Tabaimo, video still from "Midnight Sea", from the collection of the Hara Museum of Contemporary Art

The Wall Street Journal got it right.  Collectors did rule at Art Stage Singapore, from the marketing campaign to the biggest fringe event of the week.  The people behind the art fair did not shy away from promoting its commercial aspect, they made no bones about who exactly they wanted to come and see at the event (and what they expected them to do with their wallets).  But that didn’t mean that the rest of us could not enjoy some pretty good art. Especially not at Chimera, an exhibit at the Singapore Art Museum (SAM) of select pieces from select collectors, contemporary works from Asia. Chimera belongs to a series called The Collectors Show that runs concurrent to Art Stage Singapore every year.

We Pinoys could righlty crow about our representation for this year’s edition.  We had two paintings on display, Yasmin Sison’s Orange Madonna, from the collection of Dr. George Soo, and Alfredo Esquillo Jr.’s The Thomasites Were Here, a massive triptych from Eski’s archival series that belongs to Paulino and Hetty Que.  The last time I saw Orange Madonna, it had been on view for the 2007 Ateneo Art Awards ceremony.  I still consider it one of Yasmin’s best works; it came from her 2006 show Unmade, a reflection on missing persons triggered by the disappearance of her father.  She painted her subjects as if they had been erased from benign, idyllic settings, obliterated yet so present in their absence.

If any piece can raise the banner for Team Philippines, it would certainly be Patty Eustaquio’s Psychogenic Fugue.  I don’t think I’ll ever tire of enjoying this stiffened expanse of lace simulating a draped piano.  I’ve seen it countless times, but having the opportunity to behold it installed in such a dramatic setting, on a pedestal inside a darkened room lit from underneath the folds of crochet …wow.  Little wonder that Marcel Crespo felt he stood just a little taller in a roomful of equally important collectors and art industry insiders after they identified him as the owner of this piece.

Also on view: two Yayoi Kusama pieces from the 1990s, Venus Obliterated By Infinity Nets 2/10 and Sex Obsession, loaned by Singapore-based Filipino couple, Lito and Kim Camacho.  Other notable pieces include a smoke, mirrors, and laser light installation, V, at the museum’s central hall (a former chapel) by Chinese artist Li Hui and Rashid Rana’s Red Carpet IV.  The latter is a print of an Oriental carpet, the patterns of which are formed from a collage of photographs of slaughtered and bloodied meat.  The Pakistani artist produced this in reaction to the violence that accompanied Benazir Bhutto’s last election campaign.

Japanese artist Tabaimo, who represented her country at last year’s Venice Biennale, created Midnight Sea, my favorite piece of the show, perhaps even of this entire trip. One can hardly make out the sea at night, but in the museum’s dark chamber lined with mirrors, Tabaimo’s animation mimics its nocturnal ebb and flow.  She turned her drawings into a video of waves that crest in a rhythm that slowly builds up.  Jellyfish-like creatures also float in the dark, flotsam that can either be corals or human organs.  To quote the exhibit notes, “…the artist has explained that a wave is a metaphor for age— wrinkled skin and in turn, a wrinkle, is a metaphor for ripples on the surface of the water.  Midnight Sea can therefore be seen as a metaphor for the human body or a troubled subconscious, poetically reaffirming the intimate relationship between humanity, nature, and forces that we cannot apprehend with our rational mind.”

With Midnight Sea, I ended this short Singapore interlude on a high. If it hadn’t been the exhibit’s opening night, with a dozen people lined up behind me, I would have gone back a third time to experience the piece. Encountering work like this truly brings the power of art to the fore. I realize again why I do all the crazy things I do for art (like start this blog).

Also still on at SAM, the fifteen finalists of the Signature Art Prize, headlined by our very own, Rodel Tapaya’s Baston Ni Kabunian, Bilang Pero Di Mabilang.

Chimera, The Collectors Show: Asian Contemporary Art From Private Collections, runs from 13 January to 25 March 2012 and APB Foundation Signature Art Prize Finalists Exhibition 2011 runs until 4 March 2012 at the Singapore Art Museum, 71 Bras Basah Road, Singapore 189555.  Visit www.singaporeartmuseum.sg

Yasmin Sison, "Orange Madonna", from the collection of Dr. George Soo

Hoping for Annie's notice, Dr. Soo enjoying his piece

The photo does not do it justice! Patricia Eustaquio, "Psychogenic Fugue", from the collection of Marcel Crespo

A glimpse of Alfredo Esquillo Jr.'s "The Thomasites Were Here", from the collection of Paulino and Hetty Que

Yayoi Kusama, "Statue of Venus Obliterated by Infinity Nets 2/10", from the collection of Lito and Kim Camacho

Yayoi Kusama, "Sex Obsession", from the collection of Lito and Kim Camacho

Rashid Rana, "Red Carpet IV", from a private collection (New York)

Rashid Rana, "Red Carpet IV", detail

At the museum's "chapel", Lui Hi, "V", from the Burger Collection

Bharti Ker, "Make Up (As You Go Along)", Tiroche Deleon Collection and Art Vantage Ltd.

Entang Wiharso, "Possessive", Rubell Family Collection, Miami

Lee I-Yann, "The Orange Besar Series YB 1-10", collection of Chen Rong Chuan

Takashi Murakami, "Jesus", from a private collection (Indonesia)

Mikey and Lou Samson with Vita Sarenas and Sylvia Gascon of Finale Art Gallery

At the Signature Art Prize Exhibit, Rodel Tapaya, "Baston Ni Kabunian, Bilang, Pero Di Mabilang"

At Signature Art Prize Exhibit, Aida Makoto, "Ash Colored Mountains"

Aida Makoto, "Ash Colored Mountains", detail

At the Signature Art Prize Exhibit, Aytjoe Christine, 'Lama Sabahktani #1"

At the Signature Art Prize Exhibit, Bui Con Kanh, "The Past Moved"

At the Signature Art Prize Exhibit, Daniel Crooks, "Static No. 12 (seek stillness in movement)"

At the Signature Art Prize Exhibit, Imran Qureshi, "You Who Are My Love and My Life's Enemy Too"

At the Signature Art Prize Exhibit, Chang Yung Chia "The World Is Flat" (collage from postage stamps)

Chang Yung Chia, "The World Is Flat", detail

The entrance of The Singapore Art Museum

Collectors obviously in the house: SAM's parking lot for Chimera's opening