The Singapore Artists Challenging Our Perception Of The Ordinary
The six names in this story create wildly different works that tend to blur the boundaries among disparate disciplines. All have little in common except one thing: a certain wondrousness and sense of curiosity that inspire audiences to look at familiar things anew.
The six names in this story create wildly different works that tend to blur the boundaries among disparate disciplines. All have little in common except one thing: a certain wondrousness and sense of curiosity that inspire audiences to look at familiar things anew.
FAWN WORLD
Botanical design studio Fawn World is looking to bring some chaos to the floristry scene. "We do have a propensity for a more goth approach at times as well- using darker colours, plant parts that might resemble bugs or tentacles- an important part of our practice is the appreciation of the natural world- all parts of it," says co-founder Dennis Ng. Case in point: this sculpture fashioned out of the bulbous blossfeldia liliputana cacti.
The object above isn’t a sculpture, but multiple clusters of the bulbous blossfeldia liliputana cactus artfully arranged to create a botanical centrepiece. Meet the latest weaver of floral delirium in town: Fawn World, started this May by brothers Dennis and Tommy Ng, and Isabell Annalin Hansen (all are in their mid‐to late 20s).
Meet the team behind Fawn World: (From left) Dennis Ng, Isabell Annalin Hansen, and Tommy Ng.
Fawn World's MO is to celebrate materials from the natural world traditionally regarded as unusable in the industry – think thorny plants and dark‐coloured or bruised blooms. “Beyond rendering a design service, my desire is to make things a little cheeky and provocative ... We aim to take people out of their comfort zones,” says the older of the guys, Dennis.
The Fawn World team is looking to bring its feverish energy to fields beyond botany design. On the studio's website, they've already tapped on local ceramic artist Hans Chew to create one-of-a-kind vessels for them (as pictured here), which are available for sale on www.fawn-world.com.
This perhaps isn’t surprising, considering how he and Hansen previously worked as a designer and photographer respectively at This Humid House – the botanical design studio that has arguably reshaped the floristry landscape here with its unconventional displays and focus on regional flora.
An example of Fawn World's work, as seen at Singapore fashion label Rye's New Bahru store.
And living up to its name, Fawn World is going beyond plants to spread its vision. Already, it has teamed up with sculptor Hans Chew (who’s also featured in this story) to create custom vessels, as well as artist Sean Tay to curate a series of vintage books and prints about floristry – all for sale on fawn-world.com. Joining this zany botanical universe early next year? Fawn World clothing and merch.
MASUTANI MAY
Japan‐based Singapore artist Masutani May was attracted to glass for its ability to capture light and shadow, using it to express fleeting moments in human interactions, such as in her sculpture Flourish (pictured), which won her the Excellence Prize at last year’s edition of the Tokyo Midtown Award.
Glass‐making is an ancient craft, and the material can feel cold and inanimate as compared to, say, clay. In the hands of this 33‐year‐old though, glass works take on a futuristic yet introspective tone. Previously a graphic designer and an illustrator, she grew frustrated with the limits of what could be expressed through two dimensions and ventured into sculpture, eventually picking up glass-making in Toyama, Japan – famed for its expertise in the medium and where she’s now based.
Glass artist Masutani May
Drawn to glass for its interplay of light and shadow, she starts with minimalist forms, then expands them to create large-scale structures of which appearances change subtly as one moves around them – her way of conveying the ephemeral moments in human interactions and nature.
May's works tend to be abstract and plays with optic illusions as one moves about observe her installations.
Despite graduating from the Toyama Institute of Glass Art only four years ago, Masutani (she married a Japanese) has already exhibited at the Toyama Glass Art Museum. Last year, she won the Excellence Prize at the Tokyo Midtown Award with her sculpture of a melancholic, life-size human body titled Flourish, which was created using flameworking techniques over two months.
“I had progressed to more abstract ideas in my glass artwork and had unknowingly neglected the figurative aspect that came instinctively with my drawings,” she says. “Flourish was a reminder to myself to return home, look back and refocus.”
HANS CHEW
Ceramic artist Hans Chew’s riotous works take inspiration from everyday city life, blending non‐traditional materials such as found objects and other utilitarian items with clay in order to create a new language for the age‐old medium.
Clay-making is how this artist reflects on the bustle and textures of everyday life in the city. With his imaginative eye, quotidian items get hybridised with the medium, resulting in works that crackle with playful tension.
Ceramic artist Hans Chew
Take his recent creations, for instance: plastic funnels given life with red, tentacle-esque tendrils (pictured below), or a discarded stool reconfigured with odd appendages, resulting in a curious sculpture that appears to be part vase, part industrial object.
In Chew's hands, ordinary objects are given a new life - often with a humorous twist, such as this plastic funnel cup oozing a red "liquid".
“Marrying these contrasting mediums and processes is a way for me to find a new language for ceramics – one that would be impossible to achieve in the insular domain of traditional ceramics,” says the 27-year-old who trained in the discipline at Tokyo’s Tama Art University.
A discarded stool the artist found in an alley is submerged into this curious chimaera of a sculpture that seems to be part vase, part industrial object.
His expansive practice has already netted the attention of other rule breakers such as the experimental design studio Supper House, which approached Chew two months ago to create a work for the rooftop of the Ann Siang House hotel. (The outcome is pictured below, and combines the spiky flora of botanical design studio Fawn World and construction site staples such as traffic cones and safety netting with alien-esque vessels by Chew.)
