Visual Arts

Responding to the coast and the architecture of Jendela gallery, Haven’t seen you lately by Ian Woo (Singapore) is an exhibition about the influence of abstract painting in relation to walls and windows. Taking the gallery windows as a starting point, wall interventions, pictures, objects and improvised music engage with aspects of scale, form and colour, acting as counterpoints to the dualities of interiority and exteriority.   

Shireen Seno (Philippines) explores the intersections of human existence with the natural world through moving images and print. In A child dies, a child plays, a woman is born, a woman dies, a bird arrives, a bird flies off, Seno explores subject matter ranging from birds and trees to habitats man shares with other living beings. The visual narrative that unfolds across the Esplanade Tunnel delves into her interest in the power of images and how they speak into our lived experiences across time and locales.   

Rocks, naturally occurring objects that are ever-present but often go unnoticed, silently bear witness to the passing of time. Nhawfal Juma’at (Singapore) contemplates the paradox of immortality and the transient nature of existence through a study of rocks in This Is Where We’ll Part: The Perpetual Ending of an Immortal at the Esplanade Community Wall. The artist’s ruminations manifest in drawing, painting, sculpture and text.   

Taking root within Esplanade Concourse, Locus Amoenus by Ryan Villamael (Philippines) envelops the space with meticulously crafted leaves, created from replicas of geographical maps from the Philippines. This intricate installation, presented in various iterations since 2016, explores themes surrounding territorial boundaries, colonisation, the creation of controlled environments, as well as the tangled relationships between the natural world and human intervention.