Gajah Gallery presents a new online feature – Fresh Vision, wherein we invite esteemed names within the arts industry—from architects and interior designers, to actors and film directors—and provide them with the opportunity to curate a focused online exhibition.
Featuring in-depth interviews with the guest curators, Fresh Vision reveals the stories of how they began their collections, their personal artistic tastes and their inspirations, and ultimately, how their unique experiences with particular art pieces can spark engaging, relevant conversations.
For the inaugural edition, we feature co-founder of the award-winning Singapore-based architecture firm WOHA, Richard Hassell. Founded in 1994, the architecture firm has gained international renown, with their best-known projects being widely publicized as benchmarks for innovative, sustainable design. Some of their most recognizable projects in Singapore include Oasia Hotel Downtown, the School of the Arts (SOTA) and PARKROYAL on Pickering.
Titled Complex Humour, Hassell has chosen to highlight works by I GAK Murniasih and Yunizar – both artists having attracted him by the way their gentle humour overlaid much more difficult themes. For this exhibition, he has selected 2 works by each artist, consisting of mostly sculpture, describing how they grapple with their own personal stories, yet also relate to his own.
“There is a humour and an acceptance of the complexity of life in Murni’s and Yunizar’s works, without making strident statements. The works have a visual delight, built over some very difficult and sad situations caused by history, by luck or by abuse”
In the accompanying interview, Hassell describes his first encounters with both artists’ work: a fascination with how Murni combines gentle colours and forms with deeply personal psychological and sexual subject matter, and a found resemblance in Yunizar’s sculptures with almost totemic figures of gods and luminaries, yet portrayed with subtle humour against the gravitas of bronze. With his sight set on Indonesia, a country with diverse cultures and complex, difficult histories, he hopes to generate more interest and support into the contemporary Indonesian art scene.
View the online exhibition here.
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