14 - 28 October 2011
In 2009, eight suitcases were packed, containing in each the creations and belongings of eight Singaporean artists, from a space they were let opened before, for all to peep and ponder over their travel experiences – loaded onto a journey towards and through different parts of South-East Asia such as Thailand, Cambodia and along the journey, people who love art and reposition followed, who packed a suitcase of their own with this group to return home.
1 x suitcase - a South-East Asia traveling exhibition curated by Agnes Lim and Ernest Chan, marked the beginning of its journey with an exhibition held at the Alliance Française de Singapour in 2009, and is returning this year 2011 for their final show with additional 10 artists from Thailand, China Xi’an, Shanghai, Hong Kong and Cambodia, the countries where 1 x suitcase has stopped over throughout the duration of two years.
The concept of this travel show with creations “pre-packed” into suitcases intend to give viewers an insight into the artists’ travel experiences and to also provide the ease of transporting them to and from these countries. But further than the practicality of showcasing art in suitcases, the artists are exploring the idea of “duality”, of which journeys, usually seen as embarking in the name of “new life” or “self-discovery”.
Since its tribute in 2009, Alliance Française de Singapour has shared the vision of 1 x suitcase in extending the artistic expression of local artists to the region and also raising awareness of art in Asia to its audiences in the latest and final exhibition.
The fans of 1 x suitcase would have realised that some of the pioneering batch of Singaporean artists has stepped out in the midst of this two year journey. It leaves us to realise that a commitment of such extend requires not basically a passion for art making, but the determination in what that only sounds simple as to move art in suitcases.
Looking back at the debute exhibition then, Ernest Chan, who is engaged in the idea of private fantasies, recalled drawing the inspirations from children in Cambodia playing happily for the book kept in his black suitcase where he sketched their moments of delight. Before viewers could get to pick that sketch book from the bag, they should already be drawn into his world of innocence and joy in a rather huge work mounted across the wall portraying them taking pleasure from swimming in the stream and wondering about the greeneries by the flowing waters. These were his part of the show that he dedicated to them who “has so much curiosity that one could enjoy just by picking up stones or other simple games”.
Beside the records of childhood in the village, artists like Steve Chua and Tan Seow Wei have decided then to place their personal experiences to the show. In a more matured world, Seow Wei has explained joy in a more lonesome manner in her work called the “Solitude Joy”. There, her notes of simplicity of life appears much like an old story book where she wrote journals of her lifestyles and events she came across as though they were hand written Chinese song lyrics with sketches of pictures through her memories.
Alike Seow Wei, Agnes Lim used writings together with spontaneous sketches to form her after thoughts of a recent trip to Cambodia resulting to the journal created by a combination of words and pictures. It could simply be a snapshot of a landscape or expressions in what she explains as “reworking ideas on found objects”. It is somehow challenging to perceive a diary made in such code of creativity unless one would take time to perceive the abstract visual drawing in handwritten letters from his subconscious mind.
Steve in turn took his motivation from his personal experiences through the city of Berlin in Germany and finding incredulity within the modernised old town. “There was something distinctive in the place… it was the constructions of present architecture coming out from the classical Prussian Grandeur buildings”, he expressed. During this journey, he has picked tokens of beauty from the streets and the farther landscapes, where he pictured his art in abstract forms deriving from photos and recollections, and subsequently placing wooden cards of these impressions into a structured symphony in his suitcase.
Perhaps abstraction is a method that art could unify cultures as “going to a different place, whether it’s another city or another country, is like trying to reconfigure how I see a line”, Stephanie Cheng sees. Stephanie, who seeks to discover the beauty of using lines, a media that she believes to be the most basic stroke that can be transformed, presented a suitcase made of pale rattan, which in it fills with pieces that resemble memories of her home hence creating a relationship of her with a new place, which she would eventually find home.
Those whom had brought a suitcase to travel likely have attempted finding familiarity and significance in the new environment while travelling. And from the search of those qualities while moving, as the journey progressed in every country, their efforts translate into breakthroughs between language and cultures, artistic exchange and understanding, and successful presentations of different travel experiences by followers whom execute their art forms with an unconventional art medium seen as baggage of necessity.
This medium is easy to relate to all cultures to begin with; that makes each exhibition opening a remarkable stop as the idea of suitcases conveniently marks its place somewhere in the memory of anyone there and here, allowing kept items to unveil the messages of pain and joy through art; that conveys duality, the very fundamental idea of 1 x suitcase.
We welcome you to view the finale of this two year long adventure.
Written by Benedict Tan
