Among the artist’s most compelling sculptures
By Ian Tee

Melissa Tan, ‘Parts, Shared & Allotted Portions’, 2024, exhibition installation view at Haridas Contemporary, Singapore. Image courtesy of the artist and Haridas Contemporary.

Melissa Tan’s solo exhibition ‘Parts, Shared & Allotted Portions’ at Haridas Contemporary furthers a material and conceptual thread that began with ‘Under the Arched Sky’ (2019). This ongoing body of work is an exploration of womanhood through the lens of mythology, with individual pieces referencing asteroids which carry the name of goddesses and female characters. Melissa’s refinement of the series in the last six years is evident in this latest presentation, as it features the artist’s most compelling sculptures to date.

Melissa Tan, ‘The Fates – Klotho, Lachesis & Atropos’, 2024, mirror finish stainless steel, epoxy resin and pigment, 285 x 190 x 15cm. Image courtesy of the artist and Haridas Contemporary.

The exhibition focuses on 11 new metal and resin free-standing pieces which are arranged in a layout that suggests points in a constellation. The gallery walls are anchored by ‘The Fates - Klotho, Lachesis & Atropos’ (2024), the largest wall-bound metal work Melissa has made. The three goddesses of fate, whose names translate to mean “parts, shares and allotted portions”, personify the idea of destiny. Despite the critical roles they hold in steering the lives of both ancient Greek gods and humanity, the Fates only appear in epic stories as peripheral characters rather than the main cast. Unfortunately, they have also been characterised as witches in influential interpretations such as William Shakespeare’s Macbeth which puts them in a negative light.

In a way, Melissa’s representation of the Fates recasts them into the main frame. Her choice of titling the exhibition after the trio as well as the outsized prominence given to this work speaks of their significance. The facial expressions of the goddesses are stoic, suggesting an impartial disposition towards their duties. However, the artist’s intervention in the exhibition title, changing “shares” into its verb form “shared” may also reveal her sentiment towards the notion of destiny. This minor shift returns some agency back to humans, that perhaps the assigned paths should be walked together, the allotted loads and blessings shared.

The free-standing sculptures are a more recent development in this series. Examples in the exhibition evoke the Nine Muses and Three Charities in Greek mythology, who inspire the creative arts. Melissa’s approach with the sculptures begins in a similar way as the wall-bound works, with a stylised illustration of the goddess based on prior depictions in Renaissance paintings, antiquities, and murals. The drawing is then superimposed over a three-dimensional form composed using data points from celestial maps, where the corresponding asteroid has travelled past. This digital rendering is then realised in partnership with a collaborator who assists with laser cutting and bending the flat stainless-steel sheet into its contoured form.

With the pedestal works, the illustration and mapped points are mirrored to create two “faces”, to close up the exposed side and allow the sculpture to stand on its own. In addition, the folds which create the three-dimensional form are varied on the top and bottom “faces”. This results in more nuanced shape, highlighting different segments of the illustration depending on the direction one views the work from. Audiences can also look through the laser cut sections into the hollow core where they may see elements hidden by the resin shards. The possibility of finding different perspectives of the same character and image within one work plays to Melissa’s premise of reseeing these mythological stories in a new light.

It is also this sophisticated handling of the 3D form that marks a breakthrough from Melissa’s past free-standing sculptures. Here I am referring to sculptures in the ‘Arc of Uncertainties’ series, which are made of papercut and mild steel sheets bonded to a central foam core. The dense build-up of flat layers on the work’s front and back confines the viewing experience to two main sides. In contrast, these new asteroids fully engage with the sculptural form, while maintaining the same attention to intricacy and surface quality.

Melissa Tan, ‘Euphrosyne’ (detail), 2024, stainless steel, epoxy resin and pigment, 42.5 x 26 x 14cm. Image courtesy of the artist and Haridas Contemporary.

Melissa Tan, ‘Aglaja’, 2024, stainless steel, epoxy resin and pigment, 42 x 21 x 13.5cm. Image courtesy of the artist and Haridas Contemporary.

The intimate scale of the new sculptures also invites detailed appreciation. Subtle shifts in the use of translucent dyes and pearlescent pigments give the resin shards an ethereal quality, more akin to polished gemstones rather than the opaque, mineral look of earlier resin casts. These elements come together to imbue a sense of lightness and preciousness to the objects. Ideally, this feeling of weightlessness should be carried through into the overall presentation of the sculptures on display stands that occupy less visual space instead of bulky plinths. Another approach could be juxtaposing the works against warm natural surfaces to further bring out their sleek finish.

As a new chapter in this body of work, ‘Parts, Shared & Allotted Portions’ neatly resolves conceptual strands in the series in a formal manner. The gesture of mirroring points in the celestial maps onto the base of the sculptures calls to mind the expression “as above, so below”. One can consider the process of making these works as a contemporary way of reading the stars, in the lineage of storytellers, artists and thinkers who look up at the sky in search of answers to the unknowns in life.

‘Parts, Shared & Allotted Portions’ is on view at Haridas Contemporary from 2 November to 8 December 2024.

This article is presented in partnership with Haridas Contemporary.