The Singapore Art Museum (SAM) launched Open Systems (OS) on May 4, an initiative dedicated to online exhibitions and virtual programs. OS features works produced in the digital arena, such as video game software, creative code, and browsers, and works that deal with the issues arising from the very production conditions. The recognition that contemporary digital culture is having a profound impact on artistic expression led to the development of the system.
OS’s inaugural exhibition is “Open Systems 1: Open Worlds (OS1),” which is on view until August 10 at opensystems.sg. Various scenarios by artists and thinkers challenge the logic of closure, privatization, and scarcity in the virtual realm, and map inequalities that transfer in the physical and digital realms. The exhibition suggests that video games, game engines, and virtual environments can be sites for practicing alternative and new modes of social, political, and spatial organization.
Para Site in Hong Kong is a leading independent art institution that runs exhibitions, publications, residencies, and educational projects. It is Hong Kong’s first contemporary art exhibition space, established before the handover to China.
Para Site presents the exhibition series “signals…瞬息” from March to September 2023. Three exhibitions, “signals…storms and patterns,” “signals…folds and splits,” and “signals…here and there” are inspired by Signals London (1964-1966), a historic experimental independent art organization from the United Kingdom. With the exhibition series, Para Site seeks to reconnect Hong Kong with the global community after the pandemic. As Signals London did, it runs publications and broadcast programs simultaneously to its exhibitions.
‘Signals’ in the context of the exhibition are modes of kinetic art, communication, actions, and interventions to create a chain of reactions. Participating artists use sound, smell, movement, and smoke as cues to address the issues of dispersed communities, migratory flows, and the intersection of technology, science, and architecture. The first exhibition “signals…storms and patterns” runs through May 28, and the second begins on June 2.
Karuizawa New Art Museum in Nagano Prefecture is presenting “Journey to the Lobster Planet,” a solo exhibition by British neo-pop artist Philip Colbert (b. 1979). The show is the first large-scale presentation of his work in Japan and runs through May 28.
Colbert was acclaimed as “Andy Warhol’s godson” by the fashion industry for his ‘Cartoon Lobster character’ and has established himself as a leading contemporary neo-pop artist. His lobster character is inspired by Salvador Dalí’s ‘Lobster Telephone (1938),’ which became his artistic alter ego. Colbert works across multiple mediums, including painting, sculpture, performance, NFTs, fashion, music, and furniture design. His latest project, the metaverse space ‘Lobsteropolis,’ explores the dawn of the digital age and the transformation of art.