Philippines, Singapore, Thailand: five must-see exhibitions

Spirits have been high across Southeast Asia since the Lunar New Year holiday. Galleries have reopened and they are once again buzzing with activity. From delicate monotypes to effervescent video works, there’s a raft of vibrant works to see in shows across the region.

‘Nicole Coson, Exoskeleton’
Silverlens, Manila
Through March 13, 2021

In another time, the prints in this quietly unsettling show would appear prosaic. In the context of the ongoing global pandemic, however, they speak with sharpened urgency. London-based Filipino artist Nicole Coson’s monotypes depicting Venetian blinds capture the psyche of a society crippled by fear and ongoing lockdowns.

Hovering between opacity and translucency, Coson’s claustrophobic compositions purposely dominate almost every inch of available space on the canvas. The monochromatic blinds are barely bent or pushed open, imposing a sense of imprisonment and suffocation on the viewer. Confronted by these hazy horizontal and vertical bands, we are reminded by how we find ourselves suddenly constricted, trussed and bound by a near dystopian reality.

Although the pieces were inspired by the situation the UK, they map an emotional terrain that resonates worldwide. As we continue to view the world from behind masks, we all share a similar longing to return to a free, open society instead of one dictated by fear.

Yayoi Kusama, ‘Recent Paintings’
Ota Fine Arts, Singapore
Through March 6th, 2021

This solo show at  Ota Fine Arts gallery gives you a glimpse into Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama’s obsessive mind. Bulbous mirrored sculptures, titled Clouds, 2019, snake across the floor, meanwhile stark black-and-white paintings filled with repetitive patterns appear to swirl and seethe on the walls around you. Rendered with a mixture of thick bold lines and thin quivering brushstrokes, the paintings swarm with biomorphic shapes, dots and eyelets.

Unlike vibrant early paintings from the ‘My Eternal Soul’ series, these newer paintings, made between 2019 and 2020, are drained of color. The works call to mind Kusama’s words from a recent poem she wrote on Covid-19: ‘Though it glistens just out of reach, I continue to pray for hope to shine through…Now that we find ourselves on the dark side of the world.’ While she has given the artworks optimistic titles like Millions of hopes for love or All my love for humanity, the paintings have an inherent sense of melancholy. Many of the faces she paints appear to be crying and others appear forlorn or trapped.

Several of the paintings also evoke cell structures and an interplay between microcosms and macrocosms. Walking through the show, particularly as you see small glimmers of your reflection on the metal sculptures, the works have a humbling effect, reminding us that for all of humanity’s struggles we are just a tiny part of the vast fabric of the universe. 

Nawin Nuthong, ‘The Immortals are quite Busy These Days’
Bangkok CityCity Gallery
Through 21 March, 2021

This complex, multi-dimensional show darts between disorientating video works, detailed plastic dioramas, and playful interventions into the gallery space. Using video games as a metaphor, emerging Thai artist Nawin Nuthong blurs boundaries between digital and physical realms. Just as video game storylines can be altered through patches—software used to improve games—Nuthong’s work points to the fact that narratives of world history have been manipulated and as a result their value has been undermined.

The gallery is filled with allusions to games including an installation made of customised playing cards and large metal bleacher-like structures upon which the dioramas unfurl. Nuthong has also populated the spaced with a cast of comical characters including a Red Bull-wielding Pikachu, a plastic Scooby-Doo dog and a tiny green ninja-like creature (who travels through a mouse hole cut into the gallery wall). Each figure appears to be on a quest to raid history but faces various obstacles.

In the video work Gift of gold, 2021, the futility of interrogating the past is illustrated through a cartoon explorer character on a card that is repeatedly flung forward towards a landscape in the distance where it disappears over the horizon only to be thrown back again. As a text accompanying the show reads: “You have speed run this level so many times, but in your haste you have missed it just as many….The world has always been bigger than you had known.” 

Aracha Cholitgul, ‘The Study of A Long Distance Relationship’
Nova Contemporary, Thailand
Through April 20, 2021

This beautiful, buoyant exhibition unpacks ideas of home and belonging. Instead of entering a typically stark white cube, Thai artist Aracha Cholitgul invites you into a poetic, domestic space with furnishings from her childhood home such as a carpet and leather armchair as well as curtains and a drawing adorned with small fridge magnets.

Mountains are a leitmotif in the show and appear to symbolise the stability and grounding of her family home. In each work, however, there is a tension between her desire to cling to the familiar and venture into the unknown. For instance, she paints a simple landscape scene on the seat of the brown armchair and adds four wheels to the bottom. In another corner of the gallery sits LDR-Moving Mountain No.1, 2020 a wood sculpture depicting a cross-section of a mountain which also has wheels suggesting the artist’s strong desire for movement, journey and change.

In a deliberate nod to a bathroom interior, Cholitgul has also created an installation of celadon ceramic tiles on one wall. The tiles are shaped like a simple mountain range above which she places an Ikea shelf with a yellow vase filled with tiger balm—a traditional Asian ointment–representing the sun. Encountering works like this, it’s as if we are viewing the world from a child’s eyes filled with wonder and imagination. At the same time, we are also see the perspective of a wistful adult looking towards new horizons.

‘Particle Poetry: A showcase by teamLab’
Gajah Gallery, Singapore
February 26 - March 21, 2021