Margins Exhibition: Drawing Pictures Of Home At ArtScience Museum

ArtScience Museum presents the works of 15 contemporary photographers who reflect on timely topics important to Singapore in the exhibition, Margins: Drawing Pictures Of Home. Running from 21 November 2020 to 28 February 2021, the exhibition is part of the 7th Singapore International Photography Festival (SIPF).

Margins Exhibition – A Look At Singapore Through Photos

Margins take a new look at Singapore, focusing on stories, landscapes and people who are often under-represented, unseen and unheard. The 15 artists in the show articulate the country’s rich migrant histories, its blended cultural ancestries, and the daily lives of its diverse people. The artists’ photographs capture intimate stories that explore the hopes and dreams for Singapore while defining the familiar places that make the city-state home. Margins encourage you to imagine home beyond the boundaries of your own lives.

“Margins is ArtScience Museum’s final show for 2020, and one that takes a tender and poignant look at Singapore, in a year which has been challenging for everyone who calls this special place home. We are delighted to be working with Gwen Lee and her team at the Singapore International Photography Festival once more on a show that draws together a group of talented contemporary photographers from Singapore. The exhibition we have created together is a timely reflection on the land we share, the nation we are part of, and the different communities we belong to. We hope that Margins will enable our visitors to see a new side of Singapore, appreciating its unique diversity and its understated strengths, as we work together for a brighter future,” said Honor Harger, Executive Director of ArtScience Museum, Marina Bay Sands.

“ArtScience Museum’s Margins exhibition is a local exploration of SIPF 2020’s theme of ‘Departing and Arriving’. The interpretation of these 15 Singaporean artists of the nation’s ever-evolving landscape is one that goes beyond nostalgia to examine our ideals, dreams and future. Some of these quiescent topics include migrant workers and ambivalence between progress and sense of belonging. The festival is delighted to partner with ArtScience Museum again to showcase our Singapore photographers to surface these essential topics for further exploration,” added Gwen Lee, Director and Co-founder of the Singapore International Photography Festival.

Margins Exhibition – What You Can Walk Away With

Margins is an exploration of what it means to call Singapore home, the country’s migrant history, and its rich untold stories. Some of the photographs presented in Margins allow you to better understand the lives of those who have worked hard and made sacrifices to make Singapore what it is today.

Charmaine Poh’s work explores the stories of ma jies – a wave of female migrants who came to Singapore from the Guangdong province of China to seek work as domestic servants from 1930 to 1970. These women defied patriarchal norms, with most of them dedicating their lives to their work. Many never married and became the sole breadwinners for their families back in China. Poh’s series Ma Jie (2016) features several women who were living out their twilight years in rental one-room apartments in Chinatown. In one of Poh’s images (below), one ma jie, Khau Jie, demonstrates how long her hair used to be.

Sim Chi Yin and Zakaria Zainal also address Singapore’s migrant communities, with Sim depicting the journey of a migrant worker from Indonesia, and Zainal presenting a poignant anthology of portraits of retired Gurkhas from Singapore.

Other images showcased in the exhibition include John Clang’s The Land of My Heart (above, top right) which depicts his personal, particular understanding of Singapore through familiar landmarks.

Elsewhere in the show, the enigmatic Nguan (above, bottom right) portrays Singapore as a mythical, dreamy wonderland. Nguan’s work is about the yearning we feel in big cities, simple everyday fantasies and the emotions associated with globalisation. His work, as well as the photographs of Aik Beng Chia, Darren Soh, Kevin WY Lee, Marvin Tang and others, provide a more introspective view of the city, illuminating its quieter and more unnoticed dimensions.

The other photographers included in Margins are Singaporean artists Alecia Neo, Ang Song Nian, Chow and Lin, Hu Qiren, Wilfred Lim and Woong Soak Teng.

Margins Exhibition – Tickets & Reservations

Tickets to Margins are available now for purchase at ArtScience Museum’s website and box office. The prices as follows:

You are strongly encouraged to pre-purchase tickets online prior to your visit, due to limits in venue capacity and timed entry to the exhibition. Terms and Conditions apply.