Art Takes Over Gelato Haven Sweet Cheeks At This Pop-Up Event
Emerging artists have transformed cult-favourite gelato shop Sweet Cheeks into a pop-up where art and dessert meet, and you’re invited.
Who says art has to be confined to traditional museum walls and galleries? What if you could enjoy dessert and cute art at the same time?
That’s exactly the vibe of Melting Thresholds, the latest exhibition from Singapore-based creative platform GOFY. Known for championing Southeast Asia’s new wave of visual artists, GOFY’s signature GOFY& series pairs emerging creatives with lifestyle brands to create immersive, multi-sensory experiences. This time, they’ve teamed up with beloved local gelato cafe Sweet Cheeks to blur the line between gallery and everyday indulgence — and the result is part art show, part flavour trip, part soft-focus fever dream.
The Melting Thresholds show, which runs from May 17 to Sep 14 at Sweet Cheeks' Lavender store (147 Tyrwhitt Road) features four rising artists from the region – Shu and Money Wang (Malaysia), Nina Sach (Thailand), and Singapore's own Jaeyyelle, a regular collaborator with FEMALE – each known for exploring identity and memory through whimsical, deeply personal visual styles.
GOFY co-curator Anna Du Toit, alongside artists Jaeyyelle and Shuuhuahua, chatting about the inspiration behind their works.
GOFY co-curator Anna Du Toit, alongside artists Jaeyyelle and Shuuhuahua, chat about the inspiration behind their artworks.
Curated by GOFY co-founder Tiffany Soh and assistant curator Anna Du Toit, Melting Thresholds explores the liminal spaces (grey areas, essentially) between the real and the surreal. “Melting Thresholds is about dissolving lines; between real and imagined, sweet and strange, art and everyday rituals. We wanted to explore the in-between spaces where ideas take shape, and where emotion and instinct blur into something more sensory and unexpected," says Soh.
To celebrate the exhibition, Sweet Cheeks is launching two new exclusive flavours: Blurred Lines is a surprisingly harmonious fusion of earthy black sesame and the subtle sweetness of ube, while Hazy Daze offers a rich blend of warm houjicha and banana.
Sounds tempting? There’s more. Expanding beyond the visual, GOFY has tapped on lifestyle brands Objects of Comfort and Riau Candle Co. to explore rest as a creative space, offering limited-edition silk pillowcases and candles respectively, to immerse visitors in the exhibition’s dreamy, in-between world.
Catch the exhibition’s opening party on Saturday, May 17 (2pm-8pm), where you can also take part in a ticketed workshop where you'll get to make your own mirror ($45 per pax – register here). Unwind with the mellow tunes of the DJ set in the evening, and bring a keepsake home with you in the form of keychains featuring the artworks. For collectors, prints and original works are available starting at $50 both in-store and online at GOFY's website.
Here, we delve into some of the featured artworks by the emerging artists for a taste of what you can expect at the pop-up.
Local artist Jaeyyelle transforms the pain of introspection into a beautiful, whimsical dreamscape in To Spite My Face.
In To Spite My Face, the fine line between our past and present selves are dissolved in a pool of cool-toned hues. This dreamscape is fractured by lines as sharp and precise as Jaeyyelle’s incisive and unflinching exploration of regret and the pain of the past that reflects back at us in our mirrors. The past is a familiar playground of inspiration for the local illustrator. She is inspired by literature, nostalgic cartoons and a sense of wonder that shines through the inner-child in all of us. Inspired by the phrase “I cut off my nose to spite my face”, the artwork captures the self-sabotaging nature of choices driven by ego and vanity, something the artist admits to having experienced firsthand.
Femininity is anything but passive as bold shapes and loud colours burst to life in Femme I by Nina Sach (Thailand).
Introspection is also at the heart of Bangkok-based illustrator and graphic designer Nina Sach’s Femme I. Through Sach’s Femme series, the female form is transfigured through striking shapes, lines and contrasts, juxtaposed by her strategic use of empty space. Details as minute as strands of hair are elevated with a sense of dynamism, transforming into a symbol of the individuality of one’s inner world. Sach infuses her observations into her work, celebrating the power of personal reflection.
Mysterious characters hide in plain sight in Malaysian-based artist Money Wang's Mr Flower Pot.
The blurring of lines between everyday reality and the imagination is also captured in Money Wang’s Mr Flower Pot, a creative reinterpretation born from mixing analog textures with digital techniques, transforming a flowerpot into a lively character. A Malaysia-based textile and print designer and alumnus of Central Saint Martins, Wang’s experimentation with the material, from wearables to furniture, has become his trademark.
Catch a glimpse of yourself in this interactive piece, Heart Hands, by Money Wang.
Complete with a face, moustache and an animated expression, Wang infuses the flowerpot with a charming personality, injecting new life into the mundane. Heart Hands, another of Wang’s featured works, is a three-dimensional display with a distorted mirror that makes for some trippy selfies.
Everyday scenes become worlds of whimsy in Three Houses by Shu (Malaysia).
The mundane also becomes fodder for larger-than-life questions in fellow Malaysian artist Shuuhuahua’s work, Three Houses. Set in the familiar scene of a traditional Chinese village, three “houses” stand side by side, the largest housing a family, the medium-sized one for the dog, and the smallest one for the Datuk Gong (Na Tuk Kong), local guardian spirits. Shu plays on the irony between scale and significance, using the size of the houses to pose a paradox: What really matters in life?