10AM–7PM
Level 1, Block 37, Tanjong Pagar Distripark
Free admission for all
The Sea is a Field reveals the inner workings of the SAM Fellowship programme. One of the lines of inquiry of the inaugural programme was the artists’ interest in traversing the space that separates them. Put simply, how to travel between Port Dickson and Singapore by sea? As it turns out there is no simple route. In August 2023, a trip was taken, utilising a network of local ferries, between Malaysia, Indonesia, and Singapore. This journey was an opportunity to continue a collaborative method the artists have developed, with Charles Lim making observations through video and Simryn Gill through photography and text. With their parallax perspectives, the artists annotate stories of everyday crossings, migrations, and borders that connect to a deep cultural and political history of the region.
The portside warehouse, left in its raw state, becomes a place where the artists navigate distances and proximities between the space of collaboration. The artists consider this less a finished exhibition space than a site that can hold both of their observations and sensibilities — a zone of convergence for their solitary and private undertakings and their public iterations.
Supported by: |
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Simryn Gill (b. 1959, Singapore; lives and works in Port Dickson, Malaysia and Sydney, Australia) works with a wide range of methods for thinking and making, including writing, drawing, photography, printmaking, creating collections of things, altering objects and publishing. Collecting materials and images from her immediate surroundings, Gill generates poetic and philosophical explorations into the places that we inhabit and carry within us. With Tom Melick, she runs Stolon Press, a publisher in Sydney that makes books and pamphlets, and organises occasional meals and conversations between people working in different modes and practices. Gill has had numerous solo exhibitions in institutions such as Art Gallery of New South Wales (2002, 2022), Tate Modern (2006) and Lund Konsthalle (2017). Gill has also participated in many international exhibitions, including the Singapore Biennale (2006), documenta (2007, 2012), Istanbul Biennial (2011, 2022), Venice Biennale (2013) and Dhaka Art Summit (2018).
A former competitive sailor, Charles Lim Yi Yong's (b. 1973, Singapore; lives and works in Singapore) practice stems from his bodily engagement with the natural world, mediated and informed by field research and experimentation with various media. In 2001, he co-founded the media art collective tsunamii.net, whose works explored the infrastructural politics of the internet. Since 2005, he has developed an ongoing body of work entitled SEA STATE, which explores Singapore's political, biophysical and psychic contours through the lens of its relationship with the sea. Lim has participated in numerous international exhibitions, including documenta (2002), Manifesta (2008), Shanghai Biennale (2008), Singapore Biennale (2011), Venice Film Festival (2011), Venice Biennale (2015), Sydney Biennale (2016), Busan Biennale (2020) and Istanbul Biennial (2022).
Banner: Image courtesy of Simryn Gill.
2023
This table was designed by Vaughan Wozniak O'Connor for Stolon Press, and built by fabricators in Singapore, with assistance from Annabelle Aw. The idea to include a table in the space came from Selene Yap, one of the curators of this exhibition. After visiting Gill’s house in Port Dickson she suggested that Gill’s table be transported to Singapore. The Port Dickson table serves many functions, changing daily depending on guests, meals, the rhythm of work, the time of year. But to relocate Gill’s table to this space would take the centre out of her house, like uprooting a tree, it would risk destroying the home-ecosystem. Gill wrote to Selene: ‘I know you've proposed to bring the PD table to Singapore. I feel this is overworking the proposition. I talked to Tom about it. In Sydney we'd find a way to make a table, we both instinctively said. Tom said let’s do that, in Singapore. I was thinking about the wood that washes onto those un-see-able, unreachable coastlines of Singapore as the material to make it from. Tom thought about all the material that is waste to the building process. We both remembered that almost the entire island is a building site right now. So much plywood, wooden packing crates etc on these sites. Tom has a friend he could ask to help. He could do it in a few days, no problem.’ So it was decided that a table could be built instead. During the making of this exhibition, it has served as a working surface, with Gill using it to write, or simply as a place for museum staff to sit around, eat their lunch, and talk. Over the course of the exhibition, it will be used for artist talks, a book launch, or a place to rest. Mostly, it will be left as an empty surface, mirroring the near-empty space.
Artwork details
1600 x 2200 x 30 mm reclaimed plywood laminated top
Four sets of 25mm thick plywood collapsible leg units
Collection of the artist
STICK WITH SAM
Bring home an exclusive colouring sticker sheet inspired by the ferries and the surrounding nature.
*Available from 12 January onwards, while stocks last.
CURATOR TOUR
Discover more about the exhibition through a guided tour led by SAM curator Selene Yap on the following dates:
• Sun, 21 Jan 2024 | 3pm
• Sat, 9 Mar 2024 | 4pm (cancelled)
• Sat, 6 Apr 2024* | 4.30pm
*Singapore Sign Language (SgSL) interpretation will be provided.
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