Sarah Choo Jing, Only Nearer Than Half A World Apart, 2022, diasec print, 51x150 cm, ed of 10

Yeo Workshop spotlights Singaporean artist Sarah Choo Jing with a presentation of new works for her forthcoming solo exhibition at the gallery. The exhibition explores an alternative discourse of movement and dance in the context of Singapore’s 20th century ‘Entertainment Worlds’ – amusement parks that offered the public diversion through athletic contests, performances, games, rides and food fairs. Choo presents her subjects plucked from these worlds and immersed in deliberately constructed situations, allowing them to interpret, respond, and perform within the site. Playing with notions of performativity and chance in the process of creating these works, Choo offers her performers the opportunity to challenge traditional and preconceived stereotypes associated with their respective historic characters: a Chinese opera performer, singer, cabaret girl, boxer, and jester. Staged at a moment when the world is still working through physical separations, personal anxieties, and the social strangeness of increased distancing enforced during the COVID-19 pandemic, this work offers a hallucinatory resemblance to our current reality. The isolation of the characters combined with their range of movements from confident and controlled to introspective, pitiful, and awkward creates an uneven rhythm that offers a view of their unreality in perpetual pure repetition.

Venue: Yeo Workshop, 47 Malan Road, #01-25 Gillman Barracks, Singapore 109444

When: 7 Jan - 26 Feb 2023,

By: Yeo Workshop