Jason Wee

Situated in Tiong Bahru, Grey Projects is a non-profit artists’ space that focuses on supporting emerging practices. Just as the name suggests, Grey Projects is fuelled by ongoing creative initiatives encompassing a variety of curatorial, publication, design and experimental projects. The space consists of two galleries, a library and a studio, and is the host of both local and international artist residencies. The founder of Grey Projects, Jason Wee, is an artist, curator and writer based in Singapore and New York; his interest in nascent art practices is carried over into the ethos behind the creative melting pot that is Grey Projects.

Vanessa Low: Artist-run spaces are quite unique in Singapore; can you describe how Grey Projects started?

Jason Wee: About 7 years ago I started Grey Projects – actually out of my apartment in River Valley, which is not far from the neighborhood that we are in now. I held exhibitions by artists and organised residencies in partnership with the Art Incubator, a residency program by the curator Charmaine Toh that also began that same year. Our studio, publishing and library initiatives came much later when we moved into Tiong Bahru.

Grey Projects Gallery 1. Image courtesy of Grey Projects

VL: Could you explain the meaning behind the name Grey Projects?

JW: One way to think about it is a deliberate smudge of what people expect from exhibition spaces, freeing us to project ourselves into other exhibitionary practices and other disciplines. Another way is to think about the material textures of our space itself, which is dominantly grey. My first space had no paint on the walls, just grey plaster and concrete. Yet another way is to consider grey as the mix of several different pigments, which is another way of describing how we do a few things at the same time – publishing, organising, curating, exchanges, residencies.

VL: The concept of exchange is at the crux of Grey Projects. Can you talk about the different initiatives that you run to facilitate the cross-pollination of artistic ideas, curatorial concepts, and creative texts?

JW: We run residency exchanges with partner spaces around the region and further afield, usually spaces with parallel outlooks and scales. In the past two years, we have exchanged artists with Taipei Artist Village, Platform3 in Bandung, Casa Tres Patios in Medellin, and Hangar in Barcelona, and we announced a new exchange with a space in Venezuala. I would like to create one with Sydney, let’s see!

We also run a Print Lab program, where we organise workshops where individuals can learn how to make their own books, how to do page layouts, how to create unique typography, or how to bind pages into books. At the same time, we launch an open call for artists’ books as we turn our galleries into a temporary bookstore. We have received wonderful contributions from artists, illustrators, photographers and architects. When the bookstore ends, we take a selection of these books to art book fairs. We have participated in the Singapore Art Book Fair, the Tokyo Art Book Fair and most recently the Volume Art Book Fair in Sydney.

Grey Projects Gallery 2. Image courtesy of Grey Projects

VL: In contrast to government-run museums and galleries, as an independent space you are able to exhibit more experimental practices and works that focus on taboo subjects – such as the recent exhibit ‘8 Women’ which featured photographs of transwomen living in Farrer Park. What do you gain from exhibiting these varied voices?

JW: It is crucial for me that our visitors understand that Grey Projects maintains a welcome for individuals and forms of representation that might not find visibility elsewhere, that might even encounter outright hostility. I would love for Grey Projects to be a social space as much as it is an art space.

VL: Grey Projects, based in Tiong Bahru, has a focus on giving visibility to Singaporean artists. However there are also efforts to connect to international art communities as well. Why is this a focus?

JW: Because we are, in the end, a small place in a big world.

Grey Projects Library. Image courtesy of Grey Projects

VL: Grey Projects also publishes various books; can you describe the different kinds of texts you are interested in promoting?

JW: We are interested in curatorial and art writing, but even those are not restrictions as much as they are challenges, to think and rethink their formal and affective possibilities. We have also supported poets and playwrights through our residencies as well as our publications. We published a volume by Shubigi Rao, an artist who thinks of herself as a bad poet from a family of poets. We are also in the middle of editing a volume of doggerel-like lyrics by the performance artist Lee Wen.

VL: What can we expect from Grey Projects in the future?

JW: We have an exhibition by the young designer Vanessa Ban, as well as new paintings by Joshua Yang, a member of the Vertical Submarine collective, and new punk paintings by Lee Wen.

Grey Projects Studio. Image courtesy of Grey Projects

Current & Upcoming Exhibitions at Grey Projects

Vanessa Ban
Vanessa Ban is a graphic designer, artist, and lecturer. Her work focuses heavily on the cross-fields of contemporary art and graphic design, with clients ranging from institutions, and SM enterprises to independent artists, writers and curators.
Dates: Till 22 November 2015
Venue: Grey Projects, 6B Kim Tian Road, Tiong Bahru, Singapore 169246
Hours: Wed – Fri 1pm – 7pm, Sat 1pm – 6pm

Joshua Yang
Joshua Yang is a member of artist collective Vertical Submarine.
Dates: 25 November – 16 January 2015
Grey Projects will be closed for its year-end break from
6 Dec 2015 – 5 Jan 2016.
Venue: Grey Projects, 6B Kim Tian Road, Tiong Bahru, Singapore 169246
Hours: Wed – Fri 1pm – 7pm, Sat 1pm – 6pm