Singapore Art Museum – in collaboration with National Gallery Singapore – introduces its new exhibition, Time Passes, a timely response to the challenging times plaguing Singapore's arts sector. As part of a nationwide art initiative 'Proposals For Novel Ways of Being', the new exhibition is guest curated by Samantha Yap and conceived as a corridor of time that echoes the indeterminate passage of our days as we navigate the pandemic that is still raging on – and the detritus it will leave behind.
Its title, Time Passes, references the middle chapter in Virginia Woolf's novel To The Lighthouse. First 1927 novel captures a movement in time and feeling, detailing the decline of an old holiday house over a decade, from a space for contact and interaction into one of quiet and disarray. But amidst the decaying landscape, the housekeepers and Woolf herself put care and attention into the house. At the end of the chapter, the remaining cast of characters gather again in this house that has been made and remade through compromise and care. If you think it's reflective of our current situation right now, you're right.
Conceptualised during the 'circuit breaker', the exhibition stages our return to one another and to shared public spaces. The works in the exhibition manifest acts of care-taking through the handling of different materials, and the commitment towards uncovering possibilities of living and relating even during tumultuous times.
Time Passes is part of 'Proposals for Novel Ways of Being', a collective response by Singapore's visual arts community to the global pandemic and its impact on our community. For more info, visit nationalgallery.sg/exhibitions/novelwaysofbeing.
