A companion exhibition to Climate Crisis and Cultural Loss, this exhibition showcases the works of Singaporean artists responding to nature and the living environment. Against the global backdrop of ecological devastation, and the excesses of waste and production, these works reconsider, in the course of human activity, what is being added to the world and why, and how art can be a meaningful intervention without undermining the conditions in which art-making arise from.

Sensing Nature features the works of Ang Song Nian, Twardzik Ching Chor Leng, Jason Lim and Zen Teh, emerging from residency projects in Thailand, Japan, China and Indonesia respectively. Seen through the approaches of conceptual photography, land art, performance and research-based installation, their works engage with elements of nature in ways that reveal inherent positions, and at times, predicaments. They also offer a perspective on how art that addresses the subject matter of nature, can concurrently encompass the ethos of sustainability through thoughtful materialisations.

We can situate their works in the context of “art for the sake of place” as termed by dramaturg Ruth Little, in her description of a kind of contemporary art practice which seeks to bear witness to and communicate the intrinsic values of a particular place. As such, these works transcend the notion of static objects or finished products; instead, they embody a dynamic process, akin to an interplay of materials and methodologies. This process reflects the artist’s vision through which the artwork not only highlights but also becomes part of the context it seeks to portray.