Suzann Victor – See Like a Heretic: On Vision and Belief

Suzann Victor, Heart to Heart 1, 37 x 37 x 23 cm, Readymade, Crushed Stained Glass

See Like a Heretic: On Vision and Belief is a solo exhibition by acclaimed international artist, Suzann Victor. Based in Australia since the late 1990s, Victor’s art continues to be a regular feature of the contemporary art scene in Singapore, collected and exhibited by the nation’s major cultural institutions and significant to Singapore’s contemporary art history.

Spanning almost a two-year collaboration with the Yogya Art Lab (YAL) in Indonesia, a residency initiative organised by Gajah Gallery, the exhibition continues Victor’s ongoing experiments with the qualities of light and her inquiries into how we perceive, experience and make sense of our being in the world. The materiality of stained glass is prevalent throughout the works in this exhibition; the YAL team and the artist worked in tandem with this medium to produce a series of religious Catholic icons and intricate heart sculptures.

While the stained-glass medium is reminiscent of the translucent coloured light that gently filters through church windows, in this exhibition precious stained glass is violently crushed and meticulously reworked into shimmering coverings and exquisite sculptural forms. Approached with delicacy and precision, the YAL team has managed to successfully translate Victor’s vision into an extraordinary body of work that exudes an iconic status and divine sensibility of a different kind.

Victor has participated in prestigious international exhibitions. Most recently, Victor’s installation Veil – See Like a Heretic was created for the major retrospective exhibition Sunshower held in Japan in 2017-2018 surveying contemporary Southeast Asian art from the 1980s to now. Following this, Victor was commissioned to create her new public art installation A Thousand Skies at Jyotenji Temple, Hakata, outside the Fukuoka Asian Art Museum.

Venue: Gajah Gallery, 39 Keppel Road, Tanjong Pagar Distripark, 03-04, Singapore 089065