A solo exhibition by Susie Wong
Curated by Kimberly Shen
Chapel Gallery, Objectifs
8 Jan to 9 Feb 2020
Tues to Sat, 12pm to 7pm / Sun, 12pm to 4pm
Admission is free
Opening Reception: Tues 7 Jan, 7pm to 9pm
Artist Talk / Panel Discussion: Sat 11 Jan, 2pm to 3pm (RSVP here)
Joget Malam: A Night of Dance and Spoken Word: Fri 7 Feb, 7.30pm to 9.30pm (RSVP here)
Dancing Alone (Don’t Leave Me) by artist Susie Wong is an immersive video installation of solitary women dancing freely, evoking imagery of dance halls in the 1950s and 60s.
Referencing a line from the filmThe King and I — “No woman would dance alone while a man is looking at her.” — the exhibition alludes to the consumed representations of women in media that are re-enacted in the everyday.
The dancers in Wong’s videos evoke both the desire to be freed from these tropes and at the same time to themselves consume by reinforcing them through the culturally infusive practices of a modern society. Through dance, she is both empowered and subjugated.
Curatorial notes for the exhibition by Kimberly Shen can be downloaded here.
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EXHIBITION PROGRAMME
Opening Reception: Tues 7 Jan, 7pm to 9pm
Echoing Susie Wong’s Dancing Alone, guest DJ Zai Tang will be playing Kwek Mambo, an eclectic selection of local and regional music from bygone eras, as well as sonorous offerings from places further afield. Put on your dancing shoes and prepare for some pop yeh yeh, rock Khmer, molam magic, Sumatran sublimation, indigenous ingenuity and much more!
Artist Talk / Panel Discussion: Sat 11 Jan, 2pm to 3pm (RSVP here)
Speakers: Susie Wong, Kimberly Shen, Faith Ng
The speakers will discuss representations of women, romance and desire in relation to the exhibition.
Joget Malam: A Night of Dance and Spoken Word: Fri 7 Feb, 7.30pm to 9.30pm (RSVP here)
Featuring Zai Tang’s music playlist mixed by Mr. Has (Telok Ayer Arts Club) and performances by Sharda Harrison and Sabrina Sng.
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About the artist and curator
Susie Wong began her arts practice in the late 1980s, in painting and art writing, complementing
these with art education, teaching, and curatorial projects. Among her works were the installation, Trace, at The Substation, Singapore, and Valentine Willie FA Gallery, KL, in 2008; My Beautiful Indies, at The Esplanade in 2013, and After Image, at Space Cottonseed, Gillman Barracks, 2014. Central to her works then was the inquiry of the image/light as a medium that mediates between memory and loss, between documentation and nostalgia. Extending this, her work now contemplates mass media and the circulation of images and its voracious consumption, appropriating images or visual references for much of her work. Her more recent works were: in 2018, Take Care of Me, part of the curated series Opening Day at Upper Serangoon Shopping Centre; in 2019, The Idea of the Coconut, that encapsulates her research on romantic tropes in media, in a book, as part of a collaborative- curated project Browsing Copy. She was artist-in-residence at the NTU-CCA (Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore) from June to November 2018.
Kimberly Shen is a curator and educator based in Singapore. Her practice lies in the intersection between text and image, drawn from the plurality and transdisciplinary nature of contemporary art which traverses mediums and disciplines. She has presented her curatorial projects at the Institute of Contemporary Arts Singapore, Objectifs – Centre for Photography and Film, NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore, and the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (NAFA). She co-founded and is editor of ellipsis journal, a London/Singapore print publication which has been distributed at art book fairs in Singapore, Europe, the United Kingdom and the United States. She was winner of the IMPART Awards (Curator Category) in 2019 and Curator-in-Residence for The Art Incubator in 2015. A recipient of the National Arts Council Arts Scholarship (Postgraduate), she graduated with a Master of Research in Art: Theory and Philosophy from Central Saint Martins College of Arts and Design, United Kingdom. She is currently Programme Leader (Fine Art) at NAFA.
About the contributors
Sharda Harrison is a performer, theatremaker and theatre educator. She has acted in local and international theatre collaborations and is founder of Pink Gajah Theatre, which performs mainly fringe works and serves as a platform for artists to create and showcase their own works.
Faith Ng is a playwright whose works are noted for their rich characterisation and sensitive portrayals of Singapore life. Faith’s plays include wo(men) (2010), For Better or for Worse (2013) and Normal (2015, 2017), collected in Faith Ng: Plays Volume One (2016).
Sabrina Sng is a theatre artist from Singapore. Her research revolves around the intricacies of cultural identity, and what it means to be a woman in performance and performance making.
Zai Tang is artist, composer and DJ based in Singapore. His new work Escape Velocity III & IV are currently showing at the Singapore Biennale.