SAM Contemporaries: Residues & Remixes

Discover new dimensions in Singapore art through the inaugural presentation of SAM Contemporaries, featuring six Singapore-based artists whose works explore the intersections between historical narratives and contemporary experience.

SAM Contemporaries is a biennial project focusing on emerging practices and generative trends in Singapore art. Fueled by collective research, SAM Contemporaries is a platform for experimentation, built upon sustained conversations and close collaboration between artists and curators.

The inaugural edition titled Residues & Remixes considers the impact of historical remnants on the present as well as the influence of new technologies on how we see, experience and understand the world. Migration and cultural flows have defined the region's history, its landscape, memories and economies. In this exhibition, artists adopt new methods and approaches rooted in de- and post-colonial perspectives to engage with residues of time and place, excavate hidden histories and uncover forgotten stories. With an eye on the impact of digital technologies on contemporary experiences, the artists unveil intersections between the past and the present.

From everyday experiences to everyday materials, the works presented in Residues & Remixes highlight the ways in which the artists are remixing and reimagining these residues of time, creating new narratives and reinterpreting the past and present with a broadened lens.


Limited Edition Tote Bags

SamIntroducing our newest collection of limited-edition tote bags inspired by Lila: Unending Play by Jane Lee and SAM Contemporaries: Residues & Remixes. Collect them all! Exclusively available at SAM located in Tanjong Pagar Distripark. Hurry, as stocks are limited.

about the artists

Yeyonn Ann Avis is a multimedia artist who reconsiders systems of artistic production. Her practice extends beyond the limits of visual art and includes music, design and branding. As an artist, she often draws inspiration from digital culture and her personal experiences.
Avis has participated in group exhibitions such as Sugar pills for a bitter world (2022) at Objectifs; Not for Sale (2022) during Singapore Art Week; Time Passes (2021) at the National Gallery Singapore; Objects in the Mirror (2019) at Supernormal and held a solo exhibition n Entities (2018) in Jeju Island, South Korea. Avis also performed her live video Lick (2021) at the Esplanade—Theatres on the Bay, Singapore.

Anthony Chin creates site-specific and responsive artworks that poetically and conceptually respond to a given site’s architectural presence and history. He is drawn to issues of power that challenge our collective existence, in part as a response to living on a tiny island city state. His works, which emerge from extensive research, transform common materials to draw attention to unacknowledged structures of power in the colonial and post-colonial eras.
Chin has participated in various local and overseas art shows and venues, including Beijing’s 798 art district where he held his first solo exhibition, as well as residencies and exhibitions at the Taipei International Artists Village and the Metropolitan Museum of Manila. He has also participated in four programmes by local arts organisation OH! Open House.

Priyageetha Dia works with time-based media and installation. Her artworks offer speculative narratives on Southeast Asian plantations, which she views as sites for recovering stories of resistance. Her research interests also include building nonlinear narratives through digital semiotics, migrant histories and our relationship with the non-human.
Her recent exhibitions have been held at the Kochi-Muziris Biennale, Kerala (2022–2023); La Trobe Art Institute, Australia (2022); National Gallery Singapore (2020) and ArtScience Museum, Singapore (2019). She was the recipient of the IMPART award by Art Outreach in 2019. Dia was an Artist-in-Residence at the NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore in 2022 and was selected for the upcoming cycle by SEA AiR—Studio Residencies at the Jan van Eyck Academie in the Netherlands from April to July 2023.

Fyerool Darma draws inspiration from popular culture, archival material, literary references, the Internet and his own lived experiences. In his work, Fyerool actively experiments with different objects, materials and mediums, including photography, sculpture and digital media.
His projects have been presented in notable group exhibitions including Living Pictures: Photography in Southeast Asia, National Gallery Singapore (2022–2023); Afro-Southeast Asia Project, ASEAN Culture House, Busan (2022), Vargas Museum, Philippines (2022), Nanyang Technological University, Art, Design and Media Gallery, Singapore (2021); As the West Slept, World Trade Centre, New York (2019), part of Performa 2019; and An Atlas of Mirrors, Singapore Biennale 2016. Fyerool was an Artist-in-Residence at the NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore (2019–2020).

Khairulddin Wahab’s paintings weave narratives from cultural geography, environmental history and post-colonialism in Singapore and Southeast Asia. Working with archival materials and found images, Khairulddin creates visual tableaus that allude to our historical and political encounters with the natural world.
He graduated with a BA in Fine Arts from LASALLE College of the Arts in 2014. He has exhibited at local and international events and venues including Cuturi Gallery with two solo exhibitions, The Shape of Land (2023) and The Word for World is Forest (2021); Biennale Jogja XV—Equator 5 (2019) and State of Motion: Sejarah-ku (2018). He was the recipient of the National Library Creative Residency in 2021 and winner of the 2018 UOB Painting of the Year.

Moses Tan is a Singapore-based artist whose work explores histories that intersect with queer theory and politics while looking at melancholia and shame as points of departure. Working with sculpture, found objects, drawing, video and installation, he employs subtle messaging and codes to form narratives. He graduated from LASALLE College of the Arts with a BA (Hons) in Fine Arts and a BA (Hons) in Chemistry and Biological Chemistry from Nanyang Technological University.
He was awarded the Noise Singapore Award for Art and Design in 2014, Winston Oh Travel Research Grant in 2016 and the LASALLE Award for Academic Excellence in 2016. His works have been exhibited in Yavuz Gallery and Grey Projects, Singapore; Hidden Space and 1A Space, Hong Kong; Indiana University, United States; Sabanci University, Turkey; Kunst im Dialog, Germany and at 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art, Australia. He also completed a residency in Santa Fe Art Institute, United States.

publication

Synopsis
Expanding on ideas explored by the artworks in the exhibition, the SAM Contemporaries: Residues & Remixes publication contextualises the show’s curatorial approach and the featured artistic practices through documentation, field notes, scholarly essays, speculations and conversations of various forms (and formalities) between artists and curators.

Contributors: Dr June Yap (Foreword), Dr Shanthini Pillai, artists Yeyoon Avis Ann, Anthony Chin, Priyageetha Dia, Fyerool Darma, Khairulddin Wahab and Moses Tan, with curators Joella Kiu, Ong Puay Khim, Shabbir Hussain Mustafa, Syaheedah Iskandar, Kenneth Tay and Teng Yen Hui.

Purchase Link
The publication is available for sale on ALKEM: here

 

artworks

A Collisional Accelerator of Everydays (A.C.A.E.)

Yeyoon Avis Ann

Landscape Palimpsest

Khairulddin Wahab

a caveat, a score

Moses Tan

From Silver to Steel

Anthony Chin

South Sea Ore

Anthony Chin

LAMENT H.E.A.T

Priyageetha Dia

Total Output featuring Aleezon, berukera, billyX, Jasim, Lee Khee San, Lé Luhur, and rawanXberdenyut

Fyerool Darma

L4NDf33lz featuring Aleezon, Lé Luhur, Manni Wang, mr. jalee, rawanXberdenyut, and Taufiq Rahman

Fyerool Darma

Location: SAM Hoardings along Bras Basah Road and Queen Street

Trees Upside-down

Yeyoon Avis Ann

Location: SAM Hoardings along Bras Basah Road and Queen Street