Utterly Art presents Celestial Encounters, an exhibition of paintings and photographs by two artists who interpret their different takes on the zodiac till June 8. 2003.
Top pic: Photographer, Jason Wee
In Celestial Encounters, Wee forwards an intelligent inquiry into identity and its distortion as a consequence of misplaced notions of fashion, integration and ethnicity. Using the Chinese zodiac as a case in point, he proposes that people follow astrological predictions as a predestined or predetermined mould for themselves, rather than chart the progress of their own lives empirically. The visual devices that Wee has enlisted in this series include naked male models to represent our essential selves; tattoos, gestures and contortions to represent the adoption of foreign identities; and the digital layering of ikat images and text as garments to signify the complexity of the final self that we present to the world.
For Nayar, Celestial Encounters is her second look at the zodiac - she has just paired with Chinese calligrapher Tan Siah Kwee in Zodiac: a Confluence of East-West. For this exhibition, she presents 12 mixed media images on handmade paper about the Western zodiac. Each sign has been extensively researched, and she presents her own unique interpretations. Gemini, for instance are twinned women, and they are far from symmetrical in their presentation. Scorpio is the sign that governs sex, and there is very little of the scorpion in the art which shows a pair of hands reaching out in climax.
The exhibition will be held at Utterly Art Exhibition Space, 208 South Bridge Road #02-01, Singapore 058757 till June 8, 2003. The opening hours are from Monday-Saturday: 11.30am - 8pm and Sunday: 12pm - 5.30pm. The gallery can be contacted at 6226 2605 (Kenneth or Keng Hock) or through utterlyart@pacific.net.sg