Moving Plates
15 October – 13 November 2021
Moving Plates is a group printmaking exhibition aimed at spurring and showcasing explorations and innovations in contemporary printmaking. This exhibition features works by 10 Singapore-based professional and early-career artists working in the practice of printmaking.
The ground that might have once seemed firm or rather solid beneath our feet has shifted tremendously since the onset of the global pandemic and is morphing at great speed, as systems and things that had hitherto been taken for granted as modern everyday givens and conveniences – dining in at food establishments, attending mass live events and festivals, or traveling across the world, for example – have been disrupted and interrupted, or put on indefinite hold overnight. The world has been necessitated into an interregnum period of anxious introspection and reevaluation, and on the horizon – what has been proposed as the Great Reset – are transformative reconfigurations: not least amongst these, fundamental overhauls of global supply chains and an accelerated turn towards more ecologically responsive and responsible systems. With new moving parts being put in motion all around us by the day, big and small, the world, it seems, might emerge from it all little resembling what it had evolved into in the past decades. Artists were invited to explore the exigencies and possibilities of what lies ahead – to consider and reimagine what the future might hold, and what life might look like in the aftermath of this extensive remaking.
Among the selected works, a few common themes and preoccupations stand out: a prevailing sense of existential anxiety, of being stuck in a state of limbo whilst being faced with a virtual onslaught – an overwhelming information overload – and the daunting need to sift through, process and digest the constant barrage of information during the pandemic, and of having to come to terms and learning to deal with ever-changing directives and advisories about aspects of everyday life that used to be taken for granted or as given. Some wonder about the implications of spending so much of our time and lives online, and the impact of the social media and information deluge might have on our mental well-being. These works express a longing for some respite and tranquillity in the face of this huge learning curve, with not a few highlighting a desire to escape reality. Others bring to the fore certain issues and parts of culture or the community that run the risk of being lost or forgotten in a world of increasing social isolation, calling to attention the often hidden or neglected realities of vulnerability and liminal precarity in society. Yet for some, a silver lining peeks through the haze: with acceptance of these unprecedented changes comes the opportunity for personal and wider resets and re-evaluation – a chance to improvise and get creative, to expand our conceptions of our lives and habits in the new normal.
