Lost City and Other Stories Hanart Square Until Aug 21
It's hard not to be impressed by Michael Lee Hong Hwee. The Singaporean writer, curator and educator is a prolific artist with a strong sense of craftsmanship, and Lost City and Other Stories exemplifies this. The show features a series of architectural-like 'blueprints', a set of artist's books, a video and a large collection of architectural models. So, on the surface the exhibition appears a bit sterile, as if you've stumbled into an architecture school's critique session.
But it only takes a cursory glance to realise this is no student work. This is sophisticated and heady material, aimed at a knowledgeable and curious viewer. The first thing to note is Lee's work is heavily research-based and engages with local (Singaporean) building culture, global architectural history and urban theory. Beyond that is the quirky sense of humour and playful narrative that underlies the quite monochrome models and posters. It's as if a poet married an architect and bred a romantic, sci-fi obsessed artist.
In the poster series, Second-Hand City: Architectural Blueprints, Lee's wit and sense of detail emerges. In one, Paradise Now, we see a generic sort of cityscape, computer drawn, with cartoon thought bubbles, as if the buildings have sentience and individuality, a continuing theme in Lee's work.
In another poster, buildings wilfully transform other, older ones, creating new living spaces. In the next (above), Rem Koolhaas' CCTV tower explodes and reproduces, with the only explanations being bizarrely satirical project statements.
Yet, this all transcends simple anthropomorphism, becoming more a metaphor for the life a building gains as it is 'used' by people and what might be lost when a structure is destroyed, or never built at all.