'Change' for the better
The Singapore Biennale poses the question: is development always beneficial?
Behind the baroque facade of the Singapore Art Museum (SAM), at the foot of a chandelier-lit curving stairway, sits a traditional Malaccan fishing boat. Heaped into this wooden vessel are a thousand glass bottles, each bearing a message from a male inmate from the island republic's Changi Prison.
The words, written on white labels affixed on the bottles, reflect the aspirations of each prisoner, spelling out what they hope to achieve after they are released.
The hope is that the public can see how relevant the art is to them
Since the Singapore Biennale 2013 opened last month, visitors to the contemporary art event have milled curiously around this installation, titled Telok Blangah, by Malaysia-born, Singapore-based artist Ahmad Abu Bakar, 50. On a table next to the boat, pens, note cards and a postbox are provided, for onlookers to respond to any message that strikes a chord with them. The public's messages will be sent, after vetting, to the inmates. It is a symbolic rehabilitation of the jailed individual, establishing tentative links between the man and society at large, before he regains his freedom.
In a way, this humble, haunting fisherman's boat - marooned, seemingly, in an incongruous time and place - serves as a fitting icon for the Singapore Biennale's fourth edition, with the theme "If the world changed". The work is both the name of an area in Singapore where Malay royalty used to live, as well as a particular style of traditional Malay costume, hinting at the inter-mingling of race, language and history in the Southeast Asian region.
Organised by SAM, the S$6-million (HK$37.4 million) "SB2013" features 82 works by artists and art collectives from 13 countries around Singapore including Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos and Myanmar. The pieces were selected by 27 co-curators, also drawn from the region. And the display is spread over nine venues, including the National Library and National Museum, Fort Canning Park and the Singapore Management University's city campus.
"We selected some of the best artworks from some of the artists not represented in the international list [of renowned Indonesian artists who make the rounds of biennales]," says Jakarta-based curator Mia Maria. "Not because we're trying to … resist, but because we want to give more space to these artists and add another view of Indonesian art and painting within contemporary Southeast Asian society. The hope is that the public can see how relevant the art is to them."
Visitors will have no problems relating to Toko Keperluan, an installation by Indonesian artist Anggun Priambodo. Toko Keperluan means an old-fashioned provisions store, which is essentially what the 36-year-old artist has recreated in the forecourt of SAM's annex, 8Q. Filled with things that are actually for sale - from traditional Indonesian papier-mache animal heads to carrom boards - the wooden shop represents a critique of today's disposable consumerism. It pokes fun, too, at the recent hipster trend, where nostalgia and old-school items have been parlayed into cult-commerce.