To A Faraway Friend: Beyond Afro-Southeast Asian Affinities is the third exhibition of the long-term and iterative research and exhibition project Afro-Southeast Asia: Pragmatics and Geopoetics of Art during a Cold War initiated by curators Kathleen Ditzig and Carlos Quijon, Jr., with generous support from KONNECT ASEAN, an ASEAN Foundation arts program funded by the Republic of Korea.
Curated with Sooyoung Leam and presented at the ASEAN Culture House in Busan, To A Faraway Friend extends the discursive and regional scope of the previous exhibitions held in Singapore (In Our Best Interests: Afro-Southeast Asian Affinities during a Cold War) and Manila (Cast But One Shadow: Afro-Southeast Asian Affinities) to the Republic of Korea. As its title suggests, the exhibition focuses on the repercussions and pragmatics of friendships to explore geopoetic affiliations and geopolitical aspirations of Afro-Southeast Asia and beyond.
Works by 15 artists from the Republic of Korea and ASEAN nations presented in the show reflect on diplomatic encounters, moments of friction, and strategic alignments that have, and continue to shape geopolitical landscapes across the globe since the beginning of the Cold War following the end of World War II.
The exhibition opens on July 2, 2022 and runs until October 2, 2022.
Fyerool Darma (b. 1987, Singapore) integrates sound, video, new media, sculpture, texts and craft practices into his object and material experimentations, which juxtapose the aesthetics and ideology of modernism alongside Southeast Asian cultures, histories, aesthetics, and politics. He has gradually developed a complex visual vocabulary that draws from sources including tangible and intangible Malay heritage, archives, the Internet, literature, popular culture, the history of craft, visual arts, manufacturing, and manual labour. Apart from art-making, he divides his time teaching art to youths at a non-profit organisation situated in Jurong, and attending to his family and caring for Pipi, their reptilian housemate.
Yeo Workshop is a gallery committed to contemporary art in Singapore. Based in Singapore’s Gillman Barracks district, the gallery features the works of cutting-edge Southeast Asian artists. From artists who employ more traditional techniques and mediums to those who tap on new technologies and innovation such as CGI and AI, Yeo Workshop champions a diverse roster of artists whose practice reflect deep engagement with our contemporary socio-cultural landscape, to stimulate dialogue and critical discourse. In addition to its exhibition programming, it actively engages with the global art world through regular participation at international art fairs including Frieze Seoul, Asia Now Paris and Art Dubai. Covering a multi-disciplinary approach, the gallery defines itself by its progressive engagements that strive to shape the trajectory of contemporary art in Southeast Asia and beyond.
