Hilmi Johandi is known for his interest in films of the 1950s and 1960s that examine pre- and post independence Singapore society. Working with archival photographs, found footages as well as his research on P. Ramlee films, Johandi makes paintings and videos that translate filmic imagery into painting, and vice versa. Street Market (2014) and Man Smoking Pipe (2014) began as the artist's study of how the composition and framing of images, whether in the form of long shots or close-ups, mediate the spectator's perception. They also reveal how movement act as markers of time. here, time elapses as much as it stands still. Through stop-motion animation techniques, Johandi's videos highlight detailed textures and movements of filmic sequences that appear as vivid paintings."

Written and curated by Michelle Ho.

Primavera evokes spring and new beginnings. What does it mean to restart one’s art practice in a foreign land? How does one assimilate into their new surroundings and recreate their own narrative in a forest of foreign signs? How does Paris stir up emotions?

Vernissage: 14 Nov. 2015, 3pm at Galerie Frédéric Lacroix, Paris
Exhibition/Exposition: 14 - 28 Nov. 2015
Artists: Nico Angiuli, Federico Delfrati, Gaia Fugazza, Muhammad Izdi, Hilmi Johandi
Curators: Valentine Meyer & Jennifer K. Y. Lam
Hosted & Organised by Dena Foundation for Contemporary Art

* 

The Dena Foundation is an organization that acts as a medium, bringing mediation within the contemporary art world to the next stage. Its mission is to step in when and where something is missing to achieve the success of a great artistic enterprise. Its three key words are the promotion, the support and the dissemination of contemporary Italian creation in France and the United States, but from that focus it has grown to bring young contemporary artists and curators from Singapore to Europe. At the heart of its mission, the Artists and Curators Residency Program in Paris and in New York offers young artists and curators the opportunity for an extended and informal form of education, beyond the field of higher education.

Fred Torres Gallery, in collaboration with Galerie Steph, is proud to present a group exhibition of young Singaporean artists exhibiting for the first time in New York. Titled Portrait in Verses, this eclectic exhibition features new works by Fyerool Darma, Hilmi Johandi and SBTG. Together, the artists paint a fragmented portrait of Singapore, the small island city-state in Southeast Asia.

In his practice, Fyerool Darma seeks to reclaim and reassemble the orphaned stories and voices effaced by colonialism and nationalism. Darma’s poetic sepia-toned paintings look back to Singapore’s historical relationship with the Malay Archipelago, and how it was severed with the imposition of colonial powers and foreign ideologies. Stark, alien geometrical structures insert themselves into dreamlike natural landscapes, standing in as metaphors for Singapore’s complicated modernity. 

The tensions and conflicts ushered in by the rapid winds of change are subtly depicted in Hilmi Johandi’s multifaceted paintings. After much quiet contemplation, he stitches together peculiar, fragmented images sourced from archival materials. In crafting his 
composition, Johandi often mixes disparate spaces, objects and figures together into reconstructed narratives. The juxtaposition of these elements opens the way for an ambiguous but deft re-reading and re-interpretation of post-war Singapore.

Mark Ong and Sue-Anne Lim are the dynamic husband-and-wife duo behind SBTG. Having grown up immersed in the punk subculture of the 80s, their works are an amalgamation of pop cultural influences: from its irreverent imageries and aggressive motifs to its cut-and-paste aesthetics. Their works are a playful celebration of Singapore’s very international cultural environment, from heavy metal music and skateboarding to basketball and the ’92 Dream Team

Great World City; Bangsawan, 160 x 135cm, oil on canvas, 2015.