Happiness is Finding the Garden Within, 2022, Ernest Chan. Image Courtesy of SEED the Art Space
Gardens have been cultivated across generations and civilisations. For millennia, humans have been ascribing rich symbolisms not only to their architecture but even their very existence. For the rich and powerful, gardens represent wealth and sophistication, while for the devout and spiritual, gardens offer places of refuge and contemplation. As such, references to gardens in art making are often rife with tensions between the banalities of contemporary life and the deeper realities that nature provides.
For Ernest Chan, gardens are spaces in which encounters with nature refresh the spirit and provide refuge from existential anxieties. Through paintings and ceramic sculptures, Chan uses the garden as a metaphor that visualises the deep connections between the primal experience of nature, and the restorative effect produced by the work of tending to a garden. In his free and imaginative gardens, threats of poisonous flowers loom ahead, ripe peaches await a caress, and wild mushrooms spread their spores in a borderless fashion, all of which symbolize an emergence of the artist’s longing for the adventure, happiness, and freedom that his inner garden provides.
Venue: SEED the Art Space, 46 Kim Yam Road, #03-11, Singapore 239351
When: 8 Jan - 4 Feb 2023, Wednesdays to Sundays, 11am to 7pm
