The Substation presents, in collaboration with Visual Arts Centre, a group exhibition on abstraction. REDACTION showcases works of abstract art that investigate and interrogate various conceptions and modes of abstraction. The exhibition’s thematic concerns relate to the restriction of access and loss of transparency in the acts of creation and construction, as well as issues of legibility and obscurity in relation to the recollection and interpretation of narratives, both personal and political.
REDACTION features artworks by 17 contemporary artists of diverse backgrounds and practices, including the following: Charlotte Chin’s ‘The Three Muses’ contains minimal but violent swirls of colours and scrawls of lines on the canvas, reminiscent of the marks found in a child’s early forays into drawing. The work speaks of the loss of innocence in the current climate of anxiety and violence, amidst the global pandemic and conflict.
Raymond Yap’s applies his methodology of ritualistic layering and removing to ‘Flame’, in exploring the relationships between form, colour, texture and translucence. The resulting coheres into a reimagined landscape of non-representational visual motifs and playful expressions.
Sunaina Bhalla’s ‘Excised, Altered, Renewed I’ continues her exploration of bodily resilience, by presenting her manipulations of the canvas as metaphors for the surgical processes that a human body encounters in its attempts to heal. It culminates in a work with textured scratches and distinctive lines that cut across the canvas, evocative of the ominous tension between the movements and memories of the skin.
Valerie Ng’s ‘Into the Shadows’ brings another perspective into the exhibition. Her work, a continuation of her ‘Ether’ series, conjures up lightness and serenity with forms that are evocative of floating matter, and which call to mind the qualities of lightness and weight in the wind.
Vincent Twardzik Ching’s ‘Double Cancellation’ is a sculptural piece that comprises the fragments of materials that he found in his studio. The work manipulates the pictorial by anthologizing the disparate materials, resulting in a work that is both intriguing and beguiling in its construction of the domestic realm.
REDACTION is curated by artist-curator Bridget Tay. The canvases for the works are sponsored by Krafers’ Paradise.
REDACTION runs from 28th June to 6th July 2022 at Visual Art Centre, 10 Penang Road, #01-02 Dhoby Ghaut Green, Singapore 238469.
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