Displacement, migration, borders create a
certain need to locate and search for a bygone time and space. As global
citizens of today most of us have lived in more than one country having moved
to mingle, circulate, create, survive and move on to the next space. When, in
this constant spatial movement we attains a dizziness, we seek to connect to our
roots, the core identity of our existence. Foraged Roots is that experiment to
understand an artists’s co-relation with roots, severed or otherwise.
Joyotee, a practicing artist in Singapore for 17 years
has curated in this show, Foraged Roots, an
exhibition of four artists and their continuous understanding of their current
search of their past”
These artists, are currently placed in Singapore,
where the dimensions of time converge them into a collective study in Foraged
Roots. Supernormal is the space Joyotee needed to put this show together. Supernormal
is in Kreta Ayer, the shores on which Singapore, grew, developed and evolved. It
is a space small enough to question, the proximity and boundaries and yet the
lack of gallery rails and the contemporary display setting made it the right
space for these nomads to converge. This is a place that invites anything but
normal. Hanging displays from the ceiling to the floor and glass wall displays,
Joyotee wants to put forth these talented women and their practices through the
underlying weave that binds them all.
Paroma Ray,
a trained lawyer, turned language teacher, a mixed media artist, an avid traveler,
an obsessive coffee drinker and a young mom of three kids, started her journey
with art by learning from Joyotee, since 2014. Paroma, is a profound old soul,
a witty observer of society and its pressures. Through art she has unraveled a
world of possibilities, letting go of all her inhibitions and she is ever
thirsty to expand her understanding of new media and expression. Paroma made
Singapore her home in 2012.. Paroma says, “My work for Foraged Roots is personal. My works have led me to examine my
belief in me, being a rootless person, looking at my own roots being stuck in
time”.
Georgia’s fascination with textiles began as a child on her
Grandmother’s knee. Fabric and fibre have been an integral part of her
life. A few years ago, she began incorporating fibre into her art. What
began as an experiment has become a driving force in her work. She stresses
that working with fibre has such a rich association with life and sees it as a
metaphor for the linearity of life. Altering the canvas through cutting and
stitching creates new tensions and replicates the changes that happen to us as
we go through in life. Georgia, who is here on her second stint in Singapore,
arriving this time in the year 2012 says, “Foraged Roots, is the thread itself
which binds me to my roots. Using fibre to represent my personal journey
directly connects me to all the women in my family who work with fibre, and
with cultures with strong fibre traditions”.
Nivedita, grew up mostly in Singapore, making it her
home in the year 1999. She was gifted with an innate affinity towards colors
since childhood which took form and shape under the tutelage of Joyotee in 2013
when she began understanding herself and her language of expression. Soon
after she had her first public exhibit in Shangrila, Singapore, later also
displaying at World Art Dubai 2016. Nivedita loves working with children and
has taught kids while she stayed in Dubai, between 2015 and 2016. While
Nivedita aspires to take the bold and wild colours of her palette and bring it
to a future in Art therapy, her personal relation to Foraged roots is an
introspection into her genetic make-up. In her work she explores a correlation
between her immediate roots through the symbolism of grand mother as a chief
matriarch and the distance of time, space and enforced family roots.
Tamara a trained fashion Designer from Spain, and a web
and graphic designer from Israel, was born and raised for a good part in
Russia. Today she calls Singapore her home. Tamara equates a move in geographical location
to a new birth and she believes the Singapore has helped her connect to Foraged
Roots. She states, “It is a great and challenging opportunity to explore this
subject as a component in one’s stability, sense of belonging or
identity. I’ll never stop asking myself what the roots are, in order to
define who I really am.
This universal question of “who I am” and “where am I
going”, with baggage of roots and memories may not be answered for most, but an
introspection of the subject does bring along, a lot of different perspectives.
Foraged Roots seek those answers and perhaps raises more questions on identity
and our personal and collective journeys.
Foraged Roots
Opening Reception
25th May 2018
6 p.m. to 9 p.m.
26th to 27th 12 to 7 p.m.
@
Super Normal
333, Kreta Ayer Road,
#03-20, Singapore 080333
#03-20, Singapore 080333
