JUSTIN LOKE, NOOR MAHNUN (ANUM), SHAYNE PHUA

With thanks to the Bagri Foundation

In conjunction with Singapore Gallery Month, Yeo Workshop is pleased to present Scenes from Another Life, a group exhibition curated by Chelsea Pettitt, Director of the Bagri Foundation at Gillman Barracks.

The mise-en-scène, a well-known French term that encompasses ‘what is put into the scene’, comes alive in this group exhibition. Featuring four artists Noor Mahnun (Anum), Hoa Dung Clerget, Justin Loke and Shayne Phua, the exhibition invites the visitor to explore a series of scenes which hint at recognisable cultural moments. From famous films to detective novels and pop ballads to Bollywood, each artist manifests a scene from another life.

Ceramics, paintings and film are brought into new dialogue with their surroundings, combining historical and personal moments with expanded visions that emanate from the wall and onto the floor. Widely used in cinema, a mise-en-scène is made up of sets, people, lighting and props, arranged in a specific way to tell a story. The artists here were invited to share their cinematic world and allow us to populate their fictional tale. What is the narrative they are trying to convey through this method of ‘setting the scene’? Each object has its place, but what do the colours and patterns tell us? Can we imagine each artist’s state of mind as they materialise this space from their inner world?

Much like a Stephen King novel, Loke’s paintings keep you guessing, from the wayward shoe to the smears of blood - evoking a sense of ‘whodunnit?’. Whilst Phua’s ceramics and curtains invite you to liberate yourself from the confines of a fictional, apathetic Truman Show-like world into one where we take action, as seen in the reconstructed photo of her idealist grandfather with fellow activists.

Anum and Clerget’s worlds are inspired by song and dance, and of celebrations of the women and communities of which they are a part or imagine they can be. Sit with Anum’s joyful domestic colours, patterns and textures whilst enjoying a Bollywood moment or sing along to a Vietnamese anthem in a nail salon whilst celebrating community halls, theatres and restaurants of its diaspora.

The story is only just beginning to be written. As American poet J.D McClatchy said, “Our prose was, well, / versed in poses no less real for being / mimic rushes of scenes from another life to come.”

This exhibition is part of Yeo Workshop’s annual summer programming, which provides a platform for guest curators, foundations and artists to showcase alternative perspectives in contemporary art. The programme invites audiences to discover and engage with experimental voices outside the gallery’s roster, some of whom have never been exhibited in Singapore before.