‘Walk Walk Don’t Run’ by Grey Projects

An island-wide open studio walk in Singapore
By Vivyan Yeo

Grey Projects is organising an island-wide open studio walk titled ‘Walk Walk Don’t Run’, a refreshing initiative alongside formal exhibitions in Singapore. Involving over 35 artist and design studios, artist-run spaces and craft spaces, the event will take place over four Saturdays in October and November 2021, with each weekend focusing on a specific region in the country. Visitors can either follow the suggested routes provided, or freely visit the participating studios between 10.30am to 6pm. In the spirit of informality, they are encouraged to spend time with the artists, and experience works in progress, personal projects and ideas still in fermentation. The walk takes inspiration from ‘East Side Open Studios’, a similar collaborative open studio event organised by Peninsular in 2018. 

‘Walk Walk Don’t Run’ maps out a diverse array of studios within the East, North, West and Central regions of Singapore, all of which were brought together through the power of conversation. “Our first consideration was to reach artists from all around the island,” shares Jason Wee, Founder and Director of Grey Projects. “Our peers and colleagues who agreed then led us to many other folks within the art and design scene.” Championing spontaneity, the event presents an opportunity to build new connections with people from all walks of life. In the following paragraphs, Art & Market highlights a couple of spaces to visit in each region.

23 October -North 

Suggested route for ‘Walk Walk Don’t Run’ in the North on 23 October 2021. Image courtesy of Grey Projects.

Pinch ceramics studio. Image courtesy of the studio.

Pinch Ceramics Studio
Pinch Ceramics Studio will be opening their doors at Toa Payoh Industrial park on the first day of ‘Walk Walk Don’t Run’. Founded and run by artist Tricia Lim, the studio offers ceramic classes for people of all levels and is a space for independent artists to work and collaborate in the field of clay, sculpture and other mediums. For the studio walk, they will be showcasing work by their students and artists who have used the space. Visitors can also browse their ‘hole-in-the-closet’ shop, which will be selling homemade drinks, quirky ceramics and zines organised by artist Mike Hj Chang.

Ian Tee, 'FIRE BLANKET', detail of work-in-progress. Image courtesy of the artist.

Ian Tee 
Artist Ian Tee will be displaying his works at Primz Gallery, a private exhibition space housing the collection of Linda Neo and Albert Lim. Visitors can expect to see examples of his early pieces alongside some new works-in-progress. Tee will also be sharing the process behind ‘Fire Blankets’, a series that has taken on new significance in his practice since lockdowns began last year. “As an artist, I especially appreciate the casual tone behind this initiative,” says Ian on the studio walk. “It privileges informal dialogue over overly resolved presentation.”

30 October - Central

Suggested route for ‘Walk Walk Don’t Run’ in the Central area on 30 October 2021. Image courtesy of Grey Projects.

blessed lunch’s studio. Image courtesy of blessed lunch.

blessed lunch
A female-run space inhabited by five creatives, blessed lunch embraces an eclectic mix of mediums and artistic pursuits. “Come sit with us as we share our contemporary practice along with its many discourses. Engage at your pace, and have fun!” invites the artists at blessed lunch. “Racy writes, curates and is interested in the intersections of media and feminist-based frameworks; Avis experiments the lyrical quality of images and sound; Aneesha plays with embroidery; Si Xuan creates installation-based works with kinetic and electrical elements, and Chloë's large-scale paintings explore explore her roots through botanical imagery.” 

Grey Projects 
Grey Projects, the organisor of the studio walk, will be presenting their annual Queer Show titled ‘Dress/Address’, which features artists Yeong Jun Bo, Samuel Xun, Shawna Wu and Shika. “Because of the pandemic, this will be our first new show of the year!” reflects Wee from Grey Projects. “The exhibition will explore clothing as relational media, the ways dress and dressing tap on the communicative latency that has always existed in textile arts, and the ways in which our dressing are forms of address, which are themselves formative of the relations between each other.”

6 November - East

Suggested route for ‘Walk Walk Don’t Run’ in the East on 6 November 2021. Image courtesy of Grey Projects.

Zen Teh's studio at Telok Kurau Studios. Image courtesy of the artist.

Zen Teh
Artist Zen Teh will be opening her studio at Telok Kurau on third weekend of ‘Walk Walk Don’t Run’. With a keen interest in the relationship between the human world and our wider ecology, she creates interdisciplinary artwork involving various mediums such as photographic sculptures, video, textiles, scents, wood and marble. For the studio walk, she will be sharing key concepts behind her works, new experimentations, and insights on how these projects respond to our rapidly changing world.

Kanchana Gupta, ‘Tarpaulin #126, Red and Blue’. Image courtesy of the artist.

Kanchana Gupta
In the East, people are welcome to visit the studio of artist Kanchana Gupta at Shaw Road. There, they will encounter mediums ranging from traditional oil paint to urban construction materials like tarpaulin, steel frames and suspension wires. “My studio space is reflective of my practice,” says Kanchana. “Each material brings its own identity, social meanings, textures and colours, which I often alter irreversibly with tools such as pliers, hammers and heat guns.” For the studio walk, she will be showing works from a new series titled ‘Works in Progress’, which responds to the transitory nature of construction sites, industrial areas and temporary dwellings. 

13 November - West

Suggested route for ‘Walk Walk Don’t Run’ in the West on 13 November 2021. Image courtesy of Grey Projects.

James Jack, work in progress with local dirt pigments in Penjuru studio. Image courtesy of the artist.

James Jack
Working in a spacious studio overlooking the Pandan River where it meets the sea in Penjuru, artist James Jack investigates tidal rhythms of social and ecological networks in collaboration with international artists. On 13 November, visitors will be able to see ephemera related to his existing and ongoing works. Among them are ‘Ghosts of Khayalan’, 2021, which features local pigments from areas such as Pulau Hantu and Redhill to draw maritime links across the Straits of Johor. Sample drawings on handmade paper and collaborative maps will also be on view from his ongoing work ‘a guide to loving water’ that continues to unfold in the studio.

Robert Zhao, ‘The wild boar series - New Worlds’. Image courtesy of the artist.

Field Studies
In the West, viewers can visit an exhibition titled ‘What the caterpillar calls the end, the rest of the world calls a butterfly’ by artists Ang Song Nian, Robert Zhao and Marvin Tang. With photographic prints, the show interrogates the invisible processes of nature that seem at once powerless and powerful. It will take place at Field Studies, an artist-run space occupied by Ang, Zhao and THEBOOKSHOW, a platform that provides opportunities for artists and photographers interested in producing and showcasing self-published art books.

‘Walk Walk Don’t Run’ runs over four Saturdays from 23 October to 13 November 2021. 
More details here.

*The dates of the event have been edited on 29 September 2021.