April Round-Up
Museum MACAN, Art Agenda, S.E.A. and Bonhams Hong Kong, etc.
By Andari Suherlan
Julian Rosefeldt, ‘Manifesto’, 2015, Video Installation. Image Courtesy of Museum MACAN.
#MuseumfromHome
In response to the recent government guidelines that require the closing of public spaces due to the COVID-19 outbreak, Museum MACAN introduces a series of online initiatives on various social media platforms. In the comfort of their home, visitors are encouraged to engage with regularly scheduled programs such as virtual walkthroughs of current exhibitions ‘Melati Suryodarmo: Why Let the Chicken Run?’ and ‘Julian Rosefeldt: Manifesto’, live discussions with art professionals in ‘MACAN A to Z’, child-friendly home activities like ‘Make Your Own Manifesto’ and more.
Nashar, ‘Larut Malam’, 1977, oil on canvas, 90 x 138 cm. Image courtesy of Art Agenda, S.E.A.
Nashar: Mencari Yang Samar
Art Agenda, S.E.A. presents ‘Nashar: Mencari Yang Samar (Looking for the Unknown)’, a virtual exhibition that outlines the life and artistic development of modern Indonesian artist Nashar. Accompanied by a 3D virtual tour, rare archival materials and artworks available for acquisition, the presentation displays an immersive overview of Nashar’s transformative practice from the 1970s to the 1990s. Featuring works by Indonesian modern masters Affandi and S. Sudjojono, as well as his contemporaries Rusli, Oesman Effendi and Soeparto, the selection situates Nashar’s artistic career within the greater context of Indonesian modernism.
Art Agenda, S.E.A. 4 to 30 April 2020
Widayat, ‘Adam and Eve in Paradise’, 1970, oil on canvas,145 x 130 cm. Image courtesy of Bonhams Hong Kong.
Ritual + Culture: Fine Southeast Asian Arts
Bonhams continues to run its annual ‘Ritual + Culture: Fine Southeast Asian Art’ auction in the form of an online sale. Celebrating the diversity and manifestations of ritual and cultural life in Southeast Asia, the selection of works includes pre-modern antiquities and significant 20th century modern and contemporary paintings. Among the 49 lots, highlights include ‘Hanoi’ (c. 1925) by French artist Alix Aymé, ‘Adam and Eve in Paradise’ (1970) by Widayat and figurative paintings and artefacts of Antonio Blanco from the collection of art collector and friend John Chirgwin.
Bonhams 3 to 22 April 2020
Najib Bamadhaj, ‘Perintah Kawalan Pergerakan’, 2020, oil on canvas, 110x130 cm. Image courtesy of G13 Gallery.
Mending Fence: Tales From an Isolation
‘Mending Fence: Tales From an Isolation’ is a social platform in which 30 artists from Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines and Thailand collectively respond to the idea of social distancing. These artists convey that while such limitations affect productivity, ideas and creativity transcend the physical. In the form of an online viewing room, this exhibition is a movement that encourages artists and other visitors to document and live through this global phenomenon together.
G13 Gallery 3 to 30 April 2020
Installation view of ‘Latiff Mohidin: Pago Pago.’ Image courtesy of National Gallery Singapore.
Latiff Mohidin: Pago Pago
Renowned Malaysian modernist painter and poet Latiff Mohidin exhibits his ‘Pago Pago’ series at the National Gallery of Singapore. The institution presents his works in collaboration with the Musée National d'Art Moderne, Centre Pompidou, Paris, where an earlier iteration of the exhibition was staged in 2018. Inspired by Khmer architecture and artefacts, the ‘Pago Pago’ series includes transformative works produced during Mohidin’s travels across Europe and Southeast Asia between 1964 to 1969. Featuring 80 unique pieces, the exhibition will also display a selection of artworks developed during a five-year stay in Kampong Glam in Singapore.
National Gallery of Singapore 27 Mar 2020 - 27 Sep 2020
Chulayarnnon Siriphol, ‘Give Us A Little More Time (20180224, 20190109, 20180213), 2020, Giclée print on archival paper. Image courtesy of Bangkok Citycity Gallery.
Give Us A Little More Time (20140522–20190324)
In this solo exhibition, Bangkok Citycity Gallery displays the prints and moving image works of filmmaker and writer Chulyarnnon Siriphol. Based on the 13th coup d’état of Thailand in 2014, Siriphol responds to the heavily corrupt media by making collages from assembled newspaper fragments. He committed himself to this process until the day of the national election in March 2019. In this way, he raised awareness about the need to be vigilant when consuming information provided by the government. His criticism of Thai politics is also expressed through video and sculpture, which was previously presented in the gallery’s ABHK online viewing room.
Bangkok Citycity Gallery 25 April - 21 June 2020
Kairullah Rahim, ‘Bird Feeder’ and ‘Silly Gatekeeper’, 2020, mixed media assemblage on wooden panel. Image courtesy of Yavuz Gallery.
Gathering of Flocks
In his second solo exhibition at Yavuz Gallery, Singapore-based artist Kairullah Rahim presents an extension of his work previously exhibited at the Singapore Biennale 2019. By collecting and assembling found objects within his surroundings, Rahim created ‘Gathering of Flocks’ which expresses his daily observations of his Singaporean neighbourhood. In beautifying the mundane, Rahim creates new forms and silhouettes from materials found in the everyday.
Yavuz Gallery 28 March to 16 April 2020
