Everyday Practices

 

Everyday Practices delves into the fundamental conditions of life and its meaning through an exploration of artworks from the Singapore Art Museum’s collection. In a time marked by ongoing conflicts and humanitarian crises, this exhibition considers everyday routines and gestures as small acts of resistance, exploring how art becomes a means of sense-making and coping in the face of adversity.

 

The exhibition draws inspiration from Tehching Hsieh’s seminal work, One Year Performance 1978-1979, where Hsieh confined himself within a self-constructed cage for an entire year, abstaining from conversation, reading, writing, listening to the radio, or watching TV. By reducing his daily activities to the barest minimum of breathing and eating, Hsieh turned “life” and “time” into both the medium and subject of his work.

 

Building on this idea, Everyday Practices brings together artworks by diverse artists across different generations and geographies in Asia, emphasising the themes of “everyday”, “repetition”, and “endurance”. These artworks reveal how daily routines and repetitive actions can become powerful forms of expression and resilience, inviting viewers to reflect on the nature of everyday lived experiences and the collective strength found in individual actions.

 

The exhibition poses the question: “In the face of life’s challenges, how do we go on going on?”.

 

Image credits: Dusadee Huntrakul, Surfing the monsoon waves with the fish, 2015