Clive van den Berg, For the Broken Bodies, 2019, Wood, pigment and gold leaf, Unique, 27 x 53 x 48 cm

Yavuz Gallery is pleased to present the order of nature, a group exhibition in Singapore featuring internationally acclaimed artists: Brook Andrew, Clive van den Berg, Skyler Chen, Sunil Gupta, Alvin Ong and Jason Wee. The exhibition extends on this single legal reprieve, exploring the ambiguities that continue to persist for queer communities across artists that work in countries colonised by the British.

The exhibition takes the recent repeal of Section 377A in the Singapore Constitution as its starting point, a law introduced to the country in 1871 under British colonial rule that criminalised sex between two men. The genesis of Section 377 can be traced to 1862, first codified in the Indian Penal Code and drawn up by Thomas Babington Macaulay, exported and applied to the basis of criminal law codes in over 39 British colonies across Asia, the Pacific and Africa, leaving a damaging legacy in its wake. It has often been used to justify discrimination and violence against the queer community and other ancestral sexual and gender diverse identities. The women/men binary enshrined in many societies reflects an understanding of gender and sexuality by colonial legacies that unfortunately disregards and discourages public discourses on homosexual conducts across cultures in all regions of the world.

Venue: Yavuz Gallery Singapore, Gillman Barracks, 9 Lock Road, #02-23, Singapore 108937

Opening Hours:
Tuesday to Saturday: 11am-7pm
Sunday: 1pm-5pm
Mondays and public holidays by appointment only

When: 18 Nov - 23 Dec 2023,

By: Ames Yavuz