artcommune and AC43 Gallery are pleased to present The Story of Two Presses, which delves into the little-known history and collaborative culture of contemporary printmaking in Singapore. Featuring works by Chen Cheng Mei, Chng Seok Tin, Chen Shitong, Chiew Sien Kuan, Chua Chon Hee, Ho E Moi, Nhawfal Juma’at, Nyan Soe, Oh Chai Hoo and Tan Sock Fong, this multi-generational showcase centres on the developments of two specific printmaking workshops helmed by local artists in Singapore - the LASALLE Printing Workshop (in LASALLE College of the Arts) led by Chen Cheng Mei and Chng Seok Tin between the mid-1980s and 1990s, and Pulp Editions founded by Chen Shitong in 2017.
Though operating over 30 years apart, both printers embody the fervent ground-up initiative of local artists whose passion and sacrifices became instrumental in developing the contemporary printmaking scene in Singapore. The Story of Two Presses presents around 30 fine art prints spanning the period of 1980s to 2022, with almost all being produced in these two workshops.
Celebration of Chng Seok Tin’s birthday, circa 1992.
Artists Ho E Moi, Chen Cheng Mei, and Chng Seok Tin (from left to right in the foreground) with students at the LASALLE Printing Workshop in Telok Kurau. Photograph courtesy of Dahlia Osman (2nd from right in the background), student of Chng Seok Tin.
More often than not, a series of small, thoughtful gestures from one or two individuals is all it takes to set forth a course of meaningful developments for an entire community. In 1985, the dedication of Brother Joseph McNally, who founded LASALLE College of the Arts in 1984, was met with an equal measure of selflessness from artist Chen Cheng Mei, who readily helped facilitate the inception of the school’s printmaking department by placing her own newly imported English etching press and print materials in the school’s printing workshop for all students and interested artists to use.
Chen Cheng Mei (b. 1927, Singapore - d. 2020, Singapore) herself was primarily an oil painter who had trained at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (1949-54). While visiting Paris in 1980, she hung out at the renowned Atelier 17 printer owned by Stanley William Hayter and was determined to experiment further with press techniques. This prompted her purchase of an expensive English etching press in 1985 for her personal use. In the early years of the newly-opened LASALLE, Brother McNally had had to contend with limited funds and resources, and Chen Cheng Mei’s generous gestures had allowed the school to run its printmaking department with verve and aptitude. Her informal gifting of the etching press and materials enabled LASALLE to hire Chng Seok Tin (b. 1946, Singapore - d. 2019, Singapore), who had just returned to Singapore after many years of training and experimenting with print techniques in the US, to helm the department in 1985. In the late 80s, Chen Cheng Mei also added an imported German lithograph press to the workshop. Over the years, she continued to donate many print materials including paper, imported plates and acids to the workshop.
As a teacher and mentor, Chng Seok Tin was instrumental in fostering the first of print majors amongst art students in Singapore. For up until the late 80s, printmaking was offered only as an exposure module at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts and the lessons focused more on woodcut and silkscreen printing. LASALLE was effectively the first art school in Singapore to offer a degree majoring in Print, encouraging a more specialised interest in etching and lithography.
Between 1985 and up till the 2000s, Chen Cheng Mei, Chng Seok Tin and Ho E Moi (also Chen’s sister-in-law) worked often at the LASALLE Printing Workshop to produce their own etchings and lithographs. Several students and graduates from LASALLE who were active members of the Contemporary Printmaking Association, Singapore, such as Tan Sock Fong (b. 1966, Singapore, who was amongst LASALLE’s first batch of print majors), also produced many of their works here. In an informal and organic manner, the LASALLE printing workshop functioned as a fecund space where artists of different backgrounds and styles came together to learn and transfer knowledge, bonded by a common interest to pursue contemporary printmaking as an avenue of expression.
The Story of Two Presses aims to celebrate this uniqueness and spirit embodied by the LASALLE printing workshop with a selection of prints completed by Chen Cheng Mei, Chng Seok Tin, Ho E Moi and Tan Sock Fong in this very space.
Children of the Star: Works by Chen Shitong and Nhawfal Juma'at
17 August 2023 – 3 September 2023
AC43 Gallery is proud to present the exhibition that brings together Chen Shitong and Nhawfal Juma'at—both artists, educators, and first-time fathers. Sharing similar yet different life experiences, the artists utilise their distinctive approaches to collect and deploy tangible and intangible emotions, forms, and colours to create their works. Each piece is a narrative that expands the audience’s imagination on nature, religion, everyday objects, scale, and the sense of self. The exhibition delves into the ever-morphing nature of memories and their interchangeable properties with stories.
Featuring over 25 new works of prints, ceramics, and paintings by Chen Shitong and Nhawfal Juma'at, the title Children of the Star is taken from the astronomer Carl Sagan's popular science show in the 1980s. As he once said, "The cosmos is within us. We are made of star-stuff. We are a way for the universe to know itself." While we may not delve deep into how our bodies and those of our ancestors are formed by the spectacular death of the massive stars that were thousands of lightyears distant, we are looking into his poetic ways of deploying memories, weaving us a tapestry that connects to the unreachable and mysterious universe. The story expands our imagination and liberates our sense of self from our repetitive and ordinary lives on earth. Over time, the story grows and morphs into different forms of memories, making all of us “children of the star”. The exhibition will commence with this poetic take on Sagan’s.
