The Singaporean artist who dreams big – from giant bunnies to huge blocks of ice
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The Singaporean artist who dreams big – from giant bunnies to huge blocks of water ice
Evoking memories and emotions from melting water ice and whimsical inflatables, Dawn Ng'due south impeccable savoir faire is an inspiration for many women.
In partnership with Louis Vuitton.
Ribbed wool sweater and loose-fit trousers, B Blossom earrings and bangle in onyx and diamonds and Capucines Mini in Taurillon leather (with detachable sling), all past Louis Vuitton. (Photograph: Alvin Teo; styling: Lena Kamarudin; art direction: Jasper Loh)
twenty Aug 2022 07:00AM (Updated: 03 Sep 2022 03:45PM)
When information technology comes to first impressions, many of Dawn Ng'due south artworks certainly brand an touch on – considering of their sheer size.
For case, Walter, her 2010 serial of guerrilla installations of a giant inflatable bunny across diverse locations in Singapore, is undoubtedly one of her most iconic creations. Others may recall admiring Perfect Day, a 2022 lite installation of the Chinese idiom "feng he re li" while enjoying a cocktail and a bite at the Loof rooftop bar at Odeon Towers.
More recently, for her well-received Into Air solo exhibition held in January at a former send repairs factory, she created, melted and evaporated large 60kg coloured water ice blocks and documented this process via photographs, film and painting.
Beyond making a visual argument, these creations are also imbued with deeper meanings.
"I was interested in the arts and crafts of telling stories, be it in the grade of a narrative, object or visual from a immature historic period," said Ng.
For example, the Walter serial, which popped up across Singapore'south heartland, was a cornball yet humorous commentary on the state's landscape, while the Loof installation was a throwback to how Chinese-Singaporeans learned to start their Standard mandarin essays with this idiom, which means a breezy, cute day. A reminder, perhaps, of a fourth dimension when all narratives started with a perfect day.
The bittersweet emotions that these works evoke are a central tenet of the acclaimed visual artist's practice, which focuses on the concepts of time, memory and the imperceptible.
The large scale of the works not only represent Ng's feelings, they tin can also be interpreted equally embodying the universality of the themes she conveys through her art.
"Certain works possess this larger-than-life calibration probably because I am always desperately trying to tell a story so much bigger than myself," said the 39-yr-old, whose work has been acquired past the Singapore Art Museum and exhibited at the Musee d'fine art contemporain de Lyon in French republic.
"I often feel things in such a tsunamic, burdensome way that information technology simply seems right the works bear a mass, which echoes that volume of emotion."
To effectively convey the stories she wishes to tell, Ng does not limit herself to a single medium. Instead, she works across a breadth of mediums, which includes sculpture, photography, light, pic, collage, painting and large-scale installations.
"Throughout my practise, I have never stuck with a specific medium for the very reason that I believe each idea informs the manner and material in which it comes to life, not the other way circular," said Ng, who has held solos in Fine art Basel Hong Kong and the Art Paris Fine art Off-white, and shown in Sydney, Shanghai, Jakarta and New York.
Her starting point is often an observation which she finds compelling and, over time, this "interest" evolves into a deep investigation.
For example, her ongoing serial Into Air started in 2022 when she first became fascinated with the idea of the ephemeral quality of water ice, which begins to melt once information technology is out of the freezer.
"What started out equally a benign curiosity about holding time in an ephemeral object like ice, grew into a total-blown obsession with creating and documenting the disintegration of large sculptural blocks of frozen pigment," said Ng, who also concluded an Into Air solo in Seoul, Republic of korea, this year. "Ice is a perfect material to me because it cannot concluding."
It took her three years of laborious enquiry and experimenting to gain mastery over the medium of ice and to learn to capture its disintegration in a poetic fashion via photographs, film and painting.
To showcase the sculptural quality of the pigmented ice, each melting block is photographed from multiple angles at regular intervals. From this database of images, Ng carefully curates just a few images that convey the fleeting beauty of the ice blocks.
And to create the large abstract paintings that were a office of the exhibition, she gathered the melted mass into large vats and lay cotton paper over the surface to let the coloured pigments to form topographical blooms and textured tributaries on the newspaper every bit the liquid evaporated.
She is currently in the middle of an intense seven-month cycle of freezing pigments in her studio and filming the blocks in a continuation of her piece of work on the Into Air serial. Having the time to work on this demanding process, she said, has been one of the positive side effects of the by year.
"The product process for this series is technically intensive, and this twelvemonth of lockdowns was the perfect time to hole up and delve deeper into different forms, techniques and pigment control," she said.
Pandemic awaiting, there are plans for solos in Sydney and London side by side year, she added.
In a society that tends to value fiscal success, Ng observes that this aspect tin be a challenge for artists, ranging from upstart upper-case letter to achieving consistency and stability afterwards in their careers.
She said: "The sometime, canonised definition of success or what you could and should be in Singapore was starched and stifling. Many leading entrepreneurs and creatives in my generation had a caput start in finance, police force and applied science, so reinvented themselves in their late 20s."
Ng herself worked in pattern and advertising in her 20s and used her savings to fund rental, enquiry and production for the first v years of her practice. She said: "Things have reached a good balance now but I pour everything I make dorsum into the studio – that is the but way I believe that work grows in experimentation, finesse and scale."
Reflecting on how society has evolved over the years to become more receptive of a more than various range of callings, she said: "Singapore may still not be the virtually natural incubator of creative renegades, but boy, take we come so far."
To empower her own iv-year-one-time daughter to pursue her ain passions, Ng focuses on inculcating a sense of independence and strong work ethic in the toddler.
"I know it sounds strange, but I feel I empower her by making things a tad more difficult for her instead of like shooting fish in a barrel. Information technology starts from the little things. For example, she gets to choose whatever activity she likes to exercise, simply I prefer that she does most of it on her own – even if she does non know how – and finishes information technology," she said.
"I intendance that she made the effort and she didn't quit when she got stuck. I believe that is the engine, which volition drive whatsoever involvement she has across a mere dabbling or hobby."
Ng leads by example, tirelessly putting in the hours at work. "I am at the studio 7 days a week considering I want to be. Information technology is both a discipline and a meditation," she said.
Her family's support, she said, is what makes this endeavour possible. "My hubby and girl respect my delivery and I am grateful for that kind of alignment, considering information technology allows me to go hard and and so get home."
Today, as a sought-afterwards artist, she is an inspiration for those who wish to follow their hearts. Her goal is articulate. "Just to be unproblematic, living proof that doing what I practise is possible and real," she said.
Photography by Alvin Teo, styling past Lena Kamarudin, hair past Junie Tan and Charlene Tang, makeup by Lolent Lee using YSL Beauty, photography assistant Samuel Foo, fashion assistant Muhammad Sadiq. Art management by Jasper Loh, produced past Penelope Chan and Shalini Selliah.
CNA Lifestyle and Louis Vuitton celebrate boggling women in this series, along with the spirit of the business firm'due south iconic Capucines bag.
CNA Women is a new section on CNA Lifestyle that seeks to inform, empower and inspire the modern adult female. If y'all have women-related news, issues and ideas to share with us, email CNAWomen [at] mediacorp.com.sg .
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