It’s a stark introduction to Everyday Practices. Visitors to the inaugural exhibition at Singapore Art Museum (SAM)’s new collection gallery are greeted by Tehching Hsieh’s seminal work, One Year Performance 1978–1979.
For one year, Hsieh confined himself to a self-constructed holding cell in his studio and remained in solitude, abstaining from activities such as conversation, reading, writing, listening to the radio, or watching TV. This became the first of Hsieh’s five-year-long durational performances which turned the banality of life and the passage of time into both medium and subject for his art.
Everyday Practices builds on Hsieh’s philosophy. The exhibition, which runs from Aug 30, 2024 to Jul 20, 2025, features 21 artworks from 19 artists and one artist collective from 10 countries across Asia, whose practices span different generations and media. Focusing on themes of everyday, repetition, and endurance, the artworks showcase the inventive ways artists have appropriated daily routines and lived experiences to express powerful statements of resilience and endurance in navigating adversity. It’s a fitting start for SAM, as the exhibition marks the opening of a dedicated space featuring artworks from the museum’s collection that reflect contemporary global practices and life today.
From the get-go, visitors are challenged to think about the fundamental conditions of life and meaning through works from 19 artists and one artist collective from 10 Asian countries. Htein Lin’s Soap Blocked features hundreds of hand-carved soap blocks, arranged to form a map of his native country Myanmar, with red blocks marking the locations where political prisoners have been held. Upon closer look, each soap block reveals a tiny, hunched figure trapped within the rectangular space. This work reflects Htein Lin’s personal history of imprisonment for political dissent and the collective helplessness experienced under military rule.
Wong Hoy Cheong’s Tapestry of Justice extends this exploration of subtle resistance through a delicate tapestry of over 10,000 photocopied thumbprints held together with plant leaves and petals. Collected during Malaysia’s Reformasi movement in the late 1990s, they function as an artwork and a petition, highlighting the ironic duality of thumbprints as a mark of criminality and a reliable form of identification, while emphasising the power of collective action to drive change.
Staying in Malaysia, Minstrel Kuik’s Domesticated Politics recontextualises flags from the country’s 2013 General Elections by presenting them as DIY creations. By abstracting and “muting” these flags through domestic acts like folding and ironing, Kuik feminises and softens objects that were once exuberant, masculine, and heroic, offering a reflective commentary on the political and societal landscape of the country.
Other artworks reflect narratives of endurance in the face of personal adversities. Jerome Kugan’s The Internalised Self series (Atlas, Apollo, Icarus, Ganymede) is a deeply personal narrative of self-reckoning and empowerment. His ambiguous and androgynous figures are set against crimson backgrounds on recycled cartons of antiretroviral drugs, alluding to the artist’s HIV-positive status. Similarly, Imhathai Suwatthanasilp’s The Flower Field features meticulously handspun balls of hair donated by cancer patients, survivors, and supporters – a work that took six months to complete. It’s a poignant tribute to human resilience and carries a powerful message of hope for a brighter future.
Everyday Practices is located at SAM’s new collection gallery at Tanjong Pagar Distripark, and is open to the public from Aug 30, 2024 to Jul 20, 2025. Admission to the exhibition is free until Dec 3, after which general admission fees will apply.
All photos courtesy of Singapore Art Museum.
