Jalan Besar Salon (Cycle II)

In this second edition, the annual Jalan Besar Salon popup first becomes a site for the exploration of the environment, green living and consciousness leading up to exhibitions, talks and a series of workshops.

The second cycle focuses on the environment in both the macro and micro sense, tracing the ongoing involvement of marginality and discrimination with Khairullah Rahim (Singapore), an exploration of our immediate surroundings with Ivan Tan (Singapore) and Shannon Lim (Singapore), the utilisation of natural resources in the artistic and academic practice of Ke-Ting Chen (Taiwan), as well as, the application of materiality and motifs of the environment in lieu with self-identity through the works of Annabel Lubega (Uganda).

The Jalan Besar Salon will launch its inaugural residency programme with Taiwanese plant pathologist and artist Ke-Ting Chen, featuring installations from his series of botanical workshops and talks. The artworks will intertwine with selected research documents that addresses Chen’s work with the indigenous communities and farms as he explores the effects of human intervention on these natural resources. The workshop will be summarised with an exhibition of the participants’ works alongside the collaborative launch of a collection of utility wear by house brand Ultramarine and local collective Inventory Co . The collection comprises of a set of four staples designed for everyday use, built on INVENTORY’s ethos of producing pieces a consumer would take to work, or along on their travels etc. Following Chen’s residency is a solo presentation by Singaporean artist Khairullah Rahim, bringing forth the recent explorations from his ongoing research where he contemplates colourism, concepts of hygiene and its ramifications on especially ethnic minorities. The Salon’s second artist residency will be taken on by local graphic designer, Shannon Lim, in an on-site piece through interventive way-finding. Lim will be hosting a series of workshops and talks on collaborative work and publications.

The 2018 Jalan Besar Salon will come to a head in a group show featuring Austrian-Ugandan artist Annabel Lubega and local filmmaker-writer Ivan Tan. Lubega will be exploring the theme of identity and migration through mixed-media installations that showcases the effects of her immediate environment in the inquiry into her heritage and the notion of “brown-ness”. The Salon will also be screening Ivan Tan’s award-winning short film, Tadpoles. The film focuses on relationships within the Singaporean family unit against the framework of our urban spaces and the home.