Sensible Objects
Long before it evolved into its present-day meaning of ‘being prudent or reasonable’, the word ‘sensible’ — from the Latin sensibilis — meant ‘perceptible by the senses’. Sensible Objects draws on this older understanding, presenting a selection of works that shift away from the ocular bias of contemporary art and culture, by evoking the senses (of touch, and smell) and engaging on an embodied (or even libidinal) register.
The works in this exhibition also upend expectations of ‘sensible’ (practical, useful) objects by playfully subverting the use-function of common household items, and imbuing these with sentient qualities. Amongst these are gently animated kitchen utensils, and vases that slouch or embody emotional states, all suggesting sense-ible objects, capable of ‘feeling’ or ‘sensing’.
Sensible Objects is open to public from 11 Feb, 2025 – 20 Apr, 2025.
Kelly Jin Mei (b. 1991) creates textile works with an emphatic focus on her medium’s materiality as well as its histories and applications. Ranging from soft sculpture to tapestry and installation, much of her work explores ideas of duality, and how a word, textile, or vessel may hold multiple meanings and perspectives.
Included in this exhibition are a number of Jin Mei’s vessels made from crocheted nylon thread, their voluptuous forms and highly tactile surfaces evoking a sense of touch. While they are modelled after functional objects, their material on the other hand, renders them useless. Each vessel carries a unique biography, as suggested by its name which confers human-like attributes: Carefree for instance, with its body comprised of a series of excessive, voluptuous folds, stands stubbornly proud of its own idiosyncrasies, named for the liberating mental state when one has jettisoned all societal expectations and a desire to conform.
Kelly Jin Mei
Carefree
2022
Crocheted and melted nylon 44 cm (H) x 19 cm (W),
Base: 70cm (D)
The Qian Jin (literally, ‘a thousand pieces of gold’) vases are named for a Chinese phrase with a dual meaning, referring to something or someone extremely precious – usually the daughter of a wealthy family – but also referring pejoratively to a young girl who is pampered and spoiled. Jin Mei’s vessels are modelled after the slender ‘willow leaf’ vases that were highly prized in ancient China; their disproportionately narrow bases meant that they had to be displayed on specially-made holders to prevent them from falling over, a detail that further emphasized their value and need for special care. Noting parallels between these vases and the practice of foot binding in late imperial China, Jin Mei installs her Qian Jin vases teetering precariously on the edge of their pedestals, held back from the precipice only by strands suggestive of long hair, often associated with beauty and femininity. Are the vases saved, or are they being strangled? Can a state of being be both blessing as well as curse?
Perhaps the most introspective work of the lot, Self comprises a shell of crocheted thread, housing a found kendi vessel. Although the internal vessel ‘core’ is cracked and disintegrating, its semblance lives on in its outer crocheted shell, which has in turn been hardened by fire – a metaphor for how trials and past selves shape who we are today.
Seared into the body of each vessel are marks of destruction. Jin Mei took a blowtorch to each of her creations, allowing the fire to eat away at the painstakingly crocheted works, leaving behind hollows and hardened thread. Ironically, this gesture of un-making calls attention to its very making – the labour invested in each work – a detail that may otherwise have gone unappreciated had the vessel remained in its original form, too easily glossed over as a ’decorative’, ‘craft’ object.
Kelly Jin Mei
Self
2025
Crocheted and melted nylon, crushed ceramic
21cm x 21cm x 32cm (H)
Weixin Quek Chong (b. 1988) is an artist whose work is inspired by hybridity, metamorphosis and sensorial languages. Working with image, sound, immersive environments and tactile materials, often through the lens of subcultural aesthetics and movements, Quek Chong seeks to reconnect with embodied experiences that have largely been de-emphasized in the ocular-verbal-rational economy.
