The Supermarket Experience
Chloe Tan & Nguyen Nghia Cuong
[ 10.01 – 20.03/2018 ]
SPRMRKT 2 McCallum Street
Chloe Tan’s new series of original porcelain-clay casted objects are modelled after commonly seen, iconic Singaporean supermarket goods that have interesting forms e.g. UIC laundry detergent bottle, sambal belacan jar, or the ubiquitous can of curry. Her work is a curious exploration on forms of Singapore-made household objects found our usual supermarket shelves. The collection uses clay found in Singapore.
In this new series of work commissioned by SPRMRKT, Nguyen Nghia Cuong conducts explorations on boxes of common Singaporean household products he found during his stay here. Whittling away at the images and text, he leaves what’s important and draws over the rest, creating a colourful carpet of logos, trademarks and slogans. Cuong often chooses to depict the female form, as he compares the consumerism of today’s world with the objectification of bodies in the Vietnam: with a focus on being the best, the ‘gentlest’, the ‘loveliest’ and the most ‘beautiful’. He uses these boxes and the slogans on it to point at what he sees as a worrying trend that he wants to change.
This exhibition aims to celebrate the everyday, and pay heed to the peculiar but delightful supermarket presence in our neighbourhood.
Chloe Tan & Nguyen Nghia Cuong
The Supermarket Experience
Chloe Tan (SG) is an art educator and a ceramicist. The core of her work is to conceptualise and create a small collection of ceramic tableware using clay around various Singapore sites each year. She works primarily with porcelain and incorporates them into her work process. Her works are subtle and minimalist, allowing the materials to speak for themselves.
Nguyen Nghia Cuong was born in 1973 in Hanoi. After graduating from Hanoi College of Fine Arts, he went on to take part in his first solo exhibition Five Storms in FCAC Gallery Hanoi in 1998, and won the Philips Morris Asean Art Awards Vietnam in 1999. He has had four solo exhibitions prior to this, and taken part in many group exhibitions in the region and the world.
