Just a few months ago, I was invited by fellow artist, Eve Tan, to take part in a group exhibition. I was very excited as it was an opportunity to bring my Bowls of Fragility idea of coral art to fruition. I had already been experimenting with creating free motion embroidered upcycled thread bowls, and had created a few of what I had in mind already.

However, that experimentation was a year ago and events had overtaken this part of the process, and I felt that it needed a bit more work before the work could be displayed.

Bowls of Fragility

I wanted to approach the theme of environmental conservation by examining the relationship between the coral reefs and people. Coral reefs support a quarter of all marine species, but they also support half a billion people worldwide providing shelter, food and jobs. How is this possible? Coral reefs are basically the forests of the ocean and support the base of the food chain. Without this foundation, our food supply would collapse, and the communities that rely on the ocean for their livelihood, would suffer too.

I toyed with the idea of just focusing on free motion embroidery, but eventually settled for a mix of techniques, including rust dye, wet felting and embroidery. As I made the pieces, I felt like I was on Master Chef preparing a meal for a family of four - ravioli, egg rolls and noodles, except these were coral pieces.

The bowls of corals are laid out on a dinner table ready to be served for family meal time. The public are welcome to “attend” the meal, giving them a chance to reflect upon how their consumption habits are contributing to the reefs’ demise.

Opening night - 29 November, 6pm

Exhibition - 29 November - 15 December, 10am - 6pm

Location - #01-79 to 80 (aka basement), Far East Plaza, Scotts Road.

About the Exhibition
Around the world, women artists and all-women art shows have found a new significance buoyed by a wave of female voices in politics, climate change and equality. This progress comes at a time when there is ever more uncertainty brought about by economic volatility, global conflicts and environmental crisis.

The exhibition unravels a rich tapestry of contemporary voices of women in art. Through their diverse art forms from painting to embroidery, sculpture to installation and audio to performance, they engage in issues on identity, domesticity, community, the environment and human labour with their unique qualities of intuition, humour, craft and play.

Exhibition runs from Friday 29th Nov to Sunday 15th Dec.

Artists line up :
Visual Arts
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Agatha Lee
Dorathy Lye
Deborah Ong
Eve Tan
Fiona Seow
Jennifer Teo
Maisarah Kamal
Sharmeen/ Sifar Nina
Teo Huey Ling
Xiaochang Xin
Veronyka Lau
Ziwei Chen

Live Art
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Amelia Desmond
Eunice Lacaste
Eve Tan
Illa Haziqin
Isabelle Desjeux
Nicole Phua
Nicolette Teo
Veronyka Lau