Short Stories - Appetite

Short Stories brings together two mini presentations: the first, an archive of black and white photographs of 1960s Singapore by chef-photographer Hor Kwok Kin, and the second, a selection of colourful, abstract canvases by his contemporary Wong Keen.

While Hor and Wong pursued markedly different paths and approaches to art-making, both artists share a connection with the kitchen, its materials, and its rituals. Hor, who toiled as a chef, found in photography a passion outside of the kitchen, and through this lens, demonstrated an incredible sensitivity in observation, as well as the resourcefulness and flair that accompanies any act of creation, whether that be on the stove or in his improvised darkroom.

Wong, on the other hand, draws on the motif of meat to explore painterly qualities of colour, texture, and density; his abstracted imagery blurs the line between human and animal flesh to comment on a culture of consumption and commodification.

Short Stories is open to public from 22 Aug – 19 Nov, 2023.

Making Time presents a selection of black and white vignettes of old Singapore, by photographer Hor Kwok Kin. Hor (b. 1939), who worked as a chef at a restaurant in Bugis, was passionate about photography, and spent whatever precious rest time he had wandering Singapore’s streets, capturing compelling images of its people and places with warmth and empathy. In Hor’s style one may observe the influence of modern photographers such as his friend and mentor Yip Cheong Fun, with his use of framing devices and composition, as well as that of French humanist photographer Henri Cartier Bresson, who pioneered the genre of street photography and aimed to capture the candour of the ‘decisive moment’.

These vignettes serve as a poignant archive of Singapore as a young nation in transition; collective moments that ‘make time’ or make up history. At the same time, they are also a remarkable record of Hor’s creative pursuits, the ‘making time’ he allowed himself the indulgence of, and a tribute to one individual’s passion and determination to pursue his art – making time, against all odds.

Wong Keen (b. 1942) grew up in a Chinese literati environment, and was one of the first Singapore artists to be trained in New York, at the prestigious Art Students League. Wong established his early career and practice in the flourishing post-war American art scene, bringing together the aesthetics and elegant expressiveness of Chinese ink painting, with an innovative approach to form and colour gleaned from his education and exposure to modern art in America.

The Way Of All Flesh presents a selection of works from Wong’s most acclaimed series to date, an exploration of the visual discourse of flesh and meat initiated during the artist’s residency with Galerie Urs Meile (Beijing) in 2012. In Wong’s dynamic, abstracted canvases, the nude becomes synonymous with animal flesh, conflating two opposing registers – one of ‘high art’, and the other of the butcher shop – and offering up narratives of consumption and commodification. While visually arresting and sensuous in colour and texture, the imagery nonetheless carries a certain charge, alluding to notions of the ‘sandwiched’ or marginalized classes, and the pressures of contemporary society.

Artworks

Making Time