JUST NOT NUDE ENOUGH. 2019
Singapore Utopia Group Exhibition, curated by Deborah Lim and Lisa Polten.
"Just not nude enough" a lecture-installation
Singapore abides by a mandate that any person appearing nude in public or in a private place is criminally liable. These laws results in a reconsideration of the body and its representation and display. Yanyun Chen presents a lecture-installation meandering through policy, media coverage, abandoned artworks and the residues of nudities.
This year marks the Bicentennial celebrations for Singapore, with explorations into what constitutes the current state of Singaporean national identity. Instead of looking back, we want to examine current socio-political and cultural contexts. Split into chapters, Singapore Utopia presents artists who address themes of multiculturalism, intimacy, diaspora, land and language. A series of programmes to accompany the exhibition will hold equivalent weight, occupying a central space in the gallery and reaching into genres of literature and performance.
Section 27A of the Miscellaneous Offences (Public Order and Nuisance) Act, Chapter 184 sets us apart from international art practices. It seeps into our subconscious as a flesh toned fence, framing the structures of our self-censorship. Like skin holding in our organs, blood, bones, nerves, guts from spilling our anxiety onto public terrain, our laws against nudity–both public, private, visual, and performative—stretches out to fix in a definition of our bodies, bind the bodies of our works, and prevent these bodies from touching each other.
17th August 2019 5pm - 6pm Chan+Hori Contemporary, Singapore
FIGURES 2013-2019
Anna
Exhibited at Raw Forms, Coda Culture, 2019.
This is Anna. She is a life model.
She posed for us over the course of 12 weeks.
7 weeks in, in the middle of a pose,
Anna had a psychological breakdown.
Tears streaming, shaking, she stormed off the platform.
Her subjectivity bursts through our objectification,
her nakedness rose to the surface of her nudity,
leaving us bewildered and in shame.
Anna’s humanness and ours touched.
Art exited.
TWO STANDING FIGURES - FOR L.M. 2015
Two Standing Figures – for L. M.
2015 Charcoal on paper
For – because – there was Latiff Mohidin’s Two Standing Figures, that there is a space to pay tribute, to revel in, to learn from, to think, to mimic, to steal, to be with.
For – because – of such an esteemed master, that one can rebel against a wall full of jarring colours and feverish brushwork of two static totems, with black and white layers of two moving figures getting into a standing position.
“Two Standing Figures – for L. M.” is an attempt to take apart and recreate Mohidin’s image. It is an attempt that is exposed, raw, undressed. It is caught in a blur haze of note taking through hands, eyes, and a mind that is not Mohidin’s.
And since it is from him – because of him – that this work can be made, this work can only be for him.
A quotation.
A response.
For.
Chan Hampe Galleries “Fresh Takes” Group Exhibition from 11th March to 29th March 2015.
SWALLOWTAIL. 2015
Swallowtail
2015 Charcoal on paper
Swallowtail is born from a collaboration with Singaporean film-maker Liao Jie Kai, a piece made as part of a filmic exploration The Drawing Room & Episodes from Art Studio, inspired by the text, characters and narratives from Yeng Pway Ngon’s novel, Art Studio. The film features artist Yanyun Chen in a studio space, drawing a portrait from life over the span of 6 weeks. This work was first exhibited alongside Liao Jie Kai’s film at the group exhibition “Spirit of Place” at the Jendela Visual Art Space, Esplanade, Singapore.
Swallowtail has been exhibit with Liao Jie Kai’s The Drawing Room at FICTION NON FICTION - Reassembling 24 frames of reality through non-narrative film works, Cultural Affairs Bureau, Macau (28th October - 31st December 2019)
