Singapore Art Museum
71 Bras Basah Road, Singapore 189555.
http://www.singaporeartmuseum.sg/
Tel: 6332 3222
Monday to Sunday: 10am - 7pm
Friday: 10am - 9pm
(Free admission on Friday night, 6pm – 9pm & for Singaporean Senior Citizens)
Adult $10, Student/Senior citizens (Non-Singaporean) : $5
Wondering where to go on a Friday night, we decided to visit the Art Museum when we learnt about the free admission! (We're cheapies, we know...). Whatsmore, I was keen to see the controversial art piece presented by FX Harsono that hit the headlines - the use of butterflies and bees, believed to have been brutally killed for the sake of art.
Titled FX Harsono, Testimonies, (4 March 2010 to 9 May 2010) this exhibition offers a glimpse to the political, social and cultural changes that have shaped Indonesian society, and the artist’s constant re-evaluation and re-positioning of his role throughout this recent history.
Here are some of his works which caught our interest.
(captions extracted from brochure of the museum)
The Voices controlled by The Power (1994)
Wooden masks gaze voicelessly at a macabre centrepiece: their own severed mouths, naked evidence of their violent mutilation. These traditional wayang masks, or topeng, stand as a mournful testament to the situation of powerlessness; they symbolise each and every person who has been left voiceless without recourse — a situation familiar to those Indonesians who lived under the New Order.
Me: A stunning piece. There was no need to guess the meaning of this art, the message sent was crystal clear and powerful.
Thousand Times Pain (2007)
A thousand bees are pinned to the wall with needles. While the pain caused by the fine point of a needle is slight and subtle, the pain is nonetheless, palpable. Repeated, these ‘points of pain’ accumulate to slowly wear down their victims by a gradual process of attrition. Individually, they appear insignificant; their pain passes us by, insidious in its subtlety. Amassed into a grid, where the subtle violence is repeated a thousand times over, they convey the haplessness of victims in a potent symphony of subtle agony.
Me: On close up, you could see how some of the wings were chipped and needles were poked at odd angles. It must have taken a considerable amount of time and effort for the artist to complete the entire board, neatly aligned and pierced.
Bon Appetit (2008)
In this installation, a table is laid for a meal, the cutlery and chinaware meticulously arranged according to the table etiquette of the elite, anticipating the arrival of diners possessing social status and privilege. Startlingly, the bowls and plates are filled not with food but with butterflies, neatly fastened to the chinaware. Much of Harsono’s recent work has employed the butterfly as a symbol of a victim — beautiful and vulnerable, and inevitably, destined for destruction or attack. The butterflies in Bon Appetit are forcibly pinned down, about to be consumed. While the work appears charming on the surface, it nonetheless hints at unequal power relations in society, and the relationship between the powerful and the powerless. As Bon Appetit suggests, violence and danger have subtly infiltrated the home, the most personal and private of spaces.
Me: 109 butterflies was used in this installation, local conservationist group ButterflyCircle was concerned that the butterflies had been deliberately killed. The artist himself claimed that they were collected at the end of their lives at a farm in Indonesia, mediately treated by a taxidermist, and formed into the posture or shape that he required for the installation. I felt sorry if he did what he had wanted to express his sympathy for, but this piece of art was nevertheless captivating and beautiful.
Burned Victims (1998)
(Photo from SAM Exhibition Brochure)
Torsos are suspended in oblong metal frames, arrangements of regular lines which highlight the agonised contortions of the torsos. Placed before each torso is a pair of burnt footwear, rendering the figures all the more forlorn. This performance installation was made in response to a tragic episode of the May 1998 riots, during which the rioting mob stormed a shopping mall, sealed off its exits and set it on fire. The motives for such callous brutality remain unknown. Whatever the reasons, the hundreds of people who were trapped and burnt to death in the shopping mall were all victims of a power struggle that culminated in the downfall of Suharto. In an almost photo-journalistic fashion, the artist presents to his audience the scorching image of the victims’ bodies, to elicit horror and condemnation of civil violence.
Me: It was the burnt footwear that caught my attention. Sad.
The museum itself is a standing piece of art, we had some time and hence started taking pictures of the compound. I like the floor tiles.
A feel of artistic fervour ran through our minds as we toured the place and we decided to pamper ourselves at Lao Beijing which has a reminiscent of an Old Beijing Teahouse (our excuse to indulge in Xiao Long Baos and La Mian)!!
