Shooshie Sulaiman
Residency period
8 June – 28 August 2015
About
Often drawing on her experience, emotions and memories, Shooshie Sulaiman (b. 1973, Malaysia) makes works and situations that create highly nuanced and personal interactions with their subjects and audiences. After receiving her BA in Fine Art from the MARA University of Technology (UiTM), Malaysia, in 1996, she received the National Art Gallery of Malaysia’s prestigious Young Contemporaries Award, and has participated in numerous exhibitions and residencies in Malaysia and internationally.
In addition to recent participation in Art Basel Hong Kong Encounters sector in 2015, Art Basel Unlimited sector and Gwangju Biennale in 2014, her previous group exhibitions include Open House, Singapore Biennale (2011), Asia-Pacific Triennial (2009-10), Documenta 12 (2007), Continuities: Contemporary Art of Malaysia At The Turn of The 21st Century, Guangdong Museum of Art, China (2004) and the Florence Biennale (2003).
Her artistic practice goes beyond conventional mediums; she runs 12, an exhibition and project space in Kuala Lumpur and a guesthouse in Malacca, for encounters with fresh experiences of art. She has also recently formed an artist collective “MAIX” with young local artists to explore critical and creative perspectives in art especially in the Malaysian context, as well as the “SEA” platform with other Southeast Asian artists to share and seek deeper understanding of art, culture, history and social engagement in the region – how it has been disjointed over the history and how it can be connected again.
Focus
Shooshie Sulaiman is researching and creating a symbolic gesture of a rubber plantation through nine rubber trees. The trees are from Malaysia and the amount represents the number of the first nine seedlings that made their way from Singapore to Malaysia in 1870s. Today Malaysia is one of the leading countries that supplies rubber to the world, and hence contributing to the the boom in local economic growth.
The ephemeral element of the whole idea and process of the project is to investigate Southeast Asia's ancestors and technologies in a cultural pattern that can bring hope and understanding to a new legacy. This project also attempts to pursue questions of property, public space and ecology and to understand more about the authority that claim the land and the sky.
Public programmes
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For this special day event at Gillman Barracks, NTU CCA Singapore has put together a line-up of programmes encompassing open studios, film screenings and performances. For full details of Art Day Out, visit www.gillmanbarracks.com.
Residencies: OPEN
NTU CCA Singapore, Studios, Block 37 & 38 Malan Road, 11.00am – 3.00pm
Featuring Artists-in-Residence, Yason Banal (The Philippines), Bani Haykal (Singapore), Amanda Heng (Singapore), Alex Murray-Leslie (Australia), Gary Ross Pastrana (The Philippines), Jeremy Sharma (Singapore), Shooshie Sulaiman (Malaysia) and Erika Tan (Singapore).
Artist Resource Platform
The Seminar Room, Block 43 Malan Road, 11.00am – 9.00pm
Highlights include selected documentation from NTU CCA Singapore’s residencies.
Film Screenings in collaboration with the Asian Film Archive
The Single Screen, Block 43 Malan Road
Punggok Rindukan Bulan (This Longing) by Azharr Rudin (Malaysia), 12.30pm – 2.30pm
Return to Burma by Midi Z (Myanmar/Taiwan), 7.30pm – 9.00pm
Erika Tan, Halimah-the-Empire-Exhibition-weaver-who-died-whilst-performing-her-craft
The Lab, Block 43 Malan Road, 3.00pm – 4.30pm
Live “broadcast” debate
Special Project: Faculty of Listening, Bani Haykal – Performance #2
Block 38 Malan Road, #01-07, 5.00 – 7.00pm
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Join Artist-in-Residence, Shooshie Sulaiman and curator, Melanie Pocock on this botanical walking tour at Gillman Barracks. Starting at Shooshie’s studio in Block 37 Malan Road and concluding at the site of two rubber trees, the locus of her interest is in the trade and exchange of rubber in Southeast Asia. With these trees, Shooshie has worked closely with a Balinese carver on site to lay a piece of contemporary history etched within the trees.
Shooshie Sulaiman‘s research has centred around Malaysia as one of the leading countries that supplies rubber to the world, and hence contributing to the the boom in local economic growth. The first nine seedlings to Malaysia made their way from Singapore to Malaysia in 1870s.
Melanie Pocock is Assistant Curator at the Institute of Contemporary Art Singapore, LASALLE College of the Arts. She has written articles and reviews for ArtAsiaPacific, Eyeline, Frieze, Third Text and The Journal of Curatorial Studies, and is Editor-at-large of Kaleidoscope Asia. She was Editor of Sulaiman, a publication of Shooshie Sulaiman’s work and practice.
*Starts at Block 37 Malan Road, Studio #01-04 and includes a walk around Gillman Barracks