New artworks and experiences at Singapore Biennale
The art event peels away more layers of artistic inquiry through new works
The Singapore Biennale 2022 (SB2022) features new artworks, venues, and programs for the public to re-discover their relationship to art, life, and one another.
From a 10-meter long artwork at Orchard to 99 kancil (mouse deer) cement sculptures at Lazarus Island, SB2022 named Natasha peels away more layers of artistic inquiry through new works. Organized by the Singapore Art Museum and commissioned by the National Arts Council Singapore, audiences are invited to reflect and create their own stories of Natasha.
Natasha continues to leave its footprint across Singapore, with the unveiling of 12 new artworks at No. 22 Orchard Road, part of the Temasek Shophouse extension, on 9 December 2022. Taking over two floors with a variety of art mediums from paintings, videos, and largescale site-specific installation, the restored shophouse unit will house artworks that encourage personal reflection, and put artists’ local communities at the core of the project. This includes works and commissions presented for the first time by Areumnari Ee, Daniel Lie, Joo Jae-Hwan, Malaeb, Sarah Abu Abdallah, and S.O.I.L.
Community with CONA PROJECTS. Visitors will also be able to encounter familiar works by Nina Bell F. House Museum and Jeamin Cha, which will thread their SB2022 experience from Tanjong Pagar Distripark, Sentosa Cove and the Southern Islands, all the way to the heart of Singapore.
This January, Lie will also be presenting a site-specific installation, Fragility Game, that presents a space for reflecting on life and death with organic matter. One Room School by S.O.I.L Community with CONA PROJECTS will reveal a pedagogical journey of five children that understands learning as a micro-system with a potential to change and adapt to experiential learning practices. The installation will evolve over the period of SB2022 with materials, objects and documentation gradually introduced into the space. Further details on the artworks presented at the space can be found in Annex A.
Traversing Singapore
In line with AWKNDAFFR’s (Wayne Lim and Soh Kay Min) artistic practice to explore different ways of exploring, their roving exhibition Prologue made its stop at the second Regional Library in Jurong. Presented at Woodlands Regional Library until 26 December 2022, Prologue met the residents of Jurong from 28 December 2022 with a presentation of trailers and workin-progress materials such as photographs and sketches of the presented artists’ work.
In January, the public can look forward to Kancil Mengadap Beringin (The Mousedeer Comes Before the Banyan Tree), a living installation made of a live banyan tree surrounded by 99 mouse deer cement sculptures and a timbre structure. Artist Shooshie Sulaiman imagines the Sang Kancil’s encounter with the pohon beringin (banyan tree), commemorating Malay cosmology and intellect through this largerthan-life art intervention. The installation is refreshed and relocated to Lazarus Island from the grounds of the Malay Heritage Centre, joining the series of works that contemplate weather, food, and cosmology as part of our everyday lives.
Kickstarting 2023 with Singapore Art Week and other programs
Natasha will also be joining the lineup of exciting programs as part of the annual Singapore Art Week, Singapore’s signature visual arts season that will kick off 2023. Highlights include “What is Taste?” a popiah “making” workshop by artist Wu Mali. Held on 14 January at Practice Tuckshop, participants discovered more about their roots and heritage, through a common dish, popiah, that unites them across different cultural settings, as they break down the histories and travels of the unique dish.
At Tanjong Pagar Distripark, SB2022 held an open house to start the year anew. There was an exhibition at the precinct from 6 to 15 January, with a series of programs held across two weekends (6, 7, 13 and 14 January). Visitors participated in guided tours and activations featuring works by Haegue Yang and Berny Tan, as well as other lifestyle activities and performances.
In creating encounters with Natasha, audiences can also head to Saint John’s Island on 28 January and join Zarina Muhammad’s public programs. As part of her work, Moving Earth, Crossing Water, Eating Soil, look forward to a workshop on Saint John’s Island, Moving Earth, Crossing Water, Eating Soil, Seeing Maps, Seeing Spirits: An Artist-Led Workshop, led by the artist herself, where participants are invited to reorient their senses to the coordinates of unruly, indeterminable spaces on maps through storytelling and engaging with the artwork. This will be followed by a performance, Animal Days on a Geomantic Compass, featuring guest artists and collaborators, Ruby Jayaseelan, Zachary Chan, Rosmainy Buang, Tini Aliman, and Eswandy Sarip who have been invited to respond to the themes of the work.
SB2022 runs until 19 March. Information on ticketing can be found on