Five young and emerging artists have been honored in Singapore, winning grants to continue exploring the world from an artistic perspective.
Alecia Neo is a photographer who thrives when exploring relationships through her craft. One of her first projects featured the house of a prominent Singaporean feminist that was about to be torn down. What emerged from that project was a sense of understanding of the feminist and an intimate look at her battle with Alzheimer’s disease. Neo was also recently commissioned to create an art installation that went along with a photo series she created on the lives of blind people. The installation included Braille displays and audio art.
Liu Xiaoyi has been exploring art through highly symbolic theater performances. He won an award from one of his works, which was designed to be recited on the radio. Just this year, Liu crafted a piece that featured actors moving extremely slowly for twenty-minute spans of time. While this might be seen as groundbreaking and experimental, he is good natured about some of the poor reviews he might receive from the audience — including people who fall asleep during performances.
Muhamad Harezam doesn’t have an art studio, so he does smaller scale pieces in an unexpected by highly accessible medium — skin. Harezam’s skin masterpieces have both delighted and revolted viewers. Highly delicate and detailed, it is difficult to perceive the medium at first. The artist admits that his housewife mother is disgusted by the process of collecting and crafting the flakes of skin into art, but it has made Harezam a widely known artist. He credits his art for helping him through a troubling childhood.
Marc Nair is a poet who is prolific — he already has six collections of his work by the age of 34. He is excited about winning this award because it recognizes the rising power of spoken word poetry, which he says is art in motion. He can shape the energy of the people in the room and influence the mood of the audience as he performs, which means that his art isn’t as static as a painting simply hanging on the wall. Nair looks to use the grant money to continue to travel, which influences his writing.
Pooja Nansi grew up writing silly poems about boys she had crushes on. It wasn’t until she attended her first poetry slam that poetry in all its visceral beauty really took shape for her. She is a creative writing teacher and also performs spoken word poetry and music as a part of a duo. Nansi, whose parents are Indian immigrants, finds many stories to tell about Singaporean experiences from multiple perspectives.
Art can take on many forms, and there is sure to be an art class that will interest everyone on SGArtClass.com. Sign up for a lesson that you’re passionate about on this website, from found art to assemblage art, recycled art to artistic photography. Your imagination is your only limitation.
To learn more about the four recipients of the honors, visit http://www.straitstimes.com/lifestyle/arts/young-artist-award-recipients.