What does it mean to engage with materials and its cultural context? Join us for a discussion with artists Sinta Tantra, Tiffany Loy and Ain. They will share insights on their approaches and relationship with specific materials from gold leaf to textile to ceramics in their practices. They will also speak to how scale, technique and place can affect the meanings associated with the materials they employ.
Speakers
Sinta Tantra, Artist, presenting with ISA Art Gallery
Sinta Tantra explores the interplay between colour, light, and form, creating paintings and installations that transform with time and space. Her work, often inspired by her Balinese heritage, blends geometric and organic shapes in a universal visual language, focusing on emotional and physical experience. Born in New York and raised in London, Tantra studied at the Slade School of Fine Art and the Royal Academy Schools. Her work has been featured in prominent exhibitions and public spaces, including the Folkestone Triennial, Liverpool Biennial, the Karachi Biennale, and The Southbank Centre. Her pieces are held in notable collections such as the Government Art Collection, Museum MACAN, the Louis Vuitton Collection, and other private international collections.
Tiffany Loy, Artist, presenting with Sullivan+Strumpf
Tiffany Loy is a Singaporean textile artist who employs an investigative approach to weaving, materiality and art-making. Exploring the poetic potential of tension in threads, Loy is drawn to the ways that the human eye perceives depth and volume of colour at both the scale of a single thread and that of a larger woven work. Building abstract sculptures with pliable lines, she invites viewers to exercise their eyes and indulge in the act of observing.
Ain, Artist, presenting with The Back Room
Nurul Ain Binti Nor Halim (2000), in short Ain, is an artist born in Bangkok, Thailand and raised in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Japan, which makes her have a diasporic identity and longing for belonging. Her practice includes videos, audio, and installations that focus on themes such as belonging, language, memories, and national and cultural identity. Her work reflects her interest in post-colonial discourses, exploring themes such as cultural preservation, exoticism, craftsmanship, and archives. Besides that, she questions the position and role of artists in decolonisation, with references to Aimé Césaire’s notion of “Man of Culture”, and how one embraces a post-colonial history and reconstructs oneself through culture and the arts.
Moderator
Berny Tan, Artist; Curator (Design) at Singapore Art Museum
Berny Tan (b.1990, Singapore) is Curator of the new Design Collection initiative at Singapore Art Museum, which explores multi-, inter-, and transdisciplinary practices at the intersection of design and contemporary art. Guided by her experiences as an artist, she nurtures a practitioner-centred curatorial approach grounded in empathy, sensitivity, and collaboration. Her projects reflect an interest in illuminating the processes and materialities of art-making, and how artists’ sensibilities transcend the mediums within which they work.
***
Seats are limited on a first-come, first-serve basis. Please register via the ‘Sign Up’ button to secure your seats.
This talk will be held within S.E.A. Focus 2025 and a valid admission ticket to the exhibition will be required.
19 Jan 2025
Making in a Material World
2:00 PM - 3:00 PM
39 Keppel Rd
Singapore 089065