SUZANN VICTOR

Gajah Galley is proud to announce its 5th consecutive participation in Art Stage Singapore, and will be presenting an exciting installation work by established Singaporean artist Suzann Victor. With the support of the National Arts Council, Victor will be bringing to Art Stage her Contours of a Rich Manoeuvre, which is a 12 piece red chandelier, taking center stage at the art fair in celebration of SG50!

Contours of a Rich Manoeuvre Series was first commissioned for the re-opening of the newly refurbished National Museum of Singapore. As a kinetic work, the series marks out a dramatic mid-air calligraphy that synchs, alternates or changes by way of the physics of differentiated time signatures, each morphing into another over fifteen minute cycles. The kinetic display seeks to disrupt the language of signs by reconstructing colonial signifiers into performance markers of an Asian iconography.

The Contours series speaks in the language of time where timing is the heartbeat driving the movements that make drawings out of light. This language of time is created as twelve sets of time signatures that are based on predetermined schedules and whose function is to choreograph the timing of electrical pulses in matrixes of synchronization and delays to produce the initial force for swinging each chandelier pendulum. Each chandelier pendulum is timed to start or end its swinging according to inbuilt triggers and stops that are programmed for keeping time or creating delays as well as other permutations. These two basic matrixes allow the artwork to perform organic manoeuvres or regimented patterns.

These twelve sets of time signatures, when physicalized as the swinging motion of chandeliers, transcribes time into a visual forms, which are further pronounced by the glowing light trails “drawn” by the chandeliers’ lit bulbs as they swing through the air like bright moving pixels. The swinging motion of the artwork also induces a physiological counter-performance on the part of the spectator, where the kinetics of the artwork, the viewer and the foreshortened perspective together form a powerful triad for plotting an experience of bodily precariousness.

A recipient of numerous grants and scholarships, Suzann Victor is one of Singapore’s leading figures in contemporary art, her participation in and contribution to visual art in Singapore has always been much valued. She has garner significant accomplishment for her ability to articulate complex ideas into grandeur forms, often incorporating kinetic mechanism and technology in her installations.

In 2001, Victor was selected amongst 4 other Singaporean artists to participate in the 49th Venice Biennale, Singapore’s first participation in the world’s most renowned biennale. In 2009, Victor was awarded the prestigious New York-based Civitella Ranieri Foundation fellowship following the completion of her doctorate at the University of Western Sydney. In 2013, Victor’s work Rainbow Circle: Capturing A Natural Phenonemon was commissioned by the Singapore Biennale as a site and context specific work, the National Museum of Singapore's Rotunda.

Suzann Victor has a wide repertoire of exhibitions around the world including Casula Powerhouse Art Centre of Sydney, Palazzo Delle Papesse Centro Arte Contemporanea of Italy, Zendai Museum of Modern Art of China and National Museum of Singapore. She is also collected by Singapore Art Museum, Australian High Commission, Ministry of Information and the Arts Singapore, Changi Airport Singapore.

Other than Suzann Victor, Gajah Gallery will also be presenting exciting works by other renowned Southeast Asian artists such as Chua Ek Kay, Teng Nee Cheong and Jason Lim from Singapore, established Indonesian artists Yunizar, Ugo Untoro and Yusra Martunus, famous Bali based American artist Ashley Bickerton, prominent Malaysian artist Ahmad Zakii Anwar as well as widely sought after Chinese ink artist Li Jin.

In celebration of Singapore’s art week, Gajah Gallery will also be showcasing a solo exhibition by Indonesian artist Ugo Untoro in our premises at Hill Street. In this exhibition, the artist will be featuring new paintings that celebrate heterogeneity, ecstatic and explosive energy that is connected to the intoxicating experience that destroys rationalism and instrumental normality of dominant culture. Ugo Untoro solo exhibition will run from 23 January to 8 February 2015 at Gajah Gallery.