Exhibition spotlights pioneering women artists from region

National Gallery Singapore's new show includes works by Singapore's Amanda Heng and Indonesia's Dolorosa Sinaga

- Ong Sor Fern

A plastic food cover and a set of three aprons purchased from Robinsons department store are unlikely objects for an art exhibition. But these everyday items were used by Singaporean artist Amanda Heng in two works which are part of National Gallery Singapore's new show, Fear No Power: Women Imagining Otherwise.

The exhibition, which opens on Jan 9 and runs till Nov 15, brings together the work of five pioneering Southeast Asian women artists and is the result of a three-year research effort. The show includes more than 45 works, as well as a slew of archival materials, by Indonesia’s Dolorosa Sinaga, the Philippines’ Imelda Cajipe Endaya, Malaysia’s Nirmala Dutt and Thailand’s Phaptawan Suwannakudt.

By bringing their works together, co-curators Joleen Loh and Qinyi Lim hope to highlight the lifelong practices of these pioneering artists.

Ms Loh says: “Many of these artists were often framed by others as feminists or women artists. But our intention here is not so much to cast them as such, nor bring them in a false unity, but to invite everyone to begin with the artworks to understand how these artists were speaking from their own lived experiences. We want to delay this impulse to categorise them.”

She emphasises that the show is not meant to be a survey, but its comparative nature does draw out common threads in these women’s works.