On July 24, 2021, I attended an art exhibition hosted at the National Gallery of Singapore.

Result #1

On July 24, 2021, I attended an art exhibition hosted at the National Gallery of Singapore. It was a symposium, and its presentation was rather like an ordinary lecture: six artists were invited to write a brief text about their experiences in Singapore, accompanied by a PowerPoint deck that they could use to present their work. The theme was American Art in Singapore: The Next Fifty Years, curated by Pauline Wong, and accompanied by a catalogue and a catalogue raisonné. The participants, a small group of artists, writers, and writers, responded to a survey of questions posed by the artist Tan Hui-Hwa, who organized the exhibition. The text is written in English and Mandarin; the English is edited by the art critic Isabelle Cheng. The artists in question are artists living in Singapore, including artists and writers such as artist and translator Samuel Lee, writer and translator Sylvia Phelan, and artist and translator Martin Lu.The show was divided into two sections: two rooms in which the artists work was exhibited and two rooms that were open to the public. The first room contained photographs, postcards, and a video that showed Tan, in a green-and-white suit, talking about his experiences as an artist. He has been in Singapore for more than two years, but he has never worked in the art world. He is currently a researcher at the Institute of Contemporary Art Singapore. The second room contained objects, including a large number of postcards with Chinese characters, which Tan used to display his works in a serene, light-filled environment. These photographs, postcards bearing the same images as the photographs in the photographs, were accompanied by a list of names of artists in Singapore who have shown in the country. The exhibition was an introduction to the new art and culture in Singapore.The show also included a book of essays and a letter to Tan by the artist, which was published in English as a series of letters to the artist.

Result #2

On July 24, 2021, I attended an art exhibition hosted at the National Gallery of Singapore. The piece was a six-minute video installation titled My First Space Traveler (The Final Plan), 2018, in which artist-traveler Darryl Pinckney travels through the earth to another planet and back again, to another planet and back again, to another planet and back to himself. This is a kind of time travel, in which Pinckneys own time travels are constantly interrupted by the movements of the earth, which stops at every point along his journey. The artist is not the only one who travels to different places. We can also imagine the artist, traveling at the speed of light, traversing the world in a continuous cycle of repeated journeys. In this case, Pinckneys journey is similarly interrupted by the appearance of a human presence. A voice-over narrates the artists journey from one planet to another, from one place to another, explaining the history of the universe as it is transmitted to us by satellites. The voice-over tells us that the universe is full of paradoxes and is continually being disrupted by other dimensions. This is a tale of the Anthropocene, in which human civilizations have lost their civilizations and are now being replaced by other species.The video was projected onto a screen that was covered in the same kind of silk that covers all the walls of the gallery. The silk was applied to the screen like a dream catcher, and the voice-over introduces the idea of the dream catcher as a way of communicating with the viewer. The dream catcher is a piece of cloth that a dreamer uses to convey his or her wishes. The dreamer has to find a dream catcher, and the dreamer must take the dream catcher as a gift from the dreamer. Pinckneys dream catcher is not an object, but a symbol of the dreamer, a reminder of the possibility of communication with the other.The exhibition also included a video of a single-eyed creature that the artist made with his son, who is now five years old.

