Collaborations abound in a world anew, including the SAM S.E.A. Focus Art Fund
By A&M

Danh Võ, ‘Untitled’, 2023. Image courtesy of S.E.A. Focus.

S.E.A. Focus is an anchor event of Singapore Art Week. Commissioned by National Arts Council and led by STPI – Creative Workshop & Gallery, it has run since 2019, and is a leading showcase of contemporary art in Southeast Asia. The curatorial theme for the 2023 edition is “a world, anew”. Curator Joyce Toh explains that it explores the idea of new beginnings after the pandemic, and how vast potential can be found in the smallest, seemingly humblest resources.

A new initiative this year is the Collaborations section that welcomes visitors at the entrance. Vietnamese-born Danish contemporary artist Danh Võ is showing a large-scale installation presented by Vitamin Creative Space in Guangzhou, and with the support of M Art Foundation, which supports the pursuits and practices of contemporary artists. There is a suite of botanical photographs with the flowers’ binomials written in calligraphy by the artist’s father Phung Vo in pencil. In accompaniment is fragment of a Roman marble torso of an athlete wearing his chlamys over his shoulder, which is repeated as a motif on carrara marble slabs laid on the floor.

‘Dirty Dishes’ presentation at S.E.A. Focus 2023. Image courtesy of S.E.A. Focus.

Across from the installation is ‘Dirty Dishes’, a cross-disciplinary collaboration with Berlin-based gallery neugerriemschneider and Singapore Michelin-starred restaurant Burnt Ends. The ceramic pieces, with their captivatingly earthy colours and organic shapes and ridges, are created by the Thai artist Rirkrit Tiravanjia and German sculptor Tobias Rehberger. They will be used at a private dinner at Burnt Ends, after which diners will be able to bring them home, with the rest of the pieces from the dining experience brought back for display at S.E.A. Focus.

The curated showcase aims to present both established and emerging artists in Southeast Asia, and accomplishes this effectively through the participation of 25 galleries showing over 50 artists. Collectively, S.E.A. Focus highlights the rich histories and material culture that the artists draw on in their practices, and visitors can enjoy the multiple mediums that artists from the region experiment with and are accomplished in.

Celine Lee, ‘Artificial Land’, 2022, abaca string on aida cloth, 191 x 127cm. Photo by Darren Soh. Image courtesy of S.E.A. Focus.

Artists who use unexpected materials take pride of place at S.E.A. Focus, such as with Celine Lee’s ‘Artificial Land’, presented by Artinformal from the Philippines. From far, it looks like a digital landscape with a brown grid against a dark blue background. Upon closer examination, we see that it is abaca string woven on aida cloth, in a compelling combination of hand technology and high technology, as Toh explains.

Nearby, we see Hazel Lim’s ‘Liquified’, presented by Art Porters from Singapore. It is similarly handcrafted, but what looks like tapestry made from threads is made from paper, and draws us in to observe the intricate, meditative labour that goes into the making of the work. Lim launched the Critical Craft Collective together with Adeline Kueh in the last Singapore Art Week. The collective investigates the relationships among craft, contemporary art, design and new technologies, bringing to the fore materialities and the “rightful” place of craft in contemporary art. Kueh is also exhibiting with STPI, showing ‘The Big and Small of Things (with Ariyana Samuji)’, featuring another tapestry of delicate, white handstitched rosettes that again beckons the the viewer to appreciate the care that go into its creation.

Ari Bayuaji, Dream Catcher, 2022, woven plastic and cotton threads, plastic threads, 245 x 380cm. Photo by Darren Soh. Image courtesy of S.E.A. Focus.

One more wall hanging that is striking is Ari Bayauji’s ‘Dream Catcher’ (2002), presented by Mizuma Gallery, and made from woven plastic, as well as cotton and plastic threads. The quilt-like work shows off the artist’s ability to make conversation pieces from foraged ready-made materials.

Jumaadi, 'Tree House', 2022, acrylic on buffalo hide, 111 x 95cm. Photo by Darren Soh. Image courtesy of S.E.A. Focus.

Kayleigh Goh, ‘Ray, A Drop of Golden Sun’, 2022, cement, cement strengthener, acrylic paint, gesso on wood, 120 x 100cm. Photo by Darren Soh. Image courtesy of S.E.A. Focus.

Another group of eye-catching works by Indonesian artist Jumaadi is presented by 39+ Art Space, where he uses buffalo hide, traditionally used for wayang kulit puppets, to create beautiful narrative vignettes with lace-like details. And echoing the tough yet delicate nature of the buffalo hide that Jumaadi uses in his works are the cement-and-wood artworks of Kayleigh Goh, presented by Gajah Gallery, which play on the perceived strength of the materials to create large sculptural paintings of places that offer respite in their cool colours.

