Our editors select the shows to see in Singapore this January, including soundscapes, the eighth edition of the nation’s Biennale, and a prescient examination of human climate intervention.
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Citra Sasmita, Women Who Carry the Mountain (17 January–1 March 2026)at Yeo Workshop
Two suspended cowhides form Tribe of Fire (2025), the centrepiece of Citra Sasmita’s solo show Women Who Carry the Mountain. Sasmita draws upon the ancient Balinese creation myth of Bedawang Nala—an epically sized turtle entwined with two dragons, which support and protect the Earth. Her contemporary feminist lens makes the use of cowhide, as a canvas of sorts, prescient. Sasmita’s brushstrokes mingle with the scarred and worn skin of the leather, mimicking the human body bearing its own scars; both are flesh vessels, marked by memory and time. Alongside the central installation, the artist presents four traditional acrylic paintings on Kamasan canvas, two of which are contained in a round snake-fibre frame. In Tree of Life (2026) the body of a woman is split down the middle; a tree emerges, its branches bearing the fruit of dozens of heads—women’s heads. In her work, Sasmita presents a powerful eco-feminist message regarding the reconciliation of nature and the human body. – Lydia Eliza Trail
