Siew Guang Hong
1. crater cluster (2024)
2. human crocodile (2024)
1. Inkjet on reverse sticker, glass microscope slides
2. Multichannel video on LED screen and CRT, inkjet on archival washi paper
1. H7.6 x W2.6 x D0.1 cm (slide)
Installation dimensions variable
2. 00:02 (looped), 4K 60fps (each video)
H42.0 x W42.0 cm (print 01)
H42.0 x W29.7 cm (print 02)
H42.0 x W29.7 cm (print 03)
Edition of 3+1 AP
crater cluster makes use of patterns created by sand bubbler crabs across the shores of the Muara Tebas peninsula. The sand pellets are created as the crab filters the edible particles coating sand grains. Doing so is also observed to aid the crab in carving its temporary territory and in indicating which sand had been filtered through already. When the tide comes in, the pellets dissolve back into a plain beach for the crabs to filter through once more.
The unique and transient formations of sand pellets are formed through intricate interplays of environment and circumstance; communicating deep-rooted lineages of instinct and propensities for adaptation that elude complete decipherability. In re-encountering these formations as a sort of asemantic script, the artworks evoke the mystery of an alien language when it is first discovered; at once alluding to the images of both crop circles and crater clusters, oscillating across different intensities of scrutability.
human crocodile reflects on how we construct our understandings of non-human animals—utilising what we are familiar with to connect to what we might know little about, or what we might have limited access to. These perceptions transform the material around us across lineages of knowledge and culture.
In particular, the piece was inspired by the myth of a vengeful Iban warrior who reincarnated into Bujang Senang, a man-eating saltwater crocodile. Workshopping this transformation, the artist warps his own body parts in analogy to the body parts of the crocodile, echoing a human propensity to project and compare ourselves to the other.
In particular, the piece was inspired by the myth of a vengeful Iban warrior who reincarnated into Bujang Senang, a man-eating saltwater crocodile. Workshopping this transformation, the artist warps his own body parts in analogy to the body parts of the crocodile, echoing a human propensity to project and compare ourselves to the other.
| Siew Guang Hong (b. 2000, Singapore) is an interdisciplinary artist. He utilises biology and anatomical investigation to propose new ways of understanding non-normative subjectivities. Exploring assemblage and abject aesthetics, he develops posthumanist modalities to queer autobiography and absurd obliteration. |
| Siew has exhibited work at Richard Koh Fine Art, Singapore; Supper House; starch; Sculpture 2052; Pulse Gallery Bangkok; and Institute of Contemporary Art Singapore; and has performed or activated pieces in Singapore Art Museum; Peace Centre and Parklane. He has also devised and conducted workshops at Singapore Cancer Society and Singapore Management University. Notably, he was the winner of the 2024 LASALLE Award for Academic Excellence, and received the Winton Oh Travelogue Award in the same year. Prior, he was the recipient of the LASALLE Scholarship, TIF-SOTA Scholarship and David Marshall Scholarship. |