This winter the Museum of Contemporary Art invites visitors to investigate notions of culture, home, meaning and identity with a major solo exhibition of work by Singapore-born, Australian-based artist Matthew Ngui.
The exhibition draws together works from the past two decades of Ngui’s practice including key installations, sculptures and video works alongside new works made specifically for the exhibition.
One of Singapore’s most prominent artists, Ngui has exhibited in several solo and group projects around Australia and internationally, including representing Singapore at the São Paulo Biennial (1996) and the Venice Biennale (2001). Ngui also showed at Documenta X (1997) and the Gwang ju Biennale (2002), and was featured in the landmark exhibition Cities on the Move (1997-1999) which toured Europe, the United States and Asia.
Ngui’s work embraces the shifting point of view as a way of interrogating meaning and identity. His drawings, installations, video works and performances fragment or transform images, objects and experiences from everyday life, calling attention to their cultural value as they move between contexts.
Ngui explains: “I try to deal with the means of communicating ideas and questioning representations. When one is representing culture, how does one do it? What are some of the typical symbols used? What languages are used to communicate ideas?”
His use of anamorphosis (a fragmented image coming together at a single point) creates playful, interactive environments that toy with perception and perspective, questioning the validity of fixed or singular meanings and truths.
Curated by Russell Storer, the MCA exhibition will also present documentation and materials relating to Ngui’s many public and site-specific projects and proposals, including his proposal to install the word ‘HOME’ with a series of specially designed lamps across the Singapore skyline.
The exhibition shows at the MCA through 12 August 2007, before touring to the Institute of Contemporary Art, Singapore (4 October to 18 November 2007) and the John Curtin Gallery, Perth (8 February to 20 March 2008). The MCA is free admission and open daily from 10am to 5pm. -- www.mca.com.au
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