Last Few Weeks: Gallery Children’s Biennale 2023

6 Mar

Arahmaiani, Fadilah Karim, Ly Yeow and more at National Gallery Singapore
By Dylan Chan and A&M

With only a few weeks before the Gallery Children’s Biennale 2023 at National Gallery Singapore draws to a close on 31 March 2024, there is no better time to roam the museum’s halls to experience what is on show. The overarching theme ‘Let’s Make A Better Place’ aims to encourage young visitors to see how they can play a part to improve the world they live in. This is supported by four key values: Care, Collaborate, Imagine and Respect.

Arahmaiani, ‘I Love You’, 2023, fabric, metal and wood. Created for Gallery Children’s Biennale 2023: ‘Let’s Make a Better Place’. Image courtesy of National Gallery Singapore.

Suenne Megan Tan, Senior Director, Museum Planning & Audience Engagement at the National Gallery Singapore hopes that young visitors will learn about pressing issues through art and play, and lay the foundation for them to want to be more environmentally conscious. She says, “Ultimately, the Biennale hopes to foster a generation of young people who are not only passionate about art, but also committed to making a positive impact on the world around them."

Chiang Yu Xiang, ‘We Move This City’, 2023, fabric, foam, video and vinyl. Created for Gallery Children’s Biennale 2023: ‘Let’s Make a Better Place’. Image courtesy of National Gallery Singapore.

The artworks on view are predominantly installation-based pieces that engender exploration through the four values that organise the Biennale. Under “Imagine”, among other works reflecting this value, Chiang Yu Xiang’s ‘We Move This City’ features soft Tetris blocks that visitors can shift around. The artist invites visitors to re-imagine the ways they commute on public transport, the landscapes they pass along the way, and the innate human need to be on the move.

Wang Ruobing, ‘Tide’, 2023, marine debris, wood, string, and metal. Created for Gallery Children’s Biennale 2023: ‘Let’s Make a Better Place’. Image courtesy of National Gallery Singapore.

Another work, ‘Tide’, by artist, curator and educator Wang Roubing, whose practice is centred on ecological practices in our everyday life, sees the visitor entering a cocooned space. The walls are adorned with debris collected from the coastlines of Singapore. At the touch of a button, the artwork springs to life. The rise and fall of the surrounding objects, caused by the churning of a central gear tugging on the attached strings, create an uncanny visual of the ebb and flow of an ocean full of debris. The general sense of unease is scored by the textured sounds of the found objects grating against the wooden panels. The work reminds us of the part we each can play in keeping the beaches clean.

Ly Yeow, ‘When I Am With You’, 2023, fabric, fibreglass, resin, sea shells, metal, cardboard and vinyl. Created for Gallery Children’s Biennale 2023: ‘Let’s Make a Better Place’. Image courtesy of National Gallery Singapore.

A work similarly focused on taking care of our environment is ‘When I Am With You’ by Singaporean Artist Ly Yeow, presented under the value of “Respect”. A mural is accompanied by various objects, drawn from the artist’s personal memories of exploring Changi Beach, and in the wider context of news reports of the public bringing home wildlife from intertidal areas. They call attention to the part that children can play in taking ownership of the choices they make to be respectful of the environment.

Fadilah Karim, ‘SAMA-SAMA (TOGETHER)’, 2023, canvas on easels, glass panel, fabric, steel, magnets. Created for Gallery Children’s Biennale 2023: ‘Let’s Make a Better Place’.Image courtesy of National Gallery Singapore.

On the first floor is also the work ‘SAMA-SAMA (TOGETHER)’ by Malaysian artist Fadilah Karim, based on the close relationship she shares with her daughter, Aira. The artwork, with its tubular structures and draped fabric, is reminiscent of a pillow fort and encourages families to build one together. It explores themes of the autobiographical, unpacking the intimate relationship between a parent and child. Presented under the value of “Collaborate”, visitors are encouraged to similarly draw portraits of themselves as mementos for the time spent together.

The forest is a recurring focal point among the works. At ‘The Magic Forest’ by The International Museum of Children’s Art, walls are filled with framed paintings by children in response to their lived environs, and their imagination of an ideal, shared future. Visitors are invited to contribute their own drawings in response to the display, and have a hand at growing the magical forest.

