The Lie of the Land
To understand the lie of the land, we often need to conduct surveys and make assessments, both Exhibition physical and metaphysical.
Like an aerial surveyor, selected photographs from Sim Chi Yin’s Shifting Sands (2017-ongoing) document the reclamation project of the new container port at Tuas. Seen from high above, the construction site becomes a textured abstract in one photograph and a graphic grid in another; divorced from the grit and dust of the massive effort below. 195 years after Sir Stamford Raffles approved the first reclamation project for the new commercial centre of his new port, trade continues to be Singapore’s raison d'etre.
We had always found ways to use what the earth proffers, be they to extend our coastlines, adorn ourselves with precious stones, or create artworks, like Ong Si Hui’s geometric Bianco Carrara marble sculptures. They were meticulously carved by hand and honed to a perfectly smooth finish. Each rests on specific points of their structures. Precarious but in absolute balance and stillness; they are both apropos and antithetic to the current state of global affairs.
With land scarcity and competing priorities in this city-state, not least one touted to be a “garden city”, both urban and landscape planning are of utmost importance in policy-making. The ‘constructed landscape’ is sometimes brought to the fore in semi-public spaces too. Donna Ong’s photographs (My Forest Has No Name series) of a gushing waterfall and a tropical forest are really located in the Botanic Gardens and the Singapore Zoo.
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To understand the lie of the land, we often need to conduct surveys and make assessments, both Exhibition physical and metaphysical.
Like an aerial surveyor, selected photographs from Sim Chi Yin’s Shifting Sands (2017-ongoing) document the reclamation project of the new container port at Tuas. Seen from high above, the construction site becomes a textured abstract in one photograph and a graphic grid in another; divorced from the grit and dust of the massive effort below. 195 years after Sir Stamford Raffles approved the first reclamation project for the new commercial centre of his new port, trade continues to be Singapore’s raison d'etre.
We had always found ways to use what the earth proffers, be they to extend our coastlines, adorn ourselves with precious stones, or create artworks, like Ong Si Hui’s geometric Bianco Carrara marble sculptures. They were meticulously carved by hand and honed to a perfectly smooth finish. Each rests on specific points of their structures. Precarious but in absolute balance and stillness; they are both apropos and antithetic to the current state of global affairs.
With land scarcity and competing priorities in this city-state, not least one touted to be a “garden city”, both urban and landscape planning are of utmost importance in policy-making. The ‘constructed landscape’ is sometimes brought to the fore in semi-public spaces too. Donna Ong’s photographs (My Forest Has No Name series) of a gushing waterfall and a tropical forest are really located in the Botanic Gardens and the Singapore Zoo.
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Sim Chi Yin's aerial photograph Shifting Sands #2 (2017), showing in The Lie of the Land at Singapore's FOST Gallery (7 August–17 October 2021)...
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