Week 12: Singapore International Photography Festival 2014 (SIPF)

Tuesday, October 07, 2014 Ching Lea Yee 0 Comments

The Singapore International Photography Festival 2014, with the theme of The Infinity, celebrates the endless possibilities that ideas and collaborations can bring. It is the first time that I am going for the SIPF and I visited 3 of the exhibitions this year at the Deck, National Museum of Singapore and Chapel Gallery at Sculpture Square.

1) How are the photographs in festival presented? What choices did the curators make in the display of the works? are the photographs grouped in a certain way?

The photographs in the festival are presented in a way that each location showcases a type of photography. For example, Deck has more landscape photography, National Museum of Singapore has more portrait photography and the Chapel Gallery has more photojourlism and documentary photography. The photographs at each of the hall of a location is grouped according to a series of artists like whether the theme is about places, or people etc. The photographs themselves are displayed in many ways such as an outdoor site specific installation, or within a frame with white borders around the photographs, or mounted onto foam board.

2) Name a series that attracts you the most? who is the photograph? What is his or her work about? Explain what you like about it.

TOWARDS A NEW INTERIOR by Ang Song Nian (b. 1983, Singapore) is my favourite series of the exhibition. Towards A New Interior serves as an experimental study of space and situation which explore and exploit the conceptual space between presence and absence. With images accompanied by written accounts and a real-life site specific installation, this work seeks to draw out relations between human beings and the things around them, invoking human presence by highlighting their absence.

I love how the curators have exhibited this series outdoor as it creates a juxtaposition between the name of the title of the series itself. However, it relates closely with his series still as when the photographs is diplayed outdoors, it links to the idea of exploring the space and situation and making use of it to show the interaction between human beings and the inanimate objects.

3) Is there any series of photos that explores the topic of work or leisure?

Yes. Traces of time by Carrie Lam. “Trace of Time” is a visual translation of a journey that transcends the borders of time, space and memory. It attempts to impart new meanings to old photos and to document those that changed as well as those that remained. In 1979, Carrie Lam's 28-year-old mother embarked on a journey with an Olympus camera. In 2012, my 26-year-old self began a new journey that brought her back in time, following in her every footstep through the pictures she took. She went back to the same place that her mother went in the photographs and retook them with her inside them. Then she framed the photographs so that she would seem to appear at the same place with her mother then at the same time.

4) Write some of your thoughts about festival. What do you think of the festival overall. would you visit the rest of the exhibits or attend the film screenings on your own time?

I feel that the festival was very intriguing and it also gave me inspirations on other topics that I can explore for future photography projects and also it has made me fall in love with photography deeper. I would visit the other exhibitions and film screenings during my holidays.