Experimental design studio Supper House approached Chew this August to create a work meant for the rooftop of Ann Siang House - and the result was a an installation titled Community Garden #1: The luxury of Punishment, melding collaborator Fawn World’s spiky flora alongside Chew’s ceramic vessels. Construction site staples like traffic cones and fluorescent safety netting were interspersed throughout this feverish work - warning against intrusion into a beautiful but fragile “garden”.
Come December, he will hold his first solo exhibition – and in Tokyo, no less. May we suggest the Loewe Foundation Craft Prize next?
PHOEBE ZOE HO
Consider art director and set designer Phoebe Zoe Ho a modern Renaissance woman who’s nimbly hopping from one discipline to another to satisfy her curious eye. Here, a quirky experiment with flora.
While most know Ho as an art director and a set designer, she has also tried her hand at sculpting, floristry (a six-month stint with This Humid House), film (she majored in digital film-making), exhibition design and art fabrication.
You might have even encountered her work without knowing. For one, she was in charge of the spatial design of one of the most popular shows staged at the National Museum of Singapore: the 2022 exhibition titled Off/On: Everyday Technology That Changed Our Lives, which looked at gadgets and how they were used in Singapore in earlier decades.
One of Ho's biggest projects to date was helming the spatial design for the National Museum of Singapore’s wildly successful 2022 exhibition Off/On: Everyday Technology That Changed Our Lives, a show that looked at gadgets and how they were used in Singapore in earlier decades.
She created an ultra-immersive setting where various vintage scenarios were brought to life. It wasn’t just a faithful recreation though - Ho added her own signature touch of utilising vivid colours and textures to demarcate sections of the show, much as how auteurs like Wes Anderson integrates colour and design into his story-telling.
As part of an ultra‐immersive setting recreating vintage scenarios, the 29‐year‐old incorporated her signature use of vivid colours and textures as a way of demarcating between different sections – not unlike how auteurs such as Wes Anderson use colour as a key part of storytelling.
“Staying curious is important to me, which is probably why I’ve dabbled in so many mediums,” she says. “We live in a physical world and I think we should enjoy the material pleasures around us. I’m also intrigued by the primal power of non‐verbal communication and how objects can stand in as caricatures of human life.”
Ho has become a go-to name in the local art scene for her textural, often whimsical set designs.
Already, she’s on to her next journey: She’s currently in the Netherlands pursuing a master’s degree in contextual design – a branch of design centred around observing how people use items in their real environments in order to create effective products – at Design Academy Eindhoven, in a bid to create an even more intentional practice.
NAZERUL KHAIRY BEN-DZULKEFLI
Nazerul Khairy Ben‐Dzulkefli’s Malay‐Javanese heritage has resulted in ceramic sculptures that feel almost primordial in their textures and shapes.
Before delving into the arts, this 37-year-old studied biomedical sciences and went on to work as an educator for six years. He only studied art – his first love – proper after relocating to Perth, Australia, in 2017.
Ceramic artist Nazerul Khairy Ben‐Dzulkefli
This circuitous route has coalesced into several broad themes underpinning his practice: of longing, of feeling like an outsider in foreign lands, and a desire to raise awareness of the existence of the Malay community in Singapore for an Australian audience.
This work, part of the series When Can We Eat Together Again? explores the dynamics of navigating Halal eating in multicultural society such as Singapore - the text on the crockery are based on anecdotal accounts collected from the public via a survey carried out by the artist.
Hand‐crafting sculptures with an almost primordial yet fantasy‐like quality, what he ultimately hopes to do is engage both people in and outside of the Malay community to have deeper and more nuanced discussions on the Islamic faith.
The primordial vibes of the artist's works are a reference to religious architectural forms from the Malay Archipelago region, as well as his belief that people share the natural world with spirits and demigods.
Cue his work for the group exhibition Sensory Consumptions: A Metaphorical Feast, held this July at the independent art space Starch: a series of ceramic crockery and utensils that explored the dynamics of navigating halal eating in a multicultural society such as Singapore.
Says Nazerul: “All in all – in a world already so segregated – how do we build a longer table so we can be more welcoming to those who are different from us?"
QUEK SEE YEE
Artist Quek See Yee brings a design‐trained eye to things found in the natural world, such as seeds, leaves, branches and the like, experimenting with them to create new forms and artful arrangements.
The small things in nature that typically go unnoticed – seeds, roots, stems – form the basis for the spare and minimalist works of this artist‐slash‐designer.
Artist and designer Quek See Yee.
Take how she fused a group of petioles (the stalk that connects a leaf to the stem or branch) together to give shape to a poetic paper lamp, or how botanical detritus are strung together to create artful arrangements that call to mind the work of greats such as Alexander Calder.
A lamp-esque structure formed out of petioles (the stalks that connects a leaf to the stem or branch).
Fuelling this 34-year-old’s practice is a childlike curiosity to explore questions about nature and people’s relationship with it.
Her background in architecture explains her fascination with the details found in nature, from structures to colours. The hope, she says, is that her works allow viewers to relate to these natural elements in a more accessible way as compared to, say, reading about them in a textbook. She’s already building on that tangent.
Quek approaches her natural materials with a child-like sense of curiosity, attributing it to being around her nieces and nephew. "Their presence called for a sense of play that is open-minded - being curious and exuberant for the sheer sake of it," says Quek.
This May, she teamed up with fellow artist Jean Ferry to launch a new collective named Some Club. Together, they had a three-month-long residency at Geylang East Public Library, where they shared their nature‐based practices with schoolchildren and elderly folks – an audience that might not necessarily visit traditional art spaces.
Says Quek: “In retrospect, Some Club is an avenue that encourages one to play and begin one’s relationship with art from wherever you are.” Count us in.
This article first appeared in the October 2024 Unusual Edition of FEMALE