Susie Lingham, ‘Klein Riddle: Quickbrown Foxtrot’, 2022, acrylic, mirror and Klein bottles, 15 x 20 x 20cm. Photo by Darren Soh. Image courtesy of S.E.A. Focus.

Aside from the study in materials that many works at S.E.A. Focus offer, there is a playfulness that seeks to engage visitors. One example is the ‘Klein Riddle’ (2022) series by Susie Lingham, also presented by Gajah Gallery, featuring Klein bottles, named for the German mathematician Felix Klein, and featuring a bottle with its neck disappearing into itself, such that it has a single continuous surface. Accompanying this visual riddle is a textual one on top of the glass casing that covers it, which the viewer is invited to solve.

And on the wall that leads out to the S.E.A. Focus Lounge is a series from Manuel Ocampo featuring cats in various stances, some anthropomorphic, inviting the viewer to unpack its meanings. The humour of the works is underlined by deliberately lengthy and complicated titles such as ‘Institutionally Purified Social Knowledge Packaged According to its Objective’ (2022), and ‘The Vanity of Theories Taught Before Like Eternal Truths’ (2022), which contrast curiously with the imagery to invite viewers to contemplate what they are looking at.

‘Living System: An NFT Show’. Image courtesy of S.E.A. Focus.

Outside of the main display area is a blue room that holds ‘Living System: An NFT Show’, an NFT showcase built on Tezos and curated by Mama Magnet, which present NFT works by Bjorn Calleja from The Philippines, CwndDien and the late Orkibal from Malaysia, Reza Hasni from Singapore, and Ykha Amelz and Discokid909 from Indonesia. Here, visitors can claim a complimentary edition of one of the artworks on show.

Emi Eu, Director, S.E.A. Focus and Executive Director, STPI – Creative Workshop & Gallery welcoming guests at the vernissage. Image courtesy of S.E.A. Focus.

A particularly exciting initiative that was announced at the vernissage is the SAM S.E.A. Focus Art Fund. Made possible with the support of the founding sponsor, the Yenn and Alan Lo Foundation, established by arts patrons Yenn Wong and Alan Lo, will provide USD25,000 for each edition of S.E.A. Focus to facilitate the acquisition of representative works of contemporary Southeast Asian art for the Singapore Art Museum (SAM) collection. The jurors for the first edition are Eugene Tan, Director, SAM, Ong Puay Khim, Deputy Director, Collections, Public Art and Head, Biennale Office, SAM and guest juror Lesley Ma, Ming Chu Hsu and Daniel Xu Associate Curator of Asian Art, Department of Modern and Contemporary Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art. They will make their selection from the artworks on display at S.E.A. Focus.

Aside from the display of artworks, SEAspotlight Talks will feature three sessions curated by Stephanie Bailey, Conversations Curator for Art Basel Hong Kong. They are ‘When Patronage Becomes Form: Who is the ‘Southeast Asian Collector’’, ‘Is There a Southeast Asian Art Market, Now?’, ‘Traces of Global Singapore: A Cultural Landscape’. There are also talks co-presented with Tezos, the Art Galleries Association Singapore (AGAS) and Nova Contemporary. All the talks are free to attend with registration, and hosted upstairs at Art Agenda, except the AGAS-presented talk ‘With the World: A Conversation with Singapore-Born Galleries’ at Gajah Gallery within the same building.

Off site at The Projector is OFF Focus, the fringe film programme, curated by Objectifs – Centre for Photography and Film. The Super 8 films by Rirkrit Tiravanjia are the highlight, and following a screening of six of his short films for the first time in Singapore, the artist will give a talk as well. The selection of films by Leong include those by Martha Atienza from Silverlens, Phuong Linh Nguyen from A+ Works of Art, Khairullah Rahim from Yavuz Gallery, Tada Hengsapkul from Nova Contemporary and Mella Jaarsma from ROH.

All the works on display at S.E.A. Focus will also be available on Artsy, as S.E.A. Focus continues its partnership with the global online art marketplace for the third year in a row, allowing a wider audience to access the showcase and accomplish its aim to engender appreciation of contemporary art and artists from Southeast Asia beyond the region.

S.E.A. Focus 2023 runs from 6 January to 15 January 2023 at Tanjong Pagar Distripark, and is open daily from 1pm to 8pm, with a special VIP hour from 12pm to 1pm. For more information, please visit seafocus.sg.

A&M is proud to be an official media partner of S.E.A. Focus 2023.

Read a review of the fair here.