Dec 26 2014

2014 Singapore International Photography Festival

by Marybeth Stock

ALBAN LÊCUYER is a French photographer whose series “Here Soon,” 2013, involves overlays of computer-generated images.

From BERND and HILLA BECHER’s series “Bergwerke und Hütten,” 1978. With Goethe-Institut Singapore, SIPF presented a selection of the Bechers’ works in the small exhibit “Types: After Becher.” The German collaborative duo documented changing industrial landscapes in late 1950s Germany and pioneered an objective, minimalist documentarian vocabulary.

Held at the Singapore Art Museum (SAM) were co-curated exhibitions with SAM, Deutsche Bank and the Yokohama Museum of Art. EIFFEL CHONG’s “Royal Malaysia Police” series, 2012, is based on found, partially destroyed photos discovered in an abandoned police station, which he then re-photographed as symbols of bureaucratic corruption.

The series “Colosses” by French photographer FABRICE FOUILLET reflects on the presence of monumental iconography.

Most of the SIPF Open Call winners were exhibited at DECK and the National Museum of Singapore. Shown here is an image from “Pre-City (Ordos series)” by Chinese photographer HUANG ZHENWEI. Huang uses a 4×5 large format camera in this ongoing project that records the evolution of his country’s urban landscapes.

Japanese artist LYOTA YAGI is known for his sound-based video and installation works. Portamento (Khoomei) No. 2, 2006 (reproduced in 2011), follows the interplay of music with the mechanics of pottery-making.

The video Untitled (Flying Fruits), 2011, is a hallucinogenic galaxy of kinetic color by American conceptual artist PETER COFFIN.

Photography workshops were held in SIPF’s HOP container.

In “Change of Course,” 2012–14, PRASIIT STHAPIT, an Indian visual artist based in Kathmandu, examines the geographic and political transformation of a contested portion of Nepali land within India.

TADASU TAKAMINE is a former performance artist whose interdisciplinary works embrace issues of politics and sexuality. Water Level and Organ Sound (2004) projects luminous figures onto a wall, transmitted through a tank of water.

The performance-based “New House” series, 2011–13, by Malaysian artist WILFRED LIM, was inspired by the plight of Malaysian villagers relocated to accommodate construction of an oil refinery.

In Jalan Kemenangan, 2013, Indonesian photographer YAYA SUNG embroiders her figures with gold-colored thread to underscore loss of Chinese-Indonesian cultural identity following violent uprisings near Jakarta in 1998.

From the series “Coastline,” 2009–10, by Chinese artist ZHANG XIAO.

The fourth edition of the Singapore International Photography Festival (SIPF) took place in October under director and co-founder Gwen Lee. This year’s event featured several exhibitions, complemented by artist and curator talks, film screenings, photography workshops and outreach programs. At the heart of SIPF 2014 was DECK, the event’s first official festival village. DECK is a tidy Lego-like conglomeration of converted shipping containers artfully arranged in a small lot located within Singapore’s historic museum district. DECK will stand for at least the next two years and host ongoing photography-related exhibitions and events.

The 2014 edition of the annual SIPF Open Call gathered thousands of submissions from emerging and established photographers from around the world. From these submissions, over 400 works by 48 photographers from 23 countries were selected for exhibition by the SIPF curating team—which comprised Noorderlicht Photo Festival associate curator Alexander Supartono, National Gallery of Singapore curator Dr. Adele Tan, art historian, writer and curator Dr. Charles Merewether, and Singapore-based photographer Tay Kay Chin.

Along with the Open Call exhibitions, the SIPF co-curated other shows that ran concurrently with the main festival. These included exhibitions that featured selected works from Goethe-Institut Singapore, the Singapore Art Museum and the Deutsche Bank collection, as well as video works from the Yokohama Museum of Art in Japan. In addition, the SIPF collaborated with the Noorderlicht International Photofestival to present the exhibition “An Ocean of Possibilities” at the ArtScience Museum.

The Singapore International Photography Festival ran until November 30, but some exhibitions and screenings continued until the end of December, or are ongoing to early next year. Exhibitions and events were held at DECK, as well as at the venerable National Museum of Singapore, the Singapore Art Museum, the National Library and the ArtScience Museum.

DINH Q. LÊ is a Vietnamese visual artist whose photographic scrolls depict notorious images from the Vietnam War as elongated abstractions. From left to right: The Scroll of Thich Quang Duc; The Scroll of the Women and Children of Mai Lai; and The Scroll of Phan Thi Kim Phuc, all 2013.

Singapore artist GENEVIEVE CHUA integrates vintage images with gestural form in her “Tillandsia Usneoides” series, 2013–14.

Time (Chinatown), 2009, by New York-based Singaporean photographer JOHN CLANG.

Japanese photographer MIWA YANAGI’s series “My Grandmothers (Sachiko),” 2000, confronts women’s stereotypes in contemporary Japan.

From the series “Dominion,” 2011, by conceptual Filipino photographer WAWI NAVARROZA.

Italian artist ALEX MASI documents the continuing legacy of toxicity and chronic illness caused by the 1984 Bhopal chemical disaster in “Bhopal Second Disaster,” 2009–13.

“In the Quest for Utopia,” 2014, is a series by Spanish photographer ANA GALAN focusing on the figures behind Myanmar’s pro-democracy movement.

The SIPF collaborated with the Noorderlicht International Photofestival to present “An Ocean of Possibilities.” The show, which featured 34 photographers from 21 countries, was held at Singapore’s ArtScience Museum until late December 2014.

City of Rest, 2012, is a multimedia installation by Germany’s BLACK.LIGHT PROJECT. Through a powerful compilation of video, graphics and storytelling narrative, this complex piece documents the horrific civil wars in Sierra Leone and Liberia, led by the latter’s former president Charles Taylor.

CHI TAK TSE is a Hong Kong photographer. His series “We Gift the Urbanites with Fresh Breeze,” 2013, documents a project where those living on the outskirts of Hong Kong donate home-grown plants to city-dwellers.

CYRIL MARCILHACY is a French photojournalist. In “The Village,” 2013–14, he chronicles the experiences of those living in a self-sufficient community for the homeless in Fontainebleau, France.

Dutch photographer DIANA BLOK records Brazil’s LGBT community in “I Challenge You to Love Me,” 2011–14.

* The series “Achobang,” 2013, by Tokyo-based American photographer JAMES WHITLOW DELANO, follows Cameroonian activist Christopher Achobang, who defends the indigenous Mbororo minority against systematic land appropriation by palm-oil plantations.

SURENDRA LAWATI is a Nepalese artist currently based in Canada. “This Country is Yours,” 2012– , chronicles events in Nepal during the writing of the country’s new constitution.

From “Our Coastline,” 2013, a series by Singapore photographer WEIXIANG LIM.

The Singapore International Photography Festival took place from October 3 to November 30, 2014.

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