Included in Sensible Objects are a series of prints created by scanning orchids compressed in a vacuum, bringing to mind kink practices of bondage and gentle asphyxiation, where the bound or immobilised subject, in a heightened state, becomes unusually alert to their senses. The orchid is also a flower freighted with multiple associations, redolent of the sensuous tropics in the Western imaginary, and made to bear the weight of nation-building histories and national identity in Singapore. Small wonder then, that in Quek Chong’s images, the orchid is decontextualised, abstracted, and as curator Anca Rujoiu has noted – “the orchid struggles to breathe”.
Weixin Quek Chong
elongación líquida.1, 2021
Photographic print on Hahnemühle paper
Framed: 40 x 46 cm
Edition of 3 plus 1 artist’s proof (#3/3)
Sensory play also informs狐云非龙 (seven-tails), where contrasting textures of cold metal and soft faux fur evoke embodied responses to the work. Animated in mid-flight, the soft sculpture wears many ‘skins’, conjuring a multiplicity of associations including burlesque costume, the many-tailed fox or fox-spirit of Asian myths, as well as the undulating form of a serpent or dragon – a hybrid metamorph leaping through space-time and cultures, its mutation a metaphor for configuring a queer, migrant identity.
Weixin Quek Chong
狐云非龙 (seven-tails)
2021
materials: faux fur, chrome
size: variable
Chok Si Xuan (b. 1998) is an artist interested in the complex relations that enmesh technology in the everyday. Working with electronics such as motors and sensors, and found or everyday objects, Chok constructs installations and composite sculptures that produce kinetic or gestural elements, exploring the feedback systems that occur between humans, living organisms and machines, and expressing the shared likeness between these.
Sous, created in response to Appetite’s space and context, is a skeletal structure composed from tools commonly found in the kitchen, such as stainless steel meat hooks and knotted silicone gaskets. Residing within the structure, a pneumatic system expands and contracts, mimicking rhythms of breathing in the body. At the same time, this system makes reference to culinary techniques such as aeration and sous vide, which utilize the presence and lack of air to introduce texture and taste, with silicone gaskets acting as the sealant in cooking vessels. Bodily, we breathe as we chew – showing the quiet but vital role that air plays, from the preparation of food, to the act of consuming, and the sustaining of life.
Chok Si Xuan
Sous
2025
Meat hooks, multi-axis fasteners, latex rubber, silicone gaskets, pneumatic systems, batteries
A scent artist and creative communicator, Cherine Wee (b. 1990) explores multi-dimensional and multi-disciplinary ways of presenting scent as an expressive medium, including visual imagery or text, experiments, and / or experiences. A recurring theme in her work is the concept of time, as well as a tender attention to otherwise quotidian details. Wee runs an artisanal scent studio and brand called A Thing of Sense. Apart from producing a signature line of handcrafted candles, the studio also creates collaborative, bespoke scents with local and international brands and partners. Wee’s response to Sensible Objects’s curatorial brief marks her first foray into a new research trajectory, exploring the possibilities and potential of terracotta as material.
A figment of my imagination is an installation that houses a scent created in response to Appetite’s space, culture and approach towards the appreciation of ingredients. The interactive work playfully subverts expectations of everyday domestic objects, converting a suspended lampshade into a scented sanctuary. Terracotta blocks, infused with the fragrance specially created for the exhibition, replace the lightbulb, substituting the sense of sight whilst heightening the sense of smell, the lampshade serving to further occlude vision and create an immersive, embodied experience. The work recalls Lygia Clark’s experimental Sensory Masks of the 1960s, where a similar disengagement with visual stimuli (in Clark’s case, via scented sculptural hoods) was intended to facilitate a rediscovery of bodily experience and an affective inner world.
Sensible Objectives I and II are accompanying textual prompts that journal the thought process of Wee’s scent creation. The play of text teeters between sense and sensibilities, captured in thermal print to reflect fleeting moments of transition, akin to the behaviour of scent diffusion.
For a full dossier of available works, please contact siuli@appetitesg.com
Curated by:
Tan Siuli
With thanks to:
All artists
A.I. Gallery
