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5/9/2003

The houseWORK project

Alliance Francaise de Singapour, Singapore

The houseWORK project is an artist-initiated community project to encourage reflection on the function and impact of housework on the fabric of individual and family life.

By drawing attention to the nature and types of housework, who does it and why, and what difference it makes, we hope to raise the level of appreciation and respect for housework and the people - mothers, wives, husbands, sisters, foreign domestic workers - who perform this work daily either as part of family duty or for economic returns.

The houseWORK project is the effort of several artists, some members of TWC2, the civil society initiative to improve the welfare of the foreign domestic worker, to create a mutually supportive environment for the foreign domestic workers and her Singapore employer.

The focus of the houseWORK project is the perception and nature of housework, its role in and relationship to our lives.

Each artist has conducted a survey of 10 households on their perceptions of housework. The objective is to get the public to reflect on received perceptions and attitudes towards housework. This engagement with the public is integral to the artists' process and provides the material and inspiration for collaborative works and individual works.

One such interactive event planned is an ironing performance because from the survey conducted, ironing seems to be the most hated chore. Members of the public are invited to bring their laundry, for the opening night, to be ironed by the artists.
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The Exhibition is to be held in two phases.

Phase I - the Opening Show
This is scheduled for 5 to 10 September 2003 in a formal art space at the Alliance Francaises, Sarkies Road.

By putting the subject and images of houseWORK in the sanctity of a formal art space away from its routine spaces, we hope to cast new light on the value of this work and generate thought and discussion.

Phase II- Community spaces
We are in negotiations with community organisations to host the exhibition at their venues. Ideally, we would like to hold one exhibition in each area of Singapore - the north, south, east and west.

Taking the exhibition from the formal gallery to community spaces bridges the gap between art and community. A community participation element will be included at each of these exhibitions to encourage dialogue and enhance the non-art community's experience of art and its processes, and to encourage reflection.

The organisers are concurrently looking for interested parties to host the event in community spaces in the north, south, east and west sections of Singapore.

MEDIA ENQUIRIES
If you have any queries, please contact:
Dana Lam: 9762 1953
Margaret Tan: 9871 1203

About TWC2
We are an ad-hoc committee of individuals and organisations seeking to improve the welfare of domestic workers in Singapore. TWC2 welcomes the participation of all individuals and organisations who share our beliefs and objectives. There is no formal membership status or criteria. We also welcome all comments, ideas and suggestions.
We encourage all who share our beliefs and concerns, or who have other views, to contact us or to send us their comments via email at this address: twc2@aware.org.sg
Information about TWC2 is available online (http://aware.org.sg/twc2).
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List of participating artists

1) Natacha Blondeau
Natacha Blondeau obtained her Masters of Arts (with Honours) in Contemporary Art from Paris University, La Sorbonne; and has a MA in Museology. Since January 2001, she has been working as the Gallery Manager for the cultural department, Alliance Française de Singapour where she has co-curated and coordinated the first Month of Photography in Singapore (June 2002). Her previous work experiences include working in the Communications Department of Georges Pompidou Center (1994), the Cultural Division of the prestigious Louvre Museum, Paris (1997-98) and the multimedia cultural editor Montparnasse Multimedia (Paris). All along these working experiences, her concern has been to encourage and facilitate the relationship between the artwork and the viewer.

2) Chia Chu Yia
Chia Chuyia is a painter and installation artist, who obtained her Fine Art diploma from NAFA, and Bachelor of Arts from Curtin University of Technology, Western Australia. She was awarded the Asian Artist Fellowship Award 2001 in Vermont Studio Center, and Certificate of Distinction for the 21st UOB painting of the year. Her recent exhibition include Nokia Singapore Art 2000-2001, Art figures: Mathematics and Art 2002, in Singapore Art Museum, Young Contemporary Artist in National Art Gallery in Kuala Lumpur 2002, 10:10 and Potluck, an exchange program in Substation, Singapore, Joan Sutherland Performing Arts Center and Con-Temporary Art Access, Parramatta in Western Sydney 2003.

3) Twardzik Ching Chor Leng
Born in Singapore, Twardzik Ching Chor Leng is an artist and arts educator who has been practising installation art and land art for more than 10 years. She has exhibited extensively in group and solo exhibitions throughout Western Canada and in Singapore, and is currently developing several public art projects in Singapore. A regular recipient of meritorious awards and scholarships including the Hanna Kristmanson Ceramic Scholarship, the Ceramics Canada Award, and the Crown Life Entrance Award, Leng's work is included in numerous public and corporate collections. Leng holds a Master of Fine Arts Degree from University of Regina, Canada, a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Ceramics and a Diploma in Ceramic Arts from Alberta College of Art and Design, Canada. Leng's work in Singapore has been featured in The Straits Times and in D+A Magazine (Asia) issue 012, 2003; She has also been interviewed on national radio on the topic of Land Art.

