An expanding artistic repertoire
By Sara Lau

‘Crossing The Road’, 2020, oil on canvas, 92 x 122cm. Image courtesy of SEED Art Space.

Presented in collaboration with SEED Art Space, ‘Evening, Once More’ is the latest solo exhibition from Yeo Tze Yang, who is known for his detailed oil paintings which depict everyday scenes. Held at The Substation, the exhibition features works from 2020-2021, consisting mostly of oil paintings, with smaller sketches and LED sign board installations interspersed throughout. The title references Yeo’s 2017 exhibition, ‘Evening’ at OUR ArtProjects, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and is a continuation of his exploration into evening and night scenes, specifically the time of dusk between 6.30pm and 7.30pm.

The works in this show were created partially out of circumstance. Due to the inability to travel, Yeo began spending more time at his artist studio and its surrounding neighbourhood, observing the environment around him. As such, what immediately stands out is how it distills ennui and captures the liminal spaces found in daily routines. Walking into the gallery space feels like entering a hallway of one’s own memories, with a collection of indistinct scenes that feel familiar: a commute home from work, a late supper out alone, a memorable sunset viewed from an overhead bridge, and other frozen frames from the mundane routines of life. The works are everywhere yet nowhere at once, lacking any identifiable markers such as street names or landmarks, allowing viewers to place themselves into the captured moments.

‘Man Waiting On The Platform’, 2020, oil on canvas, 100x55cm. Image courtesy of SEED Art Space.

‘What Must Come Shall Come’, 2021, LED signboard in acrylic casing, 12 x 22cm and ‘Back of a Man’, 2020, oil on canvas, 102 x 76cm. Image courtesy of SEED Art Space.

“The works are everywhere yet nowhere at once, lacking any identifiable markers such as street names or landmarks, allowing viewers to place themselves into the moments portrayed.”

In contrast to the many street scenes, two vertical paintings close in on two figures that echo each other, both depicting the back of an older man. ‘Man Waiting On The Platform’ (2020) evokes a sense of weariness, highlighted through the crinkles and folds of the subject’s shirt, his greying head slightly tilted towards the ground, two full bags clutched in his hands. ‘Back of a Man’ (2020) shows a man seated precariously on the edge of plastic crates, looking off towards the street, the lines of his shoulders and back held tense in a body hardened by manual labour. Even without painting their faces or expressions, Yeo manages to imbue an immediate viscerality in both works. Looking at these paintings, I was struck by a sudden and deep empathy for these strangers, recognising that while our lives are different, most of us bear the same weight that comes with the mundanity of life in work, late nights and long commutes.

Gallery view of ‘Evening, Once More’ at G/F, The Substation. Image courtesy of SEED Art Space.

A distinct development in Yeo’s latest showcase is the inclusion of LED sign board installations, all of them save for one rendered in a bright lurid shade of red. They are familiar objects yet uncanny due to their distortion. Placed by the entrance, ‘The Time of My Life’ (2021) mimics the boards displaying bus arrival timings at bus stops, with numbers that do not move or shift, representing buses that will never arrive. Up high on a pillar, ‘What Must Come Shall Come’ (2021) sees the scrolling numbers of a lift descending — 28, 27, 26, 25, 24, on loop — never reaching the ground floor. These new additions complement his paintings by reinforcing their themes while adding a conceptual dimension to his artistic approach.

Light, whether artificial or natural, is a central focus in the exhibition. ‘Look On Down From The Bridge’ (2020), features a sky awash in pastel purples and blues, reflected in the stream that runs through the large drain, drawing one’s eye to an unseen setting sun in the form of a shocking orange-pink mass of colour. Several works showcase the flared glow of street lamps that appear as artificial suns, in swirls of orange and yellow, some with soft glows and others with harsh brushstrokes. The way that light and its movement are depicted, both through the LED sign boards installations as well as the paintings, effectively enforces the theme of liminality and the transience of time.

This juxtaposition is also used to represent Singapore’s multifaceted nature. ‘The Moon’ (2020) presents a simple orb surrounded by grey clouds, strategically placed next to a “sun” in ‘Street Lamp’ (2020), contrasting a built environment against a natural one, arguably representative of the country’s diverse and perhaps contradictory landscapes. That so many of the paintings reflect an unseen setting sun, replaced by artificial suns created by street lights, makes a subtle comment about the urban, artificial nature of our living spaces.

‘Look On Down From The Bridge’, 2020, oil on canvas, 150 x 180cm. Image courtesy of SEED Art Space.

While his works can be appreciated for their aesthetic qualities, Yeo is not merely a representational painter. He has always been attuned to the mediums of film and writing, which is noted in an earlier interview conducted with the artist in 2019. These influences have materialised, partly through his collaboration with SEED Art Space. Director and Co-Founder Connie Wong states that one of their core objectives is to support new ideas for artists and art initiatives, and thus they welcomed Yeo’s ideas for the show.

In the lead-up to the exhibition, Yeo released an exhibition trailer produced by himself and his friends, in a short story titled ‘9 more mins’ through Instagram stories, as well as a podcast episode with Wong. His catalogue has diverse features, including one personal essay and another by professor Jan Mrazek, a conversation with filmmaker Eric Khoo and poetry by Said Effendy. “We see the contemplation of time and spaces with cinematic framing and shots on his works as a new perspective,” Wong says, describing the experience as “fun, exciting and experimental.”

‘The Time of My Life’, 2021, LED signboard in acrylic casing, 40 x 100 x 5cm. Image courtesy of SEED Art Space.

The conversations and reflections expressed in various ways underscore an all-encompassing and collaborative practice, where Yeo sees himself as just one node in a larger matrix of life, art and society. His works are as much informed by his peers and friends as by his own observations, connected to broader themes of environment, class and heritage. These various levels of engagement with the world is what makes Yeo’s body of work so compelling. Nothing feels contrived because he actively lives and embodies what he paints, instead of merely looking in from the outside. ‘Evening, Once More’ provides a sharpened perspective of Yeo’s genuine preoccupation with the banal. Beneath the seeming simplicity of his work lies a depth of thought that comes from an ordinary life well lived.

‘Evening, Once More’ runs until 12 July at The Substation, 45 Armenian Street.