Artist Details

Alvelyn Alko
Medium: Photographic Prints
A series of portraits that blur the difference between what is staged and what is not. One cannot tell whether the gestures, demeanours and expressions of the women in her photographs are genuine, constructed or a little of both.

Annabelle Felise Aw
Medium: Stitched Fabric
Annabelle Aw’s stitched work is imbued with some of her memorable conversations that she had with her mother. The changed lyrics of the popular song Que Sera Sera, reflects her defiant behaviour when she was growing up, behaviour which forced her mother to accept her personality; she did not believe in such a thing called “fate” during her days of puberty. Hopefully one day when she herself becomes a mom, her kids will believe in having control of their lives and do not rely on “fate”.

Alecia Neo
Medium: Photographic Prints
Be as You Wish to Seem is a work-in-progress that records Alecia’s relationship and fascination with people who have learned to embrace their destined identities. This current selection focuses on cross-dressers she has developed friendships with in Baltimore and in Singapore. The series offers multiple facets of their lives, creating surprising contrasts between appearances and reality.

Betty Susiarjo
Medium: Video
Derived from the popular game Jenga, a word derived from a Swahili verb meaning To Build, Betty draws a parallel between the literal construction of Jenga blocks and the construction of a woman’s beauty and etiquette. Creating an environment in which players are required to be constantly aware, efficient and cautious about their actions, the game itself involves the act of building a tower without it crumbling. Drawing a visual parallel, she uses cotton pads, often associated with feminine ritual, to build 2 towers in a 20 minute video that will play on loop.

Chia Xiao Ling
Medium: Drawing
矜持 is a Chinese phrase that, when literally translated, means restraint, and is used to compliment girls for being well bred. Meaning they should hold in, hold back and hold up. It is defined by what is not done/said than what is. Xiao Ling is constantly praised by older adults for being reserved and reticent, using this phrase, and has always wondered why a passive verb is used as a compliment. In these drawings, she addresses the word, it’s meanings and expresses her curiousity about the things that a well bred-girl is not supposed to do.

Erica Lai Yuen Fang
Medium: Photographic Prints
The series of photographs comprises of a female mouth articulating a phrase addressing issues of nature, as written by Stephen Leacock, each enunciation pronounced in a single photograph. The female has often been likened to passivity, to flowers, to plants. This is problematic because it has been proposed as polarity to men, as the active and instigator. The work is at once suggestive, yet meditative. It acts as a measured resistance against the order of this world as we know it.

Haslinda Abdul Rahman
Medium: Drawings
This series of work looks at the behaviour that defines social standing as defined by gender. Haslinda will be showing a series of drawings (about a set of that comprises of different images and drawings taken from various media (magazines, photographs, etc).

Hazel Lim Siok Hean
Medium: Miniature Book Installation
Popular culture products’ lucid description and information about how and what a female/male should do in situation/s inevitably and easily influence one to assume and construct socially acceptable gender roles. Such gender laws as perpetuated by these products thus are a point of interest in this proposed work that I wish to create: A series of picture/text books subverting gender conditioning as perpetuated by popular magazines and other mass media products….mini ‘encyclopedia’s of etiquettes.

Porter Elizabeth Jane Xiqing
Medium: Photographic Prints
In our society where a rigid model of what a woman should be and look like, Jane finds strength in depicting masculine women in different postures of playful and/or serious definance. These women in their swagger and short hair, glare back at the viewer, claiming their visibility and their right to be who they want to be.

Lynn Lu
Medium: Video Documentation of Performance
In Japan it is common seating practice in theatres etc to have chairs in the back rows, and flat cushions in the front rows to accommodate more people. While viewers wait for her to perform, they are unaware that the performance has already started. Lynn excuses herself, very politely saying “Sumimasen” (“Pardon Me”) as she take the cushions from under the audience members who are left sitting on the cold floor. She then stacks up all the cushions, making a small column about 2 feet high. The stack ends up being the same height as the seat of the chairs and she sits down on it, blending in with the audience, who are left wondering when the performance is going to begin.

Shafiyahtun Najak
Medium: Fabric on Canvas
In this work that explores the tensions in mother-daughter relationships, Sha uses the clothes she was forced into as a teenager by her mother who insisted she wear bright colours in order to attract a potential husband, in order to create art. Not adhering to her mother’s advice, Sha had to learn how to frame her words diplomatically with her which made her feel disconnected from her mother further. In this work, she uses these clothes by shredding them and with a large stapler, nailing them onto the canvases with a bit of aggression.

Marcia Ong
Medium: Short Film
Kristy provides a snapshot into the life of an 8-year-old girl, whose mother wants her to start wearing dresses … when all she wants to do is wear her favourite t-shirt. Succinct and compelling, the 8-minute film shot on 16mm with an all female crew, has been screened in various film festivals across the United States including the Reel Women International Film Festival, the San Francisco International Children’s Festival 2008 and the Kids First! Film Festival ’08.

Shubigi Rao
Medium: Mixed Media
Shubigi will be presenting a juxtaposition of objects and art that documents her life as an alien. The entire piece will comprise story, images, a few alien artefacts and such. Her drawings, done in ink, will make reference to her experiences being female in India, where she grew up. She has decided to renounce her claim to rationally deal with what it means to be female in an uber-patriarchal world, because women are supposedly incapable of a straightforward, non-hysterical response.

Ye Shufang
Medium: Drawing
A series of drawings based on illustrations in signature books by Enid Blyton.

Susie Wong
Medium: Mixed Media
The meaning of Etiquette is considered, and foregrounded against a study of words belonging to the same family group (or so). If we should pursue a perfect language in which misunderstandings can be relinquished, should we need first to inquire into the meanings of words and the contexts in which they are used? Susie will use a variety of media to deal with this idea.

Tania De Rozario
Medium: Mixed Media Installation
Growing up, being told to be quiet and demure is a common experience for many young girls, and an intrinsic part of what constitutes the construct of femininity. The power of words, whether they be written or verbal have always been a powerful medium of communication, resistance and revolution. Interested in both the powers of speech and silence, Tania uses the creation of magnetic poetry customized according to women’s responses to set questions, to explore the power of words (speech), and plaster casts of women’s mouths to explore the literal inability to speak (silence).

Ipshita Thakur
Medium: Journals + Mixed Media
A series of handmade journals, documenting her personal experience and struggle with identity in the context of consumerism , she will be satirically manipulating the visual and textual imagery of products and advertisements seen through various media in order to challenga the underlying gender ideologies promoted through consumer culture, which teach us what we should look like, how we should behave, and how we should function.

Sima Salehi
Medium: Photographic Prints
Sima will be creating a photographic depiction of a girl in her childhood, looking at boys who are playing soccer. She wants to join them but she cant as her mother doesn’t give her permission… she is a girl and is not allowed to play with boys. In these works, she will employ the colour pink for the girl, with her heels and the boys’ soccer ball symbolizing gendered etiquettes.