CANVAS/S: Tales as New as Time
17 January - 17 March 2025
Jurong Regional Library
Can a grain of rice hold a legend?
CANVAS/S: Tales As New As Time invites you to explore the rich narratives embedded in everyday objects, traditions, and memories, with a central focus on rice as a cultural symbol around the region. Featuring three distinctive artists - Cynthia Delaney Suwito, Natalia Tan, and Wild Dot - this community art exhibition reimagines Southeast Asian heritage through participatory art, inviting visitors to reflect on timeless stories reinterpreted for the present. Visitors are encouraged to engage with the artworks and contribute their own stories and creations, making each visit a unique experience.
| Name | Dates | Time | Venue |
|---|---|---|---|
| Librarian-Led Tour | 15 March | 11-11.30am | L1 Exhibition Area |
Installation Overview
Golden Rice Cookers
When we cook grains of rice, they swell and bloom into the familiar white fluffy dish we all know. Just as rice is a staple in Asian cuisine, the rice cooker has become an essential appliance in Asian households.
In this community art installation, we celebrate the rice cooker as a tool that has not only fed us, but also aided our physical development from childhood to adulthood.
This project invites us to reflect on the shape and colour of the rice cookers in our homes; how frequently or rarely we use them; and consider how or what we would eat without them. The artist grew up believing that every home had a rice cooker, and this artwork embodies that assumption, regardless of reality. This perspective is reflected in the concept and display of this artwork, which demonstrates the impact of growing up not only with rice, but also rice cookers.
Golden Rice Cookers involves the "planting" of rice inside rice cookers to symbolise their ability to nourish and cultivate us, as well as snippets of South East Asian folktales from storyteller Hafiz Rashid’s research hidden in-between the field of rice cookers. This installation includes workshops for creating plant-like structures, enabling the artwork to grow along with time and active participation from the community.
Rice as Binders
Rice as Binders explores the ongoing formation of practices, cultural identities, and personal stories related to the rice varieties available in our supermarkets.
This installation is inspired by the artists' curiosity about the various characteristics of different types of rice, such as colour, texture, form, and flavour, and how they may influence socio-cultural practices.
At the heart of this installation are conversations with three people who have a significant connection to working with rice. These include rangoli artist Vijaya Mohan, who makes rice flour a daily morning ritual; chef and social worker David and Peiyi, who use claypot rice to foster relationships; and Malay cuisine advocates Murni and Aqid, who spread their passion for Malay food.
The public is invited to contribute to this exploration by crafting rice vessels using recycled paper fibres and rice starch as physical binders. These vessels, paired with short stories from participants about their personal connections to rice, will be displayed as part of the installation.
from grains, pearls
Inspired by Chinese poetry and the complexities of memory, this community art installation explores the formation of new stories through human connection, wordplay, and the collective processing of relayed experience.
The exhibited works in this installation were created by participants of a workshop titled “the telephone game”. Participants exchanged personal stories and engaged in mark-making in two different modes and scales: a word on a grain of rice, and a painting on a sheet of rice paper.
The paintings are installed on the wall, each accompanied by hand-written words from the participant whose story had inspired it.
The painted rice grains are arranged in a grid resembling the 璇璣圖 (xuán jī tú, or, “The Star Gauge”) palindrome poem composed by 4th-century poet Su Hui.
The artist invites viewers to create new poems and stories of their own by freely traversing the grid, starting from and ending at any word. In this way, fresh takes and new tales are created via audience interpretation and imagination.
MEET OUR ARTISTS
We are excited to showcase 3 local artists who bring Singapore’s rich literary heritage to life through their unique installations.
Drawing inspiration from classic folktales, these artists create artworks that not only reflect Singapore’s storied past but also engage older generations in meaningful ways, fostering reminiscence and intergenerational dialogue. Through their creative lens, they offer a vibrant tribute to the experiences and history of our local community.
Find out more about each of them in our Artist Profiles below!
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