Chen Wei, New Station, 2020, Archival Inkjet Print, 150 x 240 cm, Edition of 6 + 2 A.P.
Ota Fine Arts Singapore is delighted to present a duo exhibition, “Chen Wei + Hiraki Sawa”. These two artists work with the photographic/ recorded image, creating narratives that reflect upon occurrences in the world we live in.
Chen Wei (b. 1980, China) seeks to capture beauty in spaces that have been neglected, and his works guide viewers to not only reflect on the rapidly changing landscapes in this contemporary world but to also incite them to ponder on the effects such changes have on themselves. In New Station (2020), an empty bus stop is depicted. Objects such as suitcases, different kinds of boxes and the bus stop’s structure with its empty signboard seem to play the role of the storyteller in this work. During the process of making this work, Chen started to reflect on what a bus stop represents. To him, it suggests the movement of people with different backgrounds and purposes, such as leaving home for school, work, or meeting someone, and it could be a daily commute or a long journey without any plans to return.
On the other hand, Hiraki Sawa’s(b.1977, Japan) works diffuses and blurs the boundaries between domestic and public spaces, interweaving the familiar and unfamiliar of the everyday to create dream-like scenescapes and moving images that begets one’s imagination. His new video piece pilgrim (2022) explores the idea of journey and imagination. Miniature airplanes are seen flying around an Art Deco building that used to belong to the Japanese Royal Family, metaphorically cruising through 100 years of time. Sawa states, “People, when embarking upon a ‘journey,’ perhaps come to experience the faintness and ephemerality of the world they live in, as well as the delightful lightness and casualness of their very own existence… What is more, it doesn’t simply end there, as I believe that after returning, a new journey once again begins in the midst of one’s ordinary everyday life.”
Venue: Ota Fine Arts, 7 Lock Road, #02-13 Gillman Barracks, Singapore 108935
When: 21 Oct - 16 Dec 2023,
By: Ota Fine Arts
