Odyssey: Navigating Nameless Seas currently being held at the Singapore Art Museum until 28 Aug, 2016, draws the viewer into the earth’s watery dominion, as seen through the eyes of 11 Asian and Australian contemporary artists.

In the first gallery on the ground floor, Indonesian artist Entang Wiharso’s ‘Breathing Together’ depicts an underwater ‘memory-scape’. It is a surrealistic mixed-media mural spread across the entire gallery space using acrylic, car paint, oil on canvas, resin, aluminium, plastic, thread, fabric, light bulbs and electric cables.

Wiharso explores the experience of living on the island of Indonesia, its challenges and the mysterious fragments of the past — such as becaks (pedicabs), which were outlawed by the government and disposed off in the sea. The artist depicts the interconnectedness of history, of civilisation, life on land and underwater. The work reflects the influence that the sea’s flora and fauna, specifically whales, have on humans. The black line work on glass and the coloured work inside glass baubles are interesting features of this large exhibit.

From colonial legacy to issues of migration, an exhibit in Singapore looks at our relationship with the sea

‘A Short History of Man and Animal’ by Vietnamese-American artist Richard Streitmatter-Tran got me thinking how he must have built a seven-metre, one-tonne boat inside the museum. Apparently, the artist used some 410 kilogrammes of clay sculpted into bones in the museum itself. 

The wooden boat, with a set of whale bones placed within its hull, highlights how fishing boats inherit the physical characteristics of whales. In the short description of his work, the artist likens this with Leonardo da Vinci’s early designs of flying machines that adapted the shape and form of bat wings.

Yet another large boat, created by Filipino husband-and-wife artist duo Alfredo and Isabel Aquilizan, titled ‘Passage III: Project Another Country’, is made of used cargo cardboard boxes and wood. This powerful work that addresses their personal relocation to Australia, explores issues of journey, migration and social dislocation. The boxes on the boat are arranged in a manner that resemble a shanty town, which in turn expresses precarious existences and the necessity of finding better ‘homes.

‘Una Lumino Callidus Spiritus’ is an impressive exhibit by Korean artist Choe U-Ram. The biomorphic kinetic sculpture is enthused by the colonies of barnacles in the ocean. Composed of metal, motors and machinery, they come alive in a dark setting, almost speaking to the viewer about their evolution and adaptation.

When I initially read the list of participating artists, I was looking forward to see Pakistani artist Rashid Rana’s new work, but it is an old piece: ‘Offshore Accounts’, which is a monochromatic seascape comprising thousands of miniature images of trash and colonial ships depicting the legacies of colonial trade as well as the destructive wastefulness of contemporary consumerism.

The Research Room at SAM contains maritime artefacts and reproductions that trace humanity’s relationship with the sea. A small research book library and the artefacts recount both actual and fictional voyages. For Odyssey: Navigating Nameless Seas, the various artists who have delved into the bottomless depths of the ocean’s mysteries have done so with imagination and success, althogh just a few works fall short of sparking any new ideas.

Published in Dawn, Sunday Magazine, July 31st, 2016