(Photo from Lao Beijing@PS website)
http://www.singaporeartmuseum.sg/
Tel: 6332 3222
Monday to Sunday: 10am - 7pm
Friday: 10am - 9pm
(Free admission on Friday night, 6pm – 9pm & for Singaporean Senior Citizens)
Adult $10, Student/Senior citizens (Non-Singaporean) : $5
Wondering where to go on a Friday night, we decided to visit the Art Museum when we learnt about the free admission! (We're cheapies, we know...). Whatsmore, I was keen to see the controversial art piece presented by FX Harsono that hit the headlines - the use of butterflies and bees, believed to have been brutally killed for the sake of art.
Titled FX Harsono, Testimonies, (4 March 2010 to 9 May 2010) this exhibition offers a glimpse to the political, social and cultural changes that have shaped Indonesian society, and the artist’s constant re-evaluation and re-positioning of his role throughout this recent history.
Here are some of his works which caught our interest.
(captions extracted from brochure of the museum)
The Voices controlled by The Power (1994)
Wooden masks gaze voicelessly at a macabre centrepiece: their own severed mouths, naked evidence of their violent mutilation. These traditional wayang masks, or topeng, stand as a mournful testament to the situation of powerlessness; they symbolise each and every person who has been left voiceless without recourse — a situation familiar to those Indonesians who lived under the New Order.
Me: A stunning piece. There was no need to guess the meaning of this art, the message sent was crystal clear and powerful.
Thousand Times Pain (2007)
A thousand bees are pinned to the wall with needles. While the pain caused by the fine point of a needle is slight and subtle, the pain is nonetheless, palpable. Repeated, these ‘points of pain’ accumulate to slowly wear down their victims by a gradual process of attrition. Individually, they appear insignificant; their pain passes us by, insidious in its subtlety. Amassed into a grid, where the subtle violence is repeated a thousand times over, they convey the haplessness of victims in a potent symphony of subtle agony.
Me: On close up, you could see how some of the wings were chipped and needles were poked at odd angles. It must have taken a considerable amount of time and effort for the artist to complete the entire board, neatly aligned and pierced.
Bon Appetit (2008)
In this installation, a table is laid for a meal, the cutlery and chinaware meticulously arranged according to the table etiquette of the elite, anticipating the arrival of diners possessing social status and privilege. Startlingly, the bowls and plates are filled not with food but with butterflies, neatly fastened to the chinaware. Much of Harsono’s recent work has employed the butterfly as a symbol of a victim — beautiful and vulnerable, and inevitably, destined for destruction or attack. The butterflies in Bon Appetit are forcibly pinned down, about to be consumed. While the work appears charming on the surface, it nonetheless hints at unequal power relations in society, and the relationship between the powerful and the powerless. As Bon Appetit suggests, violence and danger have subtly infiltrated the home, the most personal and private of spaces.
Me: 109 butterflies was used in this installation, local conservationist group ButterflyCircle was concerned that the butterflies had been deliberately killed. The artist himself claimed that they were collected at the end of their lives at a farm in Indonesia, mediately treated by a taxidermist, and formed into the posture or shape that he required for the installation. I felt sorry if he did what he had wanted to express his sympathy for, but this piece of art was nevertheless captivating and beautiful.
Burned Victims (1998)
(Photo from SAM Exhibition Brochure)
Torsos are suspended in oblong metal frames, arrangements of regular lines which highlight the agonised contortions of the torsos. Placed before each torso is a pair of burnt footwear, rendering the figures all the more forlorn. This performance installation was made in response to a tragic episode of the May 1998 riots, during which the rioting mob stormed a shopping mall, sealed off its exits and set it on fire. The motives for such callous brutality remain unknown. Whatever the reasons, the hundreds of people who were trapped and burnt to death in the shopping mall were all victims of a power struggle that culminated in the downfall of Suharto. In an almost photo-journalistic fashion, the artist presents to his audience the scorching image of the victims’ bodies, to elicit horror and condemnation of civil violence.
Me: It was the burnt footwear that caught my attention. Sad.
The museum itself is a standing piece of art, we had some time and hence started taking pictures of the compound. I like the floor tiles.
A feel of artistic fervour ran through our minds as we toured the place and we decided to pamper ourselves at Lao Beijing which has a reminiscent of an Old Beijing Teahouse (our excuse to indulge in Xiao Long Baos and La Mian)!!
(Photo from Lao Beijing@PS website)
