Is This Home, Truly?

Friday 5 to Monday 22 March, 2010
Fortune Cookie Projects, Artspace @ Helutrans, 39 Keppel Road #02-04, Tanjong Pagar Distripark, Singapore 089065
Gallery hours: 12 noon to 7pm (Wednesday to Sunday)
Presented Fortune Cookie Projects

Curated by Zaki Razak & Zul Othman, (ZERO) (Associate Artist of The Substation) featuring the work of six urban artists from Singapore:

ANTZ / SCOPEONE / SLACSATU / THE KILLER GERBIL / TR853-1 / ZERO

Opening Reception: 4 March, from 7-9pm

Panel Discussion –
From the Streets to the Malls: The Cultural Assimilation of Graffiti Art
5 March, 7pm onwards

Panelists:
Daze, ‘Graffiti Artist’
Milenko Prvacki, Dean of the faculty of Fine Arts at LASALLE
Tan Boon Hui, Director of the Singapore Art Museum
Zaki Razak, Curator of Is This Home, Truly?

In conjunction with the exhibition of celebrated New York ‘graffiti artists’, Daze, Fortune Cookie Projects is delighted to announce the opening of Is This Home, Truly?, A homecoming showcase of ‘Graffiti Art’ in Singapore.

The Pioneers, Markers and Avant-Gardes of Singapore’s ‘Graffiti Art’ are coming home to showcase artworks symbolizing respective peaks of their practice as ‘Graffiti Art’ practitioners. This showcase not only chronicles representational ‘pieces’ of the practitioners who plotted the ‘Graffiti Art’ scene in Singapore from the early 90s till today, it also inaugurates their congregation in a ‘confined’ space – an environment that seems alienating yet longing.

How will the practitioners react to the space, marginalizing their practice for the sake of commodity? Will there be a ‘silver lining’ or ‘hope’ for the practitioners to break through the ‘Art Market’? Thus, what is the role of the practitioners within institutional means? And of chief importance, what is the essence of ‘Graffiti Art’ in Is This Home, Truly? ?

The notion of ‘Graffiti’ and its entry to the established art world cast shadows of doubts among the ‘purists’ and art critics. On the contrary, it opens up possibilities, paving way for a handful who desire intense satisfaction and recognition. Nick Jockel, Exhibition Curator of Museum for Arts and Crafts in Hamburg as he commented on the opportunities and risks of exhibiting ‘Graffiti Art’ in established art institutions:

I became aware of the tragicomedy of this unsolved problem of graffiti transfer from the street to the gallery when I once read how the century-old medium of canvas painting could – from a sprayers point of view – also be described as “portable”.

It is inevitable that the situation is not in the state of contentment as per the chorus of Kit Chan’s National Day theme song, Home. Rather, this tragicomedy needs to be questioned and discussed – the need to celebrate the omnipresence of a discursive showcase in Is This Home, Truly? .

- Zaki Razak

The Organisers

Fortune Cookie Projects, an international art advisory and curatorial firm with offices in Singapore and New York, has long been active in organising exhibitions of major artists throughout Asia. Mary Dinaburg and Howard Rutkowski, the principals of Fortune Cookie Projects, each have over thirty years experience in the international contemporary art market.

Projects featuring prominent artists such as Sigmar Polke, Georg Baselitz, Jorg Immendorff, A.R. Penck, Per Kirkeby Julian Schnabel and Markus Lupertz have been realized in Seoul, Beijing, Shanghai, Nanjing, Hong Kong and Manila. Most recently Fortune Cookie Projects curated the first comprehensive exhibition of paintings, photographs and video by William Wegman for Singapore, Seoul and Beijing.

Fortune Cookie Projects has also been instrumental in curating exhibitions and securing platforms for Asian artists at institutional and commercial venues throughout the United States and Europe.