Wonder

As a sort of breather just before the mugging started, my friends and I caught the Inaugural Singapore Biennale on it's very last day and I'm very glad we did. We started off the tour at 11am upon the steps of city hall, our first destination ,consuming the free andersen's ice cream they gave us and ended up under the Esplandae bridge at 7pm, three very tired but satisfied individuals. For a 5 dollar ticket, they certainly made sure it was worth your while.

This year's Biennale is staged at three main venues, the Marina Bay area , the South Beach development and City Hall. These were three very different venues and making our way from one place to another felt like we were transiting between the different themes.

The grand City Hall started off our first leg of the journey.


As I browsed the different installations, Rachel Goh's, Who is this Family got me smiling .



The family of the artist re-enacts the poses and demeanor of a photograph taken 12 years ago. They swapped position and poses in a clockwise manner and five new family portraits were taken. Goh commissioned the same photographer who took the original photograph to shoot the new portraits. The effect is playful and the video at the end ,which shows the process of the shoot ,drew me in as a bemused observer.

A piece that I found quietly moving was Charly Nijensohn's, the wreck of men.

Just this singular image cannot do the work justice as the three channel video installation which lasts around 10 mins had my friends and I sitting in the pitch black room, silently watching the video.

But what took the cake for the most unnerving installation was I wonder why? by Prasad, Srinivasa. With projections of fire as a back drop is an entire room of charcoal made objects. Charcoal men chasing charcoal bikes beside charcoal stalls. Accomapanying all of this is the sound of wood burning- a final touch to what I infer to be the transitory nature of all things on earth.

So who wants to go to the Biennale in two years time? =)