SAW 2021’s “The orchid; the wasp” Creates Modern Art Through Digital Means

The Orchard; the Wasp main’s art piece uses mechanics to represent lovers in the traditional Malay movie, Miang. PHOTO: Raushana

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SINGAPORE - The opening night for “The orchid; the wasp”, a Singapore Art Week (SAW) exhibition, was held on 22 Jan 2021. The main art piece, “Miang”, is a combination of digital and mechanical art created by Singaporean artist, Thesupersystem. Together with his co-artist Liyana Yang, he was challenged to create pieces of art that co-exists and benefit from each other, in which they succeeded in. Other artists of that exhibition include: Liyana Ali, Ivan David Ng, Anthony Chin and Leeroy Sofyan.

To Thesupersystem, “Miang” stands for family, familiarity and tradition. Although it portrays the past, this art piece makes use of digital and mechanical forms of expression. “Miang” is a good example of the modern art that one might be able to appreciate among the Singapore Art Week exhibitions. Even while expressing nostalgia, Thesupersystem was able to use modern technology and machinery to create an interesting piece of art.

Thesupersystem said: “When I was growing up, I used to watch a lot of Malay films and I still do and it is a tradition for my family. This artwork is personal because we sit down and watch these films together, especially on Hari Raya.”

“Miang” includes the screening of a snippet of an old black and white malay film on a modern projector. In addition to that, the characters’ faces were removed and replaced, with what looked like palm trees. Besides copyright infringement, this was done to remove the gender stereotypes that usually came with old malay films. This is another example of adding a modern element to the portrayal of the past. Due to society’s progression, these gender stereotypes are usually less distinguished in this day and age.

Thesupersystem explained: “I didn’t want to emphasise on the genders (of the characters) because I want to make it a very neutral thing where it can be either male, female or whatever you identify as. ”

Besides being the first Singapore Art Week that consists of physical and virtual events, SAW 2021 also portrays modern artworks in its exhibitions. Artwork “Miang” from “The