapore Art Museum

Uh… by The Propeller Group features the work of an imaginary graffiti artist who goes by the alias ‘Uh’, and who has seemingly painted his moniker onto the walls of Ho Chi Minh City’s urbancity scape. What the audience sees is the imaginary aftermath of Uh’s act. Only when pedestrians and motorcyclists enter the fictive video space and pass through under the painted letters will the audience then realise that the graffiti is not real, but actually a digital image that is superimposed onto the cityscape by the artists.

East & West (2009) by Justin LeeSingapore Art Museum

In examining the impact of capitalism in today’s society, on its people and on traditional values, artist Justin Lee playfully blends traditional Eastern iconography with modern-day symbols of our global capitalist culture.

Can you think of any traditional values that are in danger of disappearing in today’s modern society?

Parklife (2008) by Chun KaifengSingapore Art Museum

In Parklife, artist Chun Kaifeng depicts a playground and a multi-storey void deck, familiar sights in most Housing Development Board (HDB) estates in Singapore. However, this is no idyllic cityscape. Upon closer inspection, the residential landscape depicted in the work is far from being the family-friendly, cheerful place that it was designed to be...

308 (Edition 3/5) (2009) by Frankie CallaghanSingapore Art Museum

Frankie Callaghan explores the nocturnal world of urban Manila in these photographs of buildings and structures that would otherwise appear familiar and unremarkable in the daytime.

101 (Edition 2/5) (2014) by Frankie CallaghanSingapore Art Museum

These photographs reveal Manila’s prevalent urban poverty. Concrete structures like metal grills and zinc hoarding dominate the images with their unapologetic presence. These elements of make-shift construction and rapid urban development – so ugly under the glare of the daytime sun – take on an uncanny beauty and otherworldly aesthetic through Frankie Callaghan’s lens.

Zsa Zsa Zsu (Edition 3/5) (2007) by Tromarama (Febie Babyrose, Herbert Hans Maruli & Ruddy Alexander Hatumena)Singapore Art Museum

Zsa Zsa Zsu describes the electric connection and chemistry experienced when meeting a new love interest. The use of buttons and beads in Tromarama's Zsa Zsa Zsu results in images that look blurred and pixelated, reminiscent of the days when technology and mass media were not so developed yet, creating a nostalgic and ‘indie’ feel to the work.

Goddess Series: Macdonald Kids (2009) by Justin LeeSingapore Art Museum

At first glance, Justin Lee’s paintings appear to depict traditional Chinese deities – the door guardians, or spirits who guard thresholds. Upon closer inspection however, one realises that the children featured in the portraits are holding modern day items like mobile phones and fast food. It questions the impact of modernisation and globalisation on traditional cultures and values, and invite us to think about how this mixed marriage of the two may work (or not).

Self-portrait (No More Tears Mr. Lee) (2009) by Jason WeeSingapore Art Museum

The winner of the Voter’s Prize award at the Singapore Art Show 2009, Self-Portrait (No More Tears Mr. Lee) is made out of 8,000 plastic shampoo bottle caps placed individually on an angled pedestal. Using a combination of opened and closed bottle caps placed in a fixed formation on a grid format, the portrait of a person is created when the bottle caps are lit and seen from a certain angle.

In doing so, Jason Wee reinvents the genre of portraiture by deconstructing the subject into its individual parts, making each bottle cap function as a pixel forming a larger image.

Liberty Lead The Pixel (After E. Delacroix) (2009) by Terra BajraghosaSingapore Art Museum

Terra Bajraghosa reinterprets an 1830 painting titled Liberty Leading the People by French artist Eugène Delacroix, to suggest that the revolution in the streets is still relevant today, only that it is now driven by youth and popular culture fighting for its freedom and independence.

Boom Box Liberty (2009) by Terra BajraghosaSingapore Art Museum

Jembar Negarane, Cupet Pikirane (Big Country, Narrow Mindset) (2007) by Eko NugrohoSingapore Art Museum

The title of this work, Jembar Negarane, Cupet Pikirane, is a Javanese phrase that loosely translates to Big Country, Narrow Mindset in English. It consists of three panels depicting part-man, part-machine characters in a seemingly apocalyptic scene of chaos and terror, with dismembered limbs lying around and a riotous mob threatening to take control. The sense of violence and hostility is further emphasised by the sharp tools and aggressive behaviour of the characters presented in the work.

The title of this work is therefore both critique as well as advice, a reminder to humankind to avoid cannibalising or preying on each other, as illustrated through Eko Nugroho’s rendition of robots and monsters.

Credits: Story

The featured artworks are for the promotion of engagement and discussion of broader issues through contemporary art.

We hope you have enjoyed it.


Singapore Art Museum

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The story featured may in some cases have been created by an independent third party and may not always represent the views of the institutions, listed below, who have supplied the content.
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