Beata Grassi

The World (campfire)(2024)

Birch wood, pine wood, aluminum cans, LED light bulbs, electrical components, graphite on paper

Dimensions variable

First made for a miniature art fair in Chicago in 2023, The World comprises ten birchwood chairs, each measuring 7cm x 4cm x 4cm, arranged evenly into a circle. Instead of sitters, a single graphite drawing occupies each seat. The drawings reference photographs taken by the artist, accumulated in his cell phone over a three-year period. They depict a feather, a plane, a pair of feet, an insect, a key, a leaf, a car, an egg, a pair of rings, and a dead coral. The World resembles a group therapy session where all the people have disappeared, a show and tell of the end-times, a meeting before the close.

Lai Yu Tong is an artist based in Singapore whose works span across image-making, painting, drawing and installation. His practice attempts to make sense of the world through acts of recording, arranging and storytelling. His recent works consider how art can evoke empathy in a world so damaged.

Lai has presented his work at group exhibitions in Singapore and abroad, most recently at Plague Space (RUS) and Barely Art Fair (US); and held solo exhibitions in Singapore at Temporary Unit (2022), The Substation (2021), Comma Space (2020), and DECK (2019).