Idealised Realms
FOST Gallery is pleased to present works by lacquer artist Phi Phi Oanh and multi-disciplinary artist Donna Ong in Idealised Realms.
The conceptualisation of this duo exhibition was informed by philosophies of classical Chinese garden design. They were traditionally conceived to be idealised copies of the natural world, and were meant to express the harmony between man and nature.
The exhibition layout takes subtle cues from a typical wall-enclosed Chinese garden: the visitor is encouraged to meander through the gallery space, encountering the different elements found in a garden, and catching glimpses of views beyond through doorways.
The idea of a controlled environment artfully manipulated to display its elements at their best is evidenced by Ong’s Every World series and Oanh’s Pro Se-Vivarium Composition series. Encased in glass vitrines, Ong’s large dioramas of intricately cut paper assemblages had been reworked from a commission by the National Gallery Singapore for the Children’s Biennale: Embracing Wonder in 2019. Each diorama is of an archetypal landscape – Desert, Garden, Underground, Undergrowth and Underwater (not exhibited). These dioramas were inspired by the dream of escape to a different place – one which felt should exist, even if it did not. Oanh’s lacquer painting of terrariums portray a similar notion of constructing a natural environment and filtering that experience through glass. Framed antique lithographs of tropical forests by 19th-century Western artists add historical context, echoing the romanticised depictions of distant, unexplored lands.
The multi-perspectivity Oanh’s Lacuna, a large scale lacquer painting of a pond teeming with life, masterfully combines realism and abstraction techniques. Vivarium, another series in the exhibition explores the same subject matter, albeit from a different perspective and more intimately sized.
These fantastical “realms” that each artist has created both seduce and delude; and represent a harmony and perfection that exist only in one’s mind. But true nature inspires awe precisely because it is wild, unpredictable and uncontrollable.
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FOST Gallery is pleased to present works by lacquer artist Phi Phi Oanh and multi-disciplinary artist Donna Ong in Idealised Realms.
The conceptualisation of this duo exhibition was informed by philosophies of classical Chinese garden design. They were traditionally conceived to be idealised copies of the natural world, and were meant to express the harmony between man and nature.
The exhibition layout takes subtle cues from a typical wall-enclosed Chinese garden: the visitor is encouraged to meander through the gallery space, encountering the different elements found in a garden, and catching glimpses of views beyond through doorways.
The idea of a controlled environment artfully manipulated to display its elements at their best is evidenced by Ong’s Every World series and Oanh’s Pro Se-Vivarium Composition series. Encased in glass vitrines, Ong’s large dioramas of intricately cut paper assemblages had been reworked from a commission by the National Gallery Singapore for the Children’s Biennale: Embracing Wonder in 2019. Each diorama is of an archetypal landscape – Desert, Garden, Underground, Undergrowth and Underwater (not exhibited). These dioramas were inspired by the dream of escape to a different place – one which felt should exist, even if it did not. Oanh’s lacquer painting of terrariums portray a similar notion of constructing a natural environment and filtering that experience through glass. Framed antique lithographs of tropical forests by 19th-century Western artists add historical context, echoing the romanticised depictions of distant, unexplored lands.
The multi-perspectivity Oanh’s Lacuna, a large scale lacquer painting of a pond teeming with life, masterfully combines realism and abstraction techniques. Vivarium, another series in the exhibition explores the same subject matter, albeit from a different perspective and more intimately sized.
These fantastical “realms” that each artist has created both seduce and delude; and represent a harmony and perfection that exist only in one’s mind. But true nature inspires awe precisely because it is wild, unpredictable and uncontrollable.
