Art show displays creative exchange

Exhibition examines 30 years since China and Singapore established the Suzhou Industrial Park in Jiangsu province, a thriving commercial hub, Lin Qi reports.

Suzhou, in East China's Jiangsu province, is well-known for its picturesque scenery and serenity. Its rich cultural and artistic accumulations since ancient times are vividly presented in these well-built, classic private garden residences.

Suzhou also boasts modern charm, with the Suzhou Museum, which blends tradition and modernism in its architectural features. It is a building of brilliance designed by I. M. Pei, the late architect whose family hailed from Suzhou.

In the city where the past meets the present and the East meets the West, residents witnessed a transformation of Suzhou in 1994 when Suzhou Industrial Park, a government-to-government project between China and Singapore, was established to enable the city, a commercial hub since ancient times, become a more prosperous center of trade.

An exhibition of paintings from Singapore was opened in Suzhou that same year to boost cultural exchanges between the two countries.

Three decades have since passed. To mark the historical moment, an exhibition, Artistic Splendours, looks back on 30 years of contemporary art from China and Singapore. It is held at the Suzhou Museum of Contemporary Art, which runs until Wednesday. The exhibition celebrates the 30th anniversary of Suzhou Industrial Park, which has become a model of international cooperation that shows the accomplishments and innovations of China's reform and opening-up since the late 1970s.

Xu Jiang, one of the exhibition's chief curators, an artist and vice-chairperson of the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles, says that the exhibition initiates an intensified cultural dialogue. "It dwells on people's emotional attachment of their homeland, urban construction, concerns with environmental protection, and hope for the future, "Xu says. "It is sharing our feelings. It is like taking turns singing and ultimately joining in the same melody. "

The exhibition also features the works of Wu Guanzhong(1919-2010), a key persona in the cultural exchanges between China and Singapore.

Wu was trained in China and France. Standing at the crossroads of the East and the West, he left an oeuvre that integrates the aesthetics and intellectual temperament of Chinese culture with the abstract tendency of Western art.

Wu traveled to Singapore several times, where he painted and exhibited. His works gained popularity among local art lovers, and a gallery at the National Gallery Singapore was named after him, displaying his donated works.

Xu also brings to the exhibition an oil landscape depicting a lush view of the upper stream of the Fuchun River flowing through Zhejiang province. He says that the work continues his exploration of the mountain-and-water style of classic Chinese painting, although not created with traditional ink and water.

Some of the works on display are from the collection of the Singapore Art Museum, which opened in 1996 as the first art museum in Singapore and presents contemporary art from a Southeast Asian perspective.

Two sculptures are made by Han Sai Por, born in 1943, who pioneered modern sculpture in Singapore.

Han says that rapid urban development makes people feel proud, while in this process, some things have gradually disappeared in people's lives.

Her works exhibit how swift city transformations can be achieved while maintaining harmony between nature and the ecosystem.

She says, as an artist, she seeks the motivation to create, and hopes to facilitate connections built between cultures through the language of art.

Urbanization is also examined in Background Story:Admonition to a Farmer, a video installation by Chinese artist Xu Bing.

Admonition to a Farmer is a classic landscape painting by Ming Dynasty(1368-1644)artist Tang Yin, now in the Suzhou Museum collection.

Xu Bing's work renders a digital transformation of Tang's painting, in which the mountains, trees and waters transform into the high-rise buildings and parks of a modern urban landscape.

Eugene Tan, chief executive officer and director of the Singapore Art Museum, said at a roundtable forum before the exhibition opening on Aug 18 that the museum is pleased to share its diverse collection of contemporary art.

He said that it reflects how the collection has linked art and artists, the public and future generations through exhibitions and events, to fulfill the museum's commitment to boosting exchanges in the region and contributing diverse perspectives on the global narratives of contemporary art.