4) Karee Sonja Dahl
Karee Sonja Dahl is an Australian who has been living, working and practicing art in Singapore for 5 years. A graduate from the Northern Territory University, she has been practicing art for 15 years and recently completed a postgraduate in Arts and Cultural Management to enhance her newfound Singapore business kSd//cGr ART PROFILERS... It does just that - profiles, brokers and negotiates art and artists. Dahl's own practice is the source of inspiration, determination and drive for her business - artists make art - that is an artists' profession and that is what ART PROFILERS seeks to position/cement in the wider context/environment of economics, politics and society. Dahl described her findings when she arrived in Singapore as very fortunate to her understanding and development of art practice...  'so many artists work with the idea of collaboration here,' something Dahl finds energizing, comfy but also very challenging... incidentally she has continued to collaborated with Singapore artist Juliana Yasin since they met in 1998, and will do so again for this project.

5) Heng Liang Ngim Amanda
A full-time independent art practitioner, Amanda Heng adopts an interdisciplinary approach to her art practice and is often concerned with issues of communication and human relationship in urban condition, history and identity, and gender politic. Her works have been exhibited in Cleveland Performance Art Festival USA (1997), the 3rd Asia-Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art in Brisbane, Australia (1999), the 1st Fukuoka Asian Art Triennale, Japan (1999), the 7th Havana Biennial in Cuba (2000). Werkleitz Biennale in Germany (2000), Performance Art Festival in Spain (2001) and Channel N at Kyoto Art Center (2001). Her other art activities include co-directing theatre production "Bernard's Story" written by Dana Lam (2001), performed in theatre production "A Woman On the Tree in the Hill" directed by Ivan Heng (2001), which was presented at the Singapore International Performing art Festival. She has also organised and participated in various exhibitions, public forums, workshops, research projects and art events such as, The Space, fringe event of 1992 International Art Fest in Singapore, Women And Their Arts (1990), The 1st Asian film Appreciation workshop (1994), Memories of Senses (1994), Women About Women (1997), The Friday Event (2000) and Open Ends (2001). Amanda was involved in the founding of Artists' Village, the first artists-run space in Singapore, in 1988, and WITA (Women In The Arts), the first artists-run women collective in Singapore in 1999, which is currently establishing the archives of women in the Arts in Singapore.

6) Dana Lam Yoke Kiew
Dana Lam worked as a journalist and a book editor between 1978 and 1985, after graduating with a BA in English Literature, History & Politics from then University of Singapore. She is a published writer and artist, the immediate past President of the Association of Women for Action and Research (AWARE) and a member of The Working Committee 2 (TWC2) a civil society initiative. Dana recently completed the RMIT Bachelor of Art (Fine Arts) Programme conducted at LASALLE-SIA College of the Arts. Her engagement in art-making is an extension of the processes of parenting and self-questioning. This searching first led her to Feminist knowledge and activism.

7) Massot Gilles
Gilles Massot's practice covers a wide range of disciplines, styles and mixed media technics. His work as a fine art practitioner has been exhibited in many Asian countries and France in exhibitions often complemented by live performances. As a travel photographer and writer, he has published extensively in magazines and just completed his first book "Bintan, phoenix of the Malay Archipelago". He has also worked in the event and entertainment industry, producing set designs, commercial exhibitions and managing festivals.

8) Reedy Kelly
Kelly Reedy's art practice has taken her around the world.  Cultural exchanges and conflicts permeate her work.  Since moving to Singapore in 1997, a long-standing interest in Byzantine and medieval icons has fused with a high regard for Asian folk arts.  Reedy's recent series of large paper collages explore the concept of the "icon" in contemporary society.

9) Cassandra Schultz
Visual artist and photographer Cassandra Schultz has only recently returned to live in Singapore. (She spent a few years of her childhood here.) She began in the early 80's as a photographic artist in Melbourne, Australia and exhibited her photographic works there and in Sydney until she was consumed by working in production and design for live theatre and performing arts. After 4 years with the Australian Ballet, she relocated to Brisbane, and picked up her arts practice again, successfully completing a Masters of Visual Arts at Griffith University in 2002, exploring the position of Australian women within the landscape. Her current installation work deals with issues of globalization, displacement and the relationship between experiences of here and memories of elsewhere.

