Yeo Workshop is pleased to present Everyday Things, a launchpad for the artworks of Maisarah Kamal (b. 1992, Singapore), alongside a selection of recent works by artists Fyerool Darma, Sarah Choo Jing, Maryanto and Santi Wangchuan. The show offers the five artists' ways of seeing the everyday, capturing the essence of everyday life, finding inspiration in the mundane and ordinary. In this exercise of world-making, artists take the familiar and rewrite it in ways that challenge our assumptions about the world around us.
With an emphasis on elemental materials found in industrial areas (scrapyards) and in nature, Maisarah Kamal creates sculptures that appear familiar, yet expresses itself as uncanny formations, as a result of intuitive experimentation and reflection over time. Her sculptures are cut, bent, hammered, drilled, exposing certain energies and associations. Here, the treatment of medium is embodied as narratives captured by the sculptures.
Through their art, these artists use the everyday to comment on issues such as consumerism, social inequality, environmental degradation, and cultural identity. Fyerool Darma uses glitched images of the everyday — hazard tapes found in urban landscapes, screenshot patterns stolen from the internet to speak about culture experienced through digital and analogue ways and the phenomenon of glocalization in a post-colonial society.
By challenging our perceptions of the everyday, Maryanto invites us to think critically about the world we live in and our place within it. In his recent series, he looks at our consumption of palm oil and its effects on deforestation. The work is a plea for us to participate and do our part to reduce consumption towards a more accountable world.
Other artists find new and innovative ways to represent the mundane, bringing attention to overlooked or taken-for-granted aspects of our lives. Sarah Choo Jing looks at parts of Singapore past and present, creating fantasy worlds from entertainment worlds from the past and images of the urban landscape of today. She offers a fresh perspective on the world around us and how we seek pleasure, one that is both thought-provoking and inspiring.
Santi Wangchuan’s art is deeply rooted in his hometown of Ubon Ratchathani in the province of Isan, Thailand, often referencing everyday realities. His practice incorporates traditional forms of weaving, a craft that is facing extinction due to urbanisation and technology, and found objects of special significance such as personal belongings and remnants of clothing from his family members. The current work is a tribute to the local communities of his home province. Wanchuan’s work showcases his innate sense of optimism, reflecting the bright and happy life in Isan and highlighting the cultural ties fused into the local identity. Through his mixed media objects and installations, Wangchuan connects the mundane with the preservation of traditional heritage and the celebration of everyday life.
In the end, the power of these artists’ art lies in its ability to make us see the world in a new light. By reimagining the mundane, these artists create a space for us to reflect on our own lives and the society we live in. It is an invitation to look at the world with fresh eyes and to imagine a different kind of future.
