The Dream Factory

One of 2022's biggest art news was Documenta, arguably the world's most influential contemporary arts festival, held in Kassel, Germany, once every five years. Notably, this year's edition was headed by ruangrupa, a collective from Jakarta, Indonesia, known for espousing a non-hierarchical, communal approach to art-making. Spreading out the power, the group enlisted 14 collectives and artist groups that, in turn, invited other artists on board, resulting in a far looser and more decentralised interpretation of what a mega art event can look like.

- Keng Yang Shuen

If there's one thing clear about the art world in the past couple of years, it's that it's becoming increasingly amorphous. Who gets a seat at the table? And, for that matter, where is that figurative table being staged? Clock recent events on the local arts calendar, such as the ongoing Singapore Biennale, which has been given the name Natasha in an attempt to humanise the massive show. Last September, there was the Singapore International Photography Festival, where the nearly 50-year-old strata mall Peace Centre was a key venue. And one of the main missives of this month's Singapore Art Week (SAW), which runs from Jan 6 to 15, is to bring art to more everyday spaces and have it cross-pollinate with other fields.

Pandemic-induced or otherwise, artists, curators, cultural workers, and so many others in between are rethinking and challenging existing ways of working, seeing and inspiring. Moreover, as the arts writer and curator Clara Peh who works heavily in the NFT sphere - notes, blockchain technology has further made the fine arts more accessible, especially for creatives from non-traditional fine arts backgrounds. (Consider how video game character designers and illustrators have been gaining more recognition or how anyone can mint and put their works onto the NFT marketplace.) -

Visual artist Sheryll Goh - one of the people interviewed in this segment - captures that disruptive energy succinctly. "Why can't a restaurant be a gallery space too and I'm not just talking about polite sculptures on a plinth or a painting on the wall," she says.