A Biennale Retrospective

Managed to take advantage of free admission to visit the Biennale at the National Museum. Among the three fee-charging sites, this exhibition was by far the smallest. Only parts of the museum extension (which, incidentally, is quite a tasteful addition) were utilised, mainly by works dealing with death and spirituality. I thought it fitting that the darker, more morbid installations were buried in pitch-black rooms in the basement, while the airy second-floor atrium provided the setting for lighter, more contemplative pieces (An exception was Mariko Mori's 'Tom na H-iu', a work inspired by Celtic standing stones and reminiscent of Olafur Eliasson, which illuminated the darkness with occasional soft splashes of light).

I'm pretty glad I caught the exhibits at the three main locations. The variety and quality of the works were a pleasant surprise, especially at Tanglin Camp. I have way too few pictures of my favourite pieces, but some of them are below:

Brian Gothong Tan's 'We Live in a Dangerous World':

Sharp, surreal, and scary.

Otto Karvonen's 'Belief Board':

What do you want? What can you give?

Jane Alexander's 'Verity, Faith and Justice':

Courtroom dystopia.

Xu Bing's 'Prayer Carpet':

Different languages, same beliefs.

Important mentions also go out to the City Hall trio of Ho Tzu Nyen's 'The Bohemian Rhapsody Project', Gustavo Romano's 'Time Notes' and Donna Ong's Chrysalis series; Mark Wallinger's 'Angel' at National Museum; as well as Otto Karvonen's 'Now Serving', Ashok Sukumaran's 'Redoubt' and Khaled Hafez's 'Revolution' at Tanglin Camp. You can find pictures and descriptions of these and many other works displayed at the Biennale here.

With that, it's adieu to Singapore's first (and possibly last) Biennale. Humdrum life resumes.