At S.E.A. Focus and Art SG, works from regional and international artists highlight the evolving synergy between the creative and digital realms

Payal Uttam

Technology meets tradition in Singapore

The famed Thai auteur and artist <a href="https://www.artbasel.com/catalog/artist/21154/Apichatpong-WEERASETHAKUL" target="_blank">Apichatpong Weerasethakul</a> began experimenting with ChatGPT-3 just before it became mainstream. He used it to generate fictional conversations with deceased individuals like the artist Salvador Dalí and philosopher Jiddu Krishnamurti and even non-human entities like the sun. These imaginary exchanges – combined with diaristic footage of Thailand shot over several years – form the basis of his evocative video installation A Conversation with the Sun (2022). The work is a highlight of the upcoming edition of Singapore’s S.E.A. Focus, a boutique fair held in the industrial complex Tanjong Pagar Distripark that opens later this month (January 20-28). Titled ‘Serial and Massively Parallel’, the 2024 edition of S.E.A. Focus explores the growing influence of digital technologies and artificial intelligence (AI) on our lives, ideas that several Singaporean art institutions are also currently exploring. The international art fair ART SG, which opens on January 19, will highlight technology-based work across various sectors, and several museums across the city have dedicated exhibitions to new media artists.

‘There has been a proliferation of technological works across the region, but very often Southeast Asia does not get the same kind of visibility in the international arena,’ says John Tung, curator of S.E.A. Focus, who hopes the fair can change the equation. ‘Singapore as a country always wants to be on the frontier of new developments, from cloud computing to artificial intelligence. In some ways the art community’s interest in technology is part of a trickle-down effect.’ 
Tung says that S.E.A. Focus’s theme is a response to growing suspicion and fear surrounding AI. The title references how the human brain functions differently from a computer. ‘A computer is able to do things in a very serial fashion but it’s not able to run stimuli from multiple sources in parallel as efficiently as the human brain. So I took this as a jumping-off point to think about the place artificial intelligence has in art-making but also in the world at large,’ he continues. 
The show – which will feature more than 50 artists and 22 exhibitors – will have a free-flowing format instead of a typical art fair layout segmented into booths. Rather than simply focusing on cutting-edge work at the forefront of technology, it will spotlight a range of practices, including more traditional mediums such as sculpture. ‘We have works which ask what is the place of such technologies in economies which are not so developed and still reliant on agriculture?’ Tung says, giving the example of the Filipino artist Ella Mendoza’s work the weight of the rest of us (2023), which consists of a cluster of raw ceramic pots hung in a net.&nbsp;
Several works invite audience participation, such as the Thai artist Be Takerng Pattanopas’s augmented reality (AR) piece Immortal? AR (excerpt from Mortalverse)&nbsp;(2022). A poignant meditation on mortality, it resembles a memorial plaque typically used to cover a columbarium niche that holds a person’s cremated remains. However, once viewers scan their phone over it, an animation pops up showing the artist and his partner walking into light after they die.

AR and AI works will also populate the second edition of ART SG, which will be held at the Marina Bay Sands Expo and Convention Center. The director of the fair, Shuyin Yang, notes that this year’s edition has a larger number of technology-based works. ‘Singapore has always been known as Asia’s Silicon Valley,’ she says, referencing the large number of global tech giants and start-ups in the city. ‘It’s a highly tech-aware society and people are very receptive to [new media] works.’ 
Alongside showcasing regional names, several exhibitors at the fair will be displaying work by early pioneers in the field. The New York-based <a href="https://www.artbasel.com/catalog/gallery/2915/bitforms-gallery" target="_blank">bitforms gallery</a>, for instance, is showing the German artist <a href="https://www.artbasel.com/catalog/artist/10041/Manfred-Mohr" target="_blank">Manfred Mohr</a>, who is widely recognized as the godfather of digital or generative art. A painter and jazz musician, he was one of the first artists in the Sixties to experiment with using a computer to generate art. Applying what he has described as ‘programmed expressionism,’ Mohr is known for creating striking drawings using plotters, mechanical devices that hold a pen that sketches lines (generated by algorithms) on paper. His recent sculptural experiments, computer-generated algorithmic aluminum wall structures, will be a highlight of bitforms’ booth.

Meanwhile, the London-based gallery <a href="https://www.artbasel.com/catalog/gallery/2874/Gazelli-Art-House" target="_blank">Gazelli Art House</a> will show vibrant works by the late British-born painter Harold Cohen, made using a computer program called AARON that he designed in the 1970s, long before the arrival of today’s AI image generators such as DALL·E and Midjourney. Alongside early practitioners, contemporary artists working with AI ranging from stalwarts like the Turkish-American artist Refik Anadol to younger names such as the British artist Jake Elwes, whose work tackles gender biases in AI, will also be on view.
Beyond the fairs, Singaporean museums are bringing cutting-edge digital work by Southeast Asian artists into dialogue with international names. Last year the ArtScience Museum’s insightful show ‘Notes from the Ether: From NFTs to AI’ showed work by 20 artists, many of whom are key figures shaping the generative AI landscape. Its current exhibition, ‘New Eden: Science Fiction Mythologies Transformed’, also has several high-tech works, including a futuristic gaming cockpit in which visitors can navigate a virtual exhibition taking place in the 25th century by the South Korean collective PACK.

Over at Tanjong Pagar Distripark, a few floors above the S.E.A. Focus fair, Singapore Art Museum (SAM) is showing ‘Proof of Personhood: Identity and Authenticity in the Face of Artificial Intelligence’, which focuses on the emerging genre of AI portraiture. The recent phenomena of AI-generated pop groups and virtual influencers and the proliferation of deepfake imagery of politicians and celebrities online inspired the show. ‘Advanced technology isn’t only the subject of exploration in the show but it’s also a medium through which artists are reflecting on evolving ideas of identity and authenticity in the 21st century,’ says Duncan Bass, Curator, Media and Technology at SAM, explaining that the ideas of the show have strong resonance in today’s digital era. 
Museums across the region are increasingly turning their attention to AI and digital media work in response to burgeoning interest from viewers. ‘You’re seeing this everywhere but more predominantly in Singapore,’ Bass says. ‘I credit the audiences here because they really engage in a deep and meaningful way with both the medium and underlying themes and implications – and institutions are responding in kind.’

<a href="https://seafocus.sg/" target="_blank">S.E.A. Focus</a> is a showcase of contemporary art from Southeast Asia. It will take place from January 20–28, 2024 at Tanjong Pagar Distripark in Singapore. The <a href="https://artsg.com/" target="_blank">Art SG</a> fair will take place from January 19–21, 2024 at Marina Bay Sands in Singapore.
Payal Uttam is an independent writer and editor who divides her time between Hong Kong and Singapore. She contributes to a range of publications including Artsy, The Art Newspaper, South China Morning Post, and The Wall Street Journal. 
Captions for full-bleed images: 1. Apichatpong Weerasethakul, A Conversation with the Sun (Installation), 2022. Courtesy of Apichatpong Weerasethakul and BANGKOK CITYCITY GALLERY. 2. Heather Dewey-Hagborg,&nbsp;Radical Love&nbsp;(2015), part of&nbsp;the exhibition&nbsp;‘Proof of Personhood: Identity and Authenticity in the Face of Artificial Intelligence’ at SAM. Image courtesy of Singapore Art Museum. 
Published on January 15, 2024.&nbsp;

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