left: Yeoh Wee Hwee, The Phoenix, Cellulose Tape, 36 cm x 35 cm, 2019 right: Junie Tang, Taxi (Pink), Silkscreen Printing, 33 cm x 45 cm (with acrylic frame), 2018.

Presenting artworks by Yeoh Wee Hwee and Junie Tang, this exhibition titled, “(de)familiarization” employs this very technique of “making art strange.” Artist Yeoh Wee Hwee, explores the aesthetics and functions of mundane materials through the creation of (un)familiar cultural forms, while Junie Tang, formally trained as a graphic designer, attempts to make posters “strange” by producing them through the use of non-digital photographic and print-making techniques. Notably, through (de)familiarization, each piece becomes a means of experiencing the artfulness of an object. The object itself is not vital.

Yeoh Wee Hwee graduated with a Bachelor of Arts (Hons – 1st Class) Fine Art with Contemporary Writing from University of Huddersfield, United Kingdom, in 2006. After receiving her Art Bursary (Oversea) in 2007 from Singapore National Arts Council, she continued to pursue her masters degree in Fine Art from The Glasgow School of Art, United Kingdom, and graduated in 2009. She is currently a part-time lecturer in LASALLE College of the Arts and Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts.

Wee’s practice enquires into the idea of becoming through a work intensive operation on displacement and transgression. Nothing is stable, things are constantly in a state of becoming; in a state of flux where one never cease to slip and transform into another. The qualities and functions of the mass-produced materials used in our everyday lives are examined, exploited and challenged during the process of her exploration in order to transform them into objects, sculptures and installations overlaid with contradictions and ambiguity.

Junie Tang first attained her Bachelor’s degree in Visual Communication at Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, in collaboration with the University of Western Sydney, in 2001. After eight years of practice as a graphic designer in publishing houses as well as creative design agencies, in 2010, she started teaching the diploma and degree in Visual Communication programmes at First Media Design School. In 2015, after graduating with a Master in Arts and Cultural Management from LASALLE College of the Arts, in collaboration with Goldsmiths, University of London, she began making art through the medium of photography and printmaking.

As a graphic designer cum educator who has also crossed over to the realm of art, Junie’s area of interests revolves around the idea of synthesising art and design, as well as investigating the role of a graphic designer in the society. Currently a PhD student at the Nanyang Technological University, her research focuses on expanding the role of a graphic designer as a curator, which involves transforming him/her from a problem-solver into a problematiser.

Opening Event: 18 July 2019 at 7pm

Venue: Supernormal, 101 Desker Rd, Singapore 209623

When: 19 - 24 Jul 2019, 11am - 7pm daily

By: Supernormal