Research

MA Arts and Ecology – Alternative Ecologies – Redistributing the Sensible

Dates

Exhibition duration: 15 – 31 August 2024 
See below for special programmes

Times

Exhibition hours: 12:00pm – 7:00pm, Mon – Sat, with viewing hours extended till 11:00pm between 26 – 30 August 2024 (closed on Sunday, public holidays and during College closures)
See below for special programmes

Venue

Brother Joseph McNally Gallery
Block F Level 1 #F101
LASALLE College of the Arts
1 McNally Street
Singapore 187940

Project Lead

Cissie Fu, Head, McNally School of Fine Arts

Project Manager

Susanna Tan

Contact

angie.wong@lasalle.edu.sg

Registration

The event is open to all and free of charge. Register below for special programmes

 

Alternative Ecology: Redistributing the Sensible

To inaugurate LASALLE’s new MA Arts and Ecology programme, this exhibition proposes alternative modes of sensing our immediate and remote environment through practices that synthesise art, science and technology and make new sense of the imperceptible, renewing our interspecies and microcosmic attention and attunement.

The works in this gallery offer portals to earthly phenomena that typically escape everyday empirical experience: from big data to DNA and satellites to nanofiche, each artist expands human sensory capacities through creative re-presentations and, by extension, rearranges what is sensible in the world to widen and deepen our ecological understanding.

Climate justice and intercultural sustainability call for a consciousness of political aesthetics and a commitment to redistribute the sensible. Let’s meet this global challenge together.

This exhibition is presented by LASALLE’s McNally School of Fine Arts with the generous support of U.S. Embassy Singapore and Leica Microsystems (SEA) Pte Ltd.

Banner image: Market Forces: Contemporaneous Action in Technology by Chng Nai Wee, 2024. Courtesy of the artist.

Presentation of Alternative Ecology: Redistributing the Sensible is in collaboration with and supported by:
US Embassy logo

Artists and artworks

Elena Soterakis

Elena Soterakis explores themes of environmental degradation and our relationship with technology through painting, sculpture, and large-scale creative productions. She is a founding member and Director of Creative Productions of Beyond Earth, a women-led international artist collective that explores the frontiers of art, space, and biology. Soterakis is also the co-founder and director of BioBAT Art Space, a gallery dedicated to the intersection of science, art and technology in Brooklyn. She received her BFA from the School of Visual Arts and an MFA from the New York Academy of Art, and has exhibited at the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, the Museum of Art and Design Atlanta, and more.

Richelle Gribble Ellis

Richelle Gribble Ellis is an expeditionary artist, curator, and analog astronaut. Richelle creates artworks made for international orbit, etched on satellites, suspended by Stratollite balloons and aboard rockets. As the Head of Creative Research for analog space missions via Hawaii Space Exploration Analog and Simulation (HI-SEAS), Sensoria Program, and Lunares Research Station, Ellis examines creativity beyond our world. Richelle's artistic ventures have taken her to glaciers near the North Pole to parabolic flights with ZeroG, into the Biosphere 2 and Analog Mars Missions with NASA Goddard, earning her accolades and residencies at renowned institutions such as Planet, Google Quantum AI, and the Karman Fellowship. Her work spans exhibitions from the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, with recent artworks on the surface of the Moon.

Chng Nai Wee

Chng Nai Wee is an ophthalmic surgeon and artist. His multidisciplinary works often synthesise art and medicine. As one of the first artists in Southeast Asia to experiment with multi-channel video works, he presented Sin of Apathy (1991) in See Me, See You: Early Video Installation of Southeast Asia (2023–2024) at National Gallery Singapore. He has received the Dr Tan Tsze Chor Art Award, the National Art Council’s Young Artist Award and Honourable Mentions at the Singapore Art Awards. For his Market Forces series, Chng leverages on his financial knowledge as a charterholder of the CFA, CAIA, CMT, CFTe designations.

Programme schedule

Date Programme Time (SGT) Location Registration info

Fri 23 Aug 2024

Exhibition Reception, opened by LASALLE Deputy President and Provost Venka Purushothaman and U.S. Embassy Singapore Cultural Affairs Office Pauline Anderson, with remarks by exhibition artists Elena Soterakis (US) and Chng Nai Wee (SG) plus sonic activation by LASALLE artists Ian Woo and Jeremy Sharma

8:30pm – 11:00pm

Brother Joseph McNally Gallery

Register for reception

 Sat 24 Aug 2024

Panel discussion with exhibition artists and public scientists

2:00pm – 4:00pm

Brother Joseph McNally Gallery

Register for panel discussion

Mon 26 Aug 2024

Workshop on art-science creation and curation by Elena Soterakis

7:00pm – 9:00pm

Block F Level 3 #F309,
LASALLE's McNally Campus

Register for workshop

Tue 27 Aug 2024

Lecture and Q&A on deep ecology through the lens of art and space by Richelle Gribble Ellis

10:00am – 11:30am

Online

Register for lecture

Tue 27 Aug 2024

Ask the Artist: drop-in session with Chng Nai Wee

9:00pm – 10:30pm

Brother Joseph McNally Gallery

Register for session

Wed 28 Aug 2024

Practice-led research presentation by Elena Soterakis with discussion of art-science epistemological enquiry

5:30pm – 7:00pm

Block F Level 2 #F208, LASALLE's McNally Campus

Register for research presentation

Thu 29 Aug 2024

Ask the Artist: drop-in session with Chng Nai Wee

9:00pm – 10:30pm

Brother Joseph McNally Gallery

Register for session

Fri 30 Aug 2024

Ask the Artist: drop-in session with Elena Soterakis

3:00pm – 6:00pm

Brother Joseph McNally Gallery

Register for session

Getting here

1 McNally Street
Singapore 187940


Directions

LASALLE’s campus at 1 McNally Street is located between Short Street and
Prinsep Street.

By MRT
  • Rochor, Exit A (2-minute walk)
  • Little India, Exit A (8-minute walk)
  • Bugis, Exit A (9-minute walk)
  • Dhoby Ghaut, Exit A (15-minute walk)
By bus
  • SBS: 23, 48, 56, 57, 64, 65, 131, 139, 147, 166
  • SMRT: 66, 67, 170, 851, 857, 960, 980
By taxi

There is a dedicated taxi drop-off point for LASALLE on McNally
Street. Nearby landmarks for the driver include Sim Lim Square and
Prinsep Street on the city side.


 
By car / motorcycle

The entrance to LASALLE’s basement carpark is located along
McNally Street.

Parking rates

Cars:

  • 7:00am – 5:00pm: S$1.50 for first 1/2 hr, S$0.05 per subsequent minute
  • 5:00pm – 11:00pm: S$3 per entry
  • 11:00pm – 7:00am: S$1.50 for first 1/2 hr, S$0.05 per subsequent minute

Motorcycles:

  • 7:00am – 11:00pm: S$1 per entry