Izziyana Suhaimi, ‘Can you see the forest for the trees?’, 2023, repurposed textiles and wood. Created for Gallery Children’s Biennale 2023: ‘Let’s Make a Better Place’. Image courtesy of National Gallery Singapore.

The theme of the forest continues in the basement with the work ‘Can you see the forest for the trees?’ by Singapore-based textile artist Izziyana Suhaimi. It looks at landfills and the ways they affect the communities where they exist. Children can continue weaving textiles and recycled materials on hand onto the built wooden structure, using tried and true weaving techniques (such as the ones that will be taught in an upcoming workshop conducted by the artist), and experimenting with new ones.

LittleCr3atures® × Jevon Chandra × Lynette Quek, ‘HUTAN’, 2023, fabric, metal, lights, microphones, video projections, and found objects. Image courtesy of National Gallery Singapore.

Another forest awaits at ‘Hutan’, created by collaborators LittleCr3atures, Jevon Chandra and Lynette Quek. Their individual practices explore elements of sound and the ways it affects the body. For the Gallery Children’s Biennale, they have taken visual references from the mythical Tree of Life and imagery of forests within Southeast Asia. Visitors are encouraged to take a slow wander through this toddler-friendly forest. Within it, they can admire mushrooms that light up when approached, as they listen to an ever-evolving soundscape composed from auditory traces left in the space by visitors, ranging from footsteps to laughter. LittleCr3atures will extend the experience with a hands-on workshop to make sounds with items found on the forest floor.

Tawatchai Puntusawasdi, ‘Optical Paths’, 2023, steel, wood and vinyl. Created for Gallery Children’s Biennale 2023: ‘Let’s Make a Better Place’.. Image courtesy of National Gallery Singapore.

Rounding up the trio of works at the basement is ‘Optical Paths’ by Thai artist Tawatchai Puntusawasdi. This is a playful large-format vinyl artwork of bold lines and sinewy curves, punctuated by wooden and steel structures. The work can be viewed from various angles and plays with the visitors’ sense of depth, creating optical illusions which alter their perception of scale.

Kumi Yamashita, ‘Foundation Wave’, 2023, fibreglass and pencil. 2023. Created for Gallery Children’s Biennale 2023: ‘Let’s Make a Better Place’. Image courtesy of National Gallery Singapore.

Back on the first floor at the Supreme Court Foyer, a voluminous white-cloud structure sits in stark contrast to the geometric tiling on the floor. ‘Foundation Wave’, by New York-based Japanese artist Kumi Yamashita, is formed from a composite of profiles sampled from individuals the artist has encountered on her travels. Presented under the value of “Care”, the sculpture, along with recorded heartbeats of on-site visitors amplify the infinite potential an individual possesses to shape and influence the world, and even more so if they were to come together to create change.

And up on the third floor is ‘I Love You’ by Indonesian artist Arahmaiani, who is known for her thought-provoking works, exploring social-political discourses based on the body and the environment. The fabric letters and shapes deliver messages of acceptance, empathy, tolerance and harmony, and encourage the practice of kindness towards one’s kin and others.

To extend the Biennale experience, and for those who are not able to visit the Biennale in person, there are four online games, one for each of the four underpinning values of Imagine, Respect, Collaborate and Care. Players can solve a detective mystery at a fictional art museum, among other engaging activities.

Though the works found in this Biennale are each categorised under one of the four values, they encompass and poetically bridge dialogues beyond the set themes. ‘Let’s Make a Better Place’ highlights the individual’s agency to enact change, while bringing to the forefront ideas of community and care. It heightens our consciousness of the spaces that we inhabit, and how we inhabit them. Do plan a visit to play–and learn—before it closes!

The Gallery Children’s Biennale ends on 31 March 2024 and is free for all to explore. National Gallery Singapore is open daily, from 10am to 7pm. For more information, and to play the online games, click here.

This article is presented in partnership with National Gallery Singapore.

About the Writer

Dylan Chan graduated from LASALLE College of The Arts back in 2022, with a BA(Hons) in Fine Arts Bachelors in Fine Arts. His practice sits on the cusp between image making and object making, examining the body's positioning within the domestic and its phenomenological response towards objects.