OCULA | Singapore Lowdown: Shows to See

Tessa Moldan, Ocula, January 10, 2020

Singapore Art Week returns from 11 to 19 January 2020 with a host of island-wide events, at the centre of which is the second edition of S.E.A. Focus (16–19 January 2020), which returns to Gillman Barracks arts precinct with the best of contemporary art in Southeast Asia.

 

Citra Sasmita: Ode to the Sun
Yeo Workshop, 47 Malan Road, #01–25, Gillman Barracks
10 January–29 February 2020

 

The smell of turmeric accompanies visitors to Balinese artist Citra Sasmita's latest solo show at Yeo Workshop, Ode to the Sun, where the spice is used to write text from Old Javanese Kakawin poems on the floor, while brightly painted canvases hang from the ceiling in a circular structure. In her work, Sasmita challenges patriarchal structures in Indonesian society, incorporating female characters into her canvases alongside symbols from Balinese mysticism. This is the third iteration of a project that was first conceived for the Biennale Jogja XV in 2019.