Back to mother
2014 - Drawing & Print (Drawing & Print)
Zai Kuning
Concerned with the early history of Singapore, Zai Kuning spent many years living with and researching the history of the Riau peoples who were the first inhabitants of Singapore. Inspired by the women of Riau, Back to Mother seemingly traces the central role of maternal figures in nourishing of Riau’s history as an early archipelago kingdom that was Hindu, Buddhist, and animist prior to 14th-century Muslim invasion. Organic materials such as beeswax form a layer of balm protecting threads of red paint symbolic bloodlines in a turtle-formed mandala—a primordial womb that recalls the Hindu and animistic origin of Singaporean society.
Zai Kuning is one of Singapore’s leading avant-garde practitioners. He refuses to categorize his work, and his output crosses multiple disciplines including painting, drawing, sculpture, installation, film and video, experimental sound, and performance. His practice often examines the concept of the “tortured body,” and many of his pieces explore the relationship between somatic experiences and language. He founded the Metabolic Theater Laboratory (MTL) in 1996 to examine the relationship between physical movements and language in Southeast Asian rituals. After disbanding the MTL in 2001, he returned to individually defined practices such as solo performance, writing, sound, and research. His most recent work responds to histories of indigenous people in Singapore and Indonesia including the Orang Laut and Dapunta Hyang Jayenasa.
Colors:
Related works featuring themes of: » Abstract, » Assemblage, » Contemporary Faux Naïf, » Singaporean
» see more
© » KADIST
Chadwick Rantanen
2010Telescopic Pole is an adjustable telescopic pole that extends vertically from floor to ceiling and is held up by its own internal pressure...
© » KADIST
Alexandre da Cunha
2005His Deck Painting I recalls the simplistic stripes of conceptual artist Daniel Buren, or the minimal lines of twentieth century abstract painting, but is in reality a readymade, fashioned from repurposed fabric of deck chairs...
© » KADIST
Firenze Lai
2013Central Station, Alignment, and Sumo are “situation portraits” that present whimsical characters within distorted and troubling worlds...
© » KADIST
Ho Tzu Nyen
2011The Cloud of Unknowing (2011) is titled after a 14th-century medieval treatise on faith, in which “the cloud of unknowing” that stands between the aspirant and God can only be evoked by the senses, rather than the rational mind...
Other related works, blended automatically
» see more
© » KADIST
Zai Kuning
2014Justice (2014) presents viewers with a curious assemblage: a wooden gallows with slightly curved spindles protruding from the topmost plank, which in turn is covered with rudimentary netting, the threads slackly dangling like a loose spider’s web or an rib cage that’s been cracked open...
© » KADIST
Chadwick Rantanen
2010Telescopic Pole is an adjustable telescopic pole that extends vertically from floor to ceiling and is held up by its own internal pressure...
© » KADIST
Alexandre da Cunha
2005His Deck Painting I recalls the simplistic stripes of conceptual artist Daniel Buren, or the minimal lines of twentieth century abstract painting, but is in reality a readymade, fashioned from repurposed fabric of deck chairs...
Related works sharing similar palette
» see more
© » ARTFORUM
Drawing Center Names Olivia Shao Inaugural Burger Collection & TOY Meets Art Curator – Artforum Read Next: AMY HAU TO LEAD NOGUCHI MUSEUM Subscribe Search Icon Search Icon Search for: Search Icon Search for: Follow Us facebook twitter instagram youtube Alerts & Newsletters Email address to subscribe to newsletter...
© » SLASH PARIS
Tarek Atoui — The Drift — Institut d'art contemporain de Villeurbanne — Exhibition — Slash Paris Login Newsletter Twitter Facebook Tarek Atoui — The Drift — Institut d'art contemporain de Villeurbanne — Exhibition — Slash Paris English Français Home Events Artists Venues Magazine Videos Back Tarek Atoui — The Drift Exhibition Mixed media Performance de Tarek Atoui lors du vernissage Tarek Atoui: Cycles in 11, à la Sharjah Art Foundation © Sharjah Art Foundation Tarek Atoui The Drift Ends in about 2 months: October 13, 2023 → January 28, 2024 Tarek Atoui presents a major monographic exhibition at IAC — Villeurbanne...
Other works by: » Zai Kuning
» see more
© » KADIST
Zai Kuning
2014Justice (2014) presents viewers with a curious assemblage: a wooden gallows with slightly curved spindles protruding from the topmost plank, which in turn is covered with rudimentary netting, the threads slackly dangling like a loose spider’s web or an rib cage that’s been cracked open...
© » KADIST
Zai Kuning
2014Converting is a piece about the Orang Laut, often called Sea Nomads, that inhabited the Riau archipelago...
Related works found in the same semantic group
» see more
© » KADIST
James T. Hong
2012Taiwan WMD (Taiwan and Weapons of Mass Destruction) is part of a long-term research started in early 2010 on the history and aftermath effects of Japanese biological and chemical warfare in China during WWII, as well as the unknown history of Taiwan’s nuclear program...
© » KADIST
Arin Rungjang
2017246247596248914102516… And then there were none narrates a semi fictional account centered around the ambiguous history of the Democracy Monument in Bangkok, and on the aftermath of the 1973 demonstration of 400,000 people who marched against the military junta from Thammasat University to the monument...
© » KADIST
Mungo Thomson
2010In Thomson’s Untitled (TIME) , every front cover of TIME magazine is sequentially projected to scale at thirty frames per second...