10) Shirley Soh Seok Keim
Shirley Soh was a TV journalist and a marketing executive before embarking on a life in the arts. Trained first as a ceramicist in London, she obtained her RMIT BA (Fine Art) degree at the LASALLE-SIA College of the Arts. Her work focuses on the vessel as a cipher for containment and with her interest in cultural perspectives of the human relationship with nature, growing plants has also been strongly featured. She has grown rice, weeds and tree seedlings so far in all her work exhibited.

11) Margaret Tan Ai Hua
Margaret Tan is a practicing artist working with a wide range of media. She was the recipient of the Outstanding Achievement Award (RMIT) in her Bachelor of Fine Arts Programme and became one of the first Artist-in-Residence with the Cyberarts and Cyberculture Initiative, University Scholars Programme, National University of Singapore. Working from a feminist perspective, she is interested in the intersections of body with space, technology and culture, in particular with issues of embodiment and identity. Margaret's works have been showcased at ISEA 2002 (Orai): International Showcase of Electronic Art (2002) in Nagoya, Japan and awarded the Honourary Mention in Digital Pluralism - UNESCO Digital Arts Award 2003 at IAMAS, Gifu, Japan. Recently, Margaret was awarded the Chen Chong Swee Art Scholarship (Overseas) to pursue her Masters in Interactive Media at Goldsmiths College, University of London.

12) Vincent Twardzik Ching
Born in the prairie town of Esterhazy, Saskatchewan, Canada, Vincent Twardzik Ching completed his Bachelor of Fine Arts specialising in Drawing from the University of Regina, Canada in 1998. A recipient of the Lakehead University Academic Achievement Award, Vincent has exhibited in Canada and in Singapore at Plum Blossoms Gallery, Sculpture Square and Wetterling Teo Gallery through which he was included in the AGA New Finds Exhibition 2003. His paintings and drawings are included in private collections in Canada, Taiwan and Singapore. Vincent's work received Honourable Mention in the prestigious Phillip Morris Asean Art Awards in Singapore 2001/2002. He is currently a full-time artist and permanent resident of Singapore.

13) Wee Han Chong Jason
Jason Wee is an honors undergraduate in NUS. This year in Singapore, his photography has been shown in the 22nd OUB Painting of the Year Award exhibition (July 2003), as well as an interdisciplinary exhibition at Utterly Art with painter Parvathi Nayar (May 2003). Further afield, he made his debut in Malaysia with a solo exhibition in Kuala Lumpur (June 2003) His critical writings on theatre and visual arts have been published in Vehicle, Straits Times and qlrs.com. His poetry has been published in the2ndRule.com, and the award-winning anthology Love Gathers All.

14) Juliana Yasin
Juliana graduated with a Bachelor of Visual Arts from Curtin University in 1996 and Diploma in Fine Art at T.A.F.E's Claremont Art School in 1994 in Western Australia and since 1989, she has continually exhibited and performed in various solo and group exhibitions both locally and
internationally. Recent highlights have been Fusion Strength an on-going project curated by her at Plastique Kinetic Worms in Singapore and Benda Art Space in Yogjakarta; Indonesia. Fusion Strength investigates the roles of installation and performance art.

15) Agnes Yit
Agnes completed with a Bachelor of Arts (1st class honours) in Interior designing from Birmingham University with the course conducted at LASALLE-SIA College of the Arts, Singapore in 2002. Agnes also received the most outstanding achievement award for Bachelor of Arts (with honours) in Interior Design awarded by LASALLE-SIA College of the Arts in 2002. She has completed her Diploma in Interior Design from Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, Singapore in 1996 with a merit award awarded by Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, Singapore and in the same year she has also received an honorable Mention awarded by IFI `95 NAGOYA, World Interior Design Congress, International Interior Design Fair `95 NAGOYA Executive Committee & Design Nagoya Organizing Committee, Japan. Since 1998, She have been involved in various local and international exhibitions & art events in Japan, Thailand, Indonesia & Singapore including The 1st Fukuoka Asia Art Festival (Japan), Asiatopia 4 (Performance Art Festival in Bangkok), Fusion Strength in Yogjarkarta, AIM (Artists Investigating Monument, Singapore) and recently as organizer for x{2018}STORM' pixxel motion art 2003 (A Public Video Art Event under the Esplanade Bridge, Singapore). Agnes is interested in trying to identify the relations & connections between people, their culture and behavior in relation to their borne & desired environment, as 'isolation' of humankind and liberation of thoughts was her main concerns, in order to create a dialogue with our ever-changing fixed surroundings.

Monday to Saturday: 11 am to 7 pm
Sunday: 11 am to 5 pm

Alliance Française de Singapour
From 6 September to 10 September 2003
1, Sarkies Road, Singapore 258130
SG Private Banking Gallery, 4th Floor

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