Our everyday experiences are accumulations of memories that form stories, just like bricks form a house; they constitute our internal voices, give us a sense of meaning, ideas and dreams to pursue, and guide us in making even the tiniest daily decisions. At the centre of it is the protagonist—the precious "me"—who sets forth a series of goals that becomes the plot of our lives. Therefore, recognising memories becomes crucial as they are the resources we draw upon to imagine and project different futures—the stories of us. Through this presentation, Shitong and Nhawfal invite the audience to embark on an intimate and transcendental journey to explore and scrutinise the personal and collective space of Storyland.
Chen Shitong
Romantic yet mired in reality, Chen Shitong’s work often weaves subtle narratives that contemplate the meaning of man’s existence and the relation between nature and man-made objects. His artmaking process is fluid, giving full rein to the influx of ideas that come through him as the artist navigates through contemporary life, dictating the type of printmaking techniques or choice of medium used. Shitong’s work translates between painting, printmaking and ceramics, with a particular interest in surface texture. The exquisite layering effects observed in his artworks are created by his application of multiple mediums that are painted onto handcrafted textures before they are printed on a press.
Chen Shitong. Little People, Little Places (Burnt Sienna) , 2023, Collagraph and screenprint on paper, 69 x 103 cm
In this exhibition, Shitong presents a new series of prints that utilise found objects from his surroundings, like stickers he used during Covid-19 while visiting a hawker centre. Carrying with them their meanings, these objects create pictorial depth and volume and enable our personal and collective memories to transport us back in time. Alongside his prints, a new series of ceramic works is presented as a humorous continuation of his exploration and experiments on texture, colour and memories. When viewed from one side, the ceramics resemble the form of a landscape or the shape of an island. Atop the “landscape”, Shitong painted scenes from historical and fictional stories that contribute to memories and identity of himself and Singaporeans collectively, such as scenes from the fire of Bukit Ho Swee in 1961 and the stories of Sang Nila Utama, the prince from Palembang who founded the Kingdom of Singapura in 1299. The reverse side of the ceramic works, bizarrely, takes the shape of a stylised human head adorned with painted hair, complete with human ears and noses.
About the Artist
Chen Shitong (b. Singapore, 1985) began his studies at Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (NAFA), majoring in Painting in 2003. He received a BA in Fine Arts from Gold Smith College in partnership with LASALLE College of the Arts (LASALLE) in 2013. In 2018, he completed the Tamarind Professional Printer training program and received the title of a certified Tamarind Printer. He is currently an adjunct lecturer at NAFA, LASALLE and School of the Arts (SOTA).
He is a recipient of the Winston Oh Travel Award in 2012. And in 2009, he was a recipient of NAFA Fine Art Award winning the NAFA Wood Award category. His paintings and prints were commissioned by Farrer Park Hospital and Rochor MRT Station for a group project initiated by LASALLE.
Nhawfal Juma'at
Through observation and investigation of nature, state of being, space, and the relationships between them all, Nhawfal Juma'at’s works respond to his surroundings and everyday experiences. Heavily based on concepts and ideologies, his artistic practice moves across various mediums, including installation, paintings and ceramics. In Time We Are Nowhere but Here (2023) is Nhawfal’s latest exploration on time, memories, and forms. Through construction, deconstruction and reconstruction of everyday forms and objects, Nhawfal looks for the fundamental elements that shape our sense of existence. The series comprises nine paintings, each inviting the audience into an internal dialogue encompassing metaphysical elevation, contemporary panopticism, the essence of repose, and the very nature of being.
Nhawfal Juma'at. In Time We Are Nowhere but Here: Obelisk 19:01, Oil on canvas, 122 x 92 cm
Crafted like scenes of religious stories, Nhawfal sets us inside the dome or the obelisk he built, looking outward from an arch-shaped opening; before our eyes is a surrealistic world filled with monolithic structures beyond the death of history and postmodernism. Monolithic structures have always been perceived as a symbol of power and solidification of one’s position—a state of total presence or even omnipresence. While the audience is set in eternal contemplation on the edifices of authority, it is also a contemplation of immortality—a reassurance of our existence, as eternally as the structure itself. In the words of the artist, “We are not merely an ephemeral being on earth but an immortalised spectre with an unyielding future.”
About the Artist
Nhawfal Juma'at (b. Singapore, 1991) received his Bachelor of Arts (Hons) in Fine Art from Loughborough University. He has exhibited extensively in Singapore in group exhibitions, erected public installations and in recent years, embarked on a curatorial role with his recent projects, Bridging Through the Age: An Intergenerational Collaborative Exhibition (2022) and Pneuma: Of Spirituality in a Contemporary Age (2020), in conjunction with Singapore Art Week 2020, as well as Landscapes of Our Mind (2018), as a form of advocacy for mental wellness. Nhawfal currently works as an adjunct lecturer at Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts teaching studio modules such as oil painting and hand building in ceramics.