Result #3

On July 24, 2021, I attended an art exhibition hosted at the National Gallery of Singapore. . . . The exhibition was called Transient Visitor, and it was indeed one, since the gallery had taken over the space with a large sign reading TANZANGAO, TRANSMITTING SPEAKERS. The piece was a real shock, and I wanted to go in and try to understand what had happened. I was made to feel that I had been lied to, that I had been betrayed by the art world. I felt betrayed because I had agreed to be part of it, and because I had been promised that everything would be OK. I felt betrayed.I went in there and asked the people who had agreed to participate, to describe what was happening and what they felt they could do. The majority of the participants said that they had come to the exhibition to see the work of a group of young artists who were mostly from Singapore. They were working on a number of different projects, and on the whole, they were quite happy about it. They were open to suggestions and to discussion, and they were very accommodating. They even invited the artist and a friend to lunch. I was really surprised to see that they were actually willing to take on such a big project. They had the same attitude as I did. I didnt expect that. They were just having a lunch together. They didnt know what they were doing. And they didnt want to know.They didnt even have the nerve to ask me to explain why I wanted to do something for them. I didnt even ask them. They didnt even know what I was proposing. They didnt even have the nerve to ask. I didnt even ask them. They didnt even bother to explain to me what it was they wanted to do. I didnt even ask. They didnt even try to explain to me what it was they wanted to do. And I didnt even ask. I didnt even ask. I didnt even bother to explain to them what it was I was proposing. The work wasnt very interesting.

Result #4

On July 24, 2021, I attended an art exhibition hosted at the National Gallery of Singapore. It was a rare opportunity to see the work of such a well-known Singaporean artist in the countrys capital. Then, in the wake of the countrys economic woes, Singaporeans were less hopeful than they have been in the past. The exhibition was a fitting tribute to the countrys creative rebirth. The exhibition, curated by artist Liao Wei, was packed with artworks, ranging from the artists early drawings and photographs to his latest works.But this was not the first such exhibition in Singapore. In 2016, the Singapore Art Museum launched a new art space, Art Space, which has recently opened a second building in a former coal-mining town. The space is a fitting place for the artists exhibition: It is the former coal-mining area, and the museum is situated in an industrial zone. It is also an art space, too, and one can easily imagine the artists, some of whom are well known in Singapore: Lin Tan, Mohaiq Rahman, Lee Ting, and many more. The exhibition opened with a work on paper, Untitled (To my great pleasure), 2017, in which Lin Tan, Mohaiq Rahman, and artist Wang Jianhua reenacted scenes from Lin Tans seminal film The Return of the Dragon, 1982. The artists reconfigured these scenes as an immersive installation. The space was lit with colored-glass windows, with a view through a small screen onto the roof of the museum.The show opened with a video of Mohaiq Rahman, who was born in Singapore and now lives in the United States. The video is a study of the titular author, a Singaporean poet, actor, and musician. It shows Rahman performing a series of live performances, in which he confronts the viewer with an array of questions and answers, including questions about the changing identity of Singapore, questions about the countrys relationship with the United States, and more.

Result #5

On July 24, 2021, I attended an art exhibition hosted at the National Gallery of Singapore. The piece was titled The Cultural Landscape, and featured the artists of the Singaporean generation—including artists such as Tan Chee Chaung, Lee Hsien Lo, and Kang Woo—and the artists of the Asian continent. The theme of the exhibition was the idea of the artist as a stranger, and it was based on the artists own experiences as an immigrant to Singapore, and on the idea of the outsider as a means of creating a new identity. The exhibition also reflected on the past decade of global art trends. The theme was also a reflection on the current art worlds obsession with the self-reflexivity of art, and on the possibility of art as an agent of change.The exhibition opened with a series of six wall paintings by Kang Woo. Each consists of the words i gong shanghae (I Love You) in kanji, painted onto the wall in a single line, and accompanied by a photograph of the artist. The images are taken from personal photographs that Kang Woo took of himself and his friends. The paintings are all untitled and dated 2016. In addition to the wall paintings, Kang Woo also displayed a series of ink-on-canvas drawings that depict the artists childhood, a childhood that is a reflection on the artists early years in Singapore.The exhibition ended with a group of eight small-scale works by Lee Dae Kyung. These works, which were made on an electronic drawing machine, were hung on the wall with thin strips of paper, and the images on the paper are drawn from personal memories. The works are all Untitled and dated 2016. The drawing process is repeated until the ink runs out. The images on the paper are often fragmented and appear as scattered marks. The images range from a snapshot of a child to an image of the artist.