The overriding theme of this year’s impressive Singapore Art Week – held from Jan. 19-28 – was identity and what it means in the context of history, culture and memory. While the web3 in me would have preferred to see more digital artists represented, there was enough variety to keep me satisfied. The National Gallery explored similarities between South East Asian and South American artists, while at the Gillman Barracks, artworks by South East Asian artists were juxtaposed with African artists. It made for compelling viewing. Here are my highlights.

Boedi Widjaja - Immortal Words

Indonesian-Singaporean artist Boedi Widjaja’s exhibition Immortal Words at the National Arts Council was an exploration of memory and culture. He uncovered twelve words in South East Asian languages that have remained unchanged through time. Referring to them as “ultraconserved words in the DNA language,’ Widjaja worked with a geneticist to give them a molecular structure and then presented them as bioart.  

A vending machine at the exhibition dispensed the ultraconserved words in Southeast Asian languages in micro vials of DNA suspensions, with a QR code to claim an NFT of the dispensed word for visitors to take home. Image courtesy Boedi Widjaja.

Using non-fungible tokens (NFTs) as digital certificates became a critical part of the project’s conceptual engagement with memory, the artist said to me in an interview.

“While the DNA molecules encode memory through ancient words, the NFT encodes each artwork’s data and history of ownerships,” he said. “The digital permanence of blockchain is used here as a technology that enables the transmission and inheritance of memories across generations.” Widjaja’s collaborators were Singaporean geneticist and Associate Professor Eric Yap and Japanese blockchain company Startbahn. 

CROSSROADS: RANDOM ACCESS MEMORY 

ALCH3MY - The New Machine Experiment

It was great to see digital art screaming proudly in the outdoors. Ten Square, Singapore’s famous vertical car-vending-machine building, is also home to one of Singapore’s largest digital billboards. This year, it played host to two digital art projections.

In Crossroads, the artists responded to the idea that we hold onto collective and personal memories, yet at their core they are malleable and transient - such as images being shown for a fleeting moment on a digital billboard. Presented and curated by To New Entities, it featured works of Syahrul Anuar, Priyageetha Dia, Kimverlyn Lim, Kapilan Naidu, Nghia Phung and Hilary Yeo. 

ALCH3MY introduced international web3 digital artists to Singapore who are taming technology to unlock new manifestations for their art. It featured artworks by Kadine James, Lans King, Morphingaz, Ewan Rose and The Artist Collective - Ken Newton, Maryanne Chisholm and Daniel Schachner. ALCH3MY showcased Lans King’s latest virtual sculpture produced using his brain activity data. King will go on tour this year where he will generate and mint virtual sculptures in real-time whilst wearing his brain-computer interface device. 

And for compelling use of technology . . .

Although the two following artists have not yet used blockchain technology in their art, I wanted to mention them for their compelling use of technology. I do believe that all “future technologies” will eventually converge. 

Gajah Gallery presented the work of Philippine artist Jao San Pedro. Her video installations, Portal 1: Lover and Portal: 2 Machine are composed of AI-constructed images, sound and voice, based on the final text she received from an ex-lover. In a bid to reconstruct her lost relationship, San Pedro ends up reconstructing herself. 

Singapore Art Museum presented Time & The Tiger, a solo show of several installations by internationally acclaimed Singaporean Ho Tzu Nyen. The exhibition featured The Critical Dictionary of Southeast Asia (CDOSEA) which explores what makes Southeast Asia a unified region. A complex question given its large area marked by vastly different countries, cultures, languages and economic development. In collaboration with German technologists 0x2620, CDOSEA has been building what will eventually be a vast dictionary of words representing all 26 letters of the alphabet, combined with video footage, sounds and captions that capture motifs from across the region. The combinations presented on screen are delivered randomly thanks to an algorithm. 

Melanie Martinez Portals Tour Singapore

It was also a busy week for concerts in Singapore. Coldplay was in town for six nights of shows. Melanie Martinez, who rose to stardom through the TV show The Voice, did one night to an audience of devoted young fans dressed as all manner of fairies and elves. Martinez, dressed as her avatar Cry Baby, put on a visually spectacular theatrical music performance. Each song had its own dedicated digital art animation that was very metaverse-y. Martinez has released her own NFT collection, directs her own music videos and works with AR/VR studio Sunken Blimp. She certainly is an artist that will continue to expand her creative expression with the power of future technologies.

lead image: I’m here to learn so :)))))), Zach Blas and Jemima Wyman, 2017. Included in Proof of Personhood: Identity and Authenticity in the Face of Artificial Intelligence, Singapore Art Museum. Image: Miriam Feiler