On Sunday afternoon I went for a bumble down to Art Stage to check out the talent currently stirring up the Southeast Asian art scene and what I found down there was stimulating, exciting and wonderfully diverse. Art Stage provided a fantastic showcase of how rich and varied contemporary art is right now, displaying the work of artists stretching across the Asia Pacific world and beyond. The carefully selected Western galleries that were inserted amongst the lots complemented the exhibitions hailing from Asia and contributed a global post-modern edge to the atmosphere.
I was particularly drawn to the contemporary art emerging from China at present. Amongst many other talented and nuanced displays, Yang Yongliang’s “Artificial Wonderland” was particularly engaging. His work, creating 山水 landscapes out of photographic building and construction fragments, seemed to express a re-examination of the balance between nature and the fruits of mechanical human creation, whilst preserving an ethereal and dream-like quality. I’m also compelled to give Zhang Peng’s monochromatic videography a mention; his multiple and simultaneously reeled portrayals of the interactions between two young girls and a man unashamedly explored the negotiation and struggle for power in their seemingly playful acts and was not shy in its confrontation of that which is dark, macabre and sometimes uncomfortable.
Being that Sunday was the final afternoon, the atmosphere was lively and pulled a crowd from a wide variety of backgrounds and ages. Given the breadth of the work on display, it was enlivening to think that there was something there for everyone. Many moved with a sense of purpose; seeking out connections to the work, and to each other, in the spaces between.
Image credits: Lawrence Loh
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