Rapport: Eight Artists from Singapore and Australia

Rapport: Eight Artists from Singapore and Australia was an exhibition exploring notions of symmetry and exchange, identity and culture. By placing works of art from Singapore and Australia side by side, Rapport sought to set up a critical dialogue between practices emanating from two different environments. Rapport was co-curated, a collaboration that encouraged shared decision making and a synthesis of ideas and thoughts. Exhibited in both Singapore and Australia, Rapport was a cultural project that marked a new partnership between international institutions, artists and cultural workers. The exhibition consisted predominantly of works by younger artists, working across media from photography to found objects, inflatables to sculpture. The resulting installations negotiated issues pertinent to each artist’s own cultural and personal background, such as childhood, coupling, materiality and spirituality. While this particular group of artists produced individual works for Rapport, three themes emerged as threads binding the various components of the exhibition: synthetic materials, memory, and ephemerality.

Text adapted from Natalie King (Monash University Gallery) and Tay Swee Lin (Singapore Art Museum)

Acknowledgements:
This exhibition was a collaborative cultural project between the Singapore Art Museum, National Arts Council, Singapore, Monash University Gallery and the Asialink Centre, Melbourne, Australia.

The exhibition was supported by the International Cultural Relations Branch of the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the Visual Arts/Craft Board of the Australia Council, Arts Victoria through the Victorian Government’s Art's 21 Policy and Community Support Fund, Monash International, and Singapore Airlines. The Gordon Darling Foundation kindly sponsored a related program of events in Melbourne.

^{Image: Matthew Ngui, Food, Toys and Sculpture 1996 (detail with fish toys and still from Eat Drink Man Woman, directed by Ang Lee), time-based installation, dimensions variable. Courtesy of the artist. Image scans by The Scan Shop}