Things Fall Together
BY CHIHIRO & YUURI KABATA, LAUDI ABILAMA, YEO SHIH YUN
Exclusive feature by PLURAL ART MAG
ALSO LAUDI IN INSTINC’S STUDIO
TRUMP KIM COLLABORATION
The paintings
By Laudi Abilama and Yeo Shih Yun
A breath of history provides the urgent subject matter for a new way of working between Shih Yun Yeo and Laudi Abilama in 2019. Having previously collaborated only once before in 2011, the uncertainty of outcome provides the catalyst for the appearance of Trump and Kim in their artwork.
Newspaper clippings and images derived from the peace summit in June of 2018 explore a juxtaposition of traditional mark making and a seemingly modern method of silk screen printing. Haphazardly confronting the discipline of printmaking allows for the silkscreens to be treated as brush strokes on a painting. All of this as a refection of a delicate but decisive moment in history conceived in Singapore.
This series of paintings were created in January 2019 at INSTINC Studios.
Chiharu Kuronuma
Haru has been learning ballet since she was 8 years old and Jazz dance since she aged 21 in Japan. She moved to London and got Diploma in contemporary dance at Trinity Laban conservatoire of Music and Dance. Outside of her studies, she works with a wide variety of artists: a photographer, musician, graphic artist and fine artists. She gradually expanded her performance field to Taiwan, Cambodia, Singapore, Korea, Thailand and Laos as well as Japan in a few years and she was allowed to join Taipei Fringe Festival in 2015 and Bangkok Theatre Festival in 2018, FMK international dance festival 2018 in Laos. Her dance film was also presented in Thailand, Cambodia and Singapore as a part of the group exhibition “Cross Over”. She is on her way to build up her own style and ideal goal through these experiences.
You may have heard that this week wasn’t an easy one, with the shock announcement of Art Stage’s cancellation. The art community prevailed, however, and through our friends and supporters like the Facebook platform Art Stage SOS, we were able to find a new home for our show Things Fall Together. Plus, we made the news.
In the presentation Things Fall Together, artists Yeo Shih Yun, Laudi Abilama and Chihiro and Yuuri Kabata come together in a profusion of emotion and exuberance that is underpinned by loss, longing, humour and irony.
Yeo challenges and departs from preconceived notions of Warholian screen printing with her bold Screenpaintings, while Abilama celebrates the complicated genius and legacy of Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew. Chihiro and Yuuri Kabata, artists from Japan who also happen to be sisters, explore notions of control and balance, while executing their wildly abstract works. Each artist presents a nuanced and different way of looking at the world – whether it be through the medium of obsessive ballpoint ink markings or the calculated gaze of a senior politician.
A surprising level of premeditation and discipline belie the works of Yeo and the Kabata sisters, something Lee Kuan Yew was well-known for during his term as Prime Minister, and later Minister Mentor to the Singapore Cabinet. Yet Lee was also something of an adventurer and changemaker – his bold ways of thinking helped to propel Singapore to economic and other successes. Apprised as a singular presentation, all these works fall together as a poetic statement on the complications and vagaries of the human condition, on the value of deviations from the norm and on the collaborative spirit that few seem capable of in these politically troubled times.
Friday 25 January 2019
Private Preview
7pm – till late
Saturday 26 January 2019
Panel Discussion with Artists and National Gallery Singapore curator Jennifer K.Y. Lam
3pm-4pm
Opening Party, with Dance Performance by Chiharu Kuronuma (Japan) 7pm-9pm (Performance at 8pm)
Daily Viewing Hours on 26 & 27 January 2019
12pm – 8pm