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HAN SAI POR
Han Sai Por: An Interview Text: Yow Siew Ka h
Award-winning Artist Han Sai Por Talks About Her New Solo Exhibition, How She Relates to Her Materials and Her Creative Process.
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Han Sai Por is a top Singaporean sculptor who was awarded the Singapore Cultural Medallion in 1995 for her significant contribution to the arts. She was educated in pedagogical methods, the fine arts, and landscape architecture, and has exhibited in such prestigious locations as the Fukuoka Museum, Japan, the National Museum of Modern Art, Seoul, Korea, and in the Landscape Sculpture Exhibition in Beijing, China, during the 2008 Summer Olympic Games. She talks to art historian Yow Siew Kah on her new solo exhibition in Singapore.
HAN SAI POR
Can you tell us about the show?
My upcoming solo show is entitled “The Changing Landscape”. I have always been interested in the tropical landscape, and the body o works I have made or the exhibition shows my continued involvement in this line o inquiry. The works are responses to what I see as violence inficted on the tropical fora and auna o Singapore. Such violence occurs on at least two levels. First, in the last ew decades, we have seen the physical inrastructure o our country developing at a giddying pace. Large parts o the natural landscape have now been replaced by steel-and-concrete structures. Massive destruction o wildlie has accompanied this change. Some o the plants and animals that I used to see as a child appear to be extinct. Second, while attempts have been made to re-introduce nature into urban spaces, imported species have been given preerence over indigenous
I have grouped the works into our subthemes: Deorestation, Destruction, Extinction and Transormation, each addressing a dierent aspect o our changing landscape. Instead o using the usual pedestals, I will display the sculptures as installations.
How are the drawings in the show related to the sculptures?
Drawing is an important part o my art practice, and I have been doing it or many years. I do not draw only to conceptualise, although it certainly has that unction. I it is possible to say that an art work can be “complete”, many o my drawings, including the ones in the exhibition, are “nished” products. We usually think o drawing and sculpting to be two completely dierent activities. For sure, there are dierences, But they have
At the risk o over-simpliying, or me, drawing is a more relaxing orm o sculpting. Making a sculpture out o a material like granite is hard physical work. The sound o the machine tools is always whirring in my ears, and the air that I breathe in is thick with dust. Very oten, the process is so messy that it is hard to visualise the nished product. In contrast, drawing can be done in a more comortable setting, and it is easier to see where I am going: there is a better sense o the overall image.
Please tell us how you work with materials.
Ater having worked as a sculptor or so many years, I have developed an intimate relationship with the materials that I commonly work with, such as bronze, granite and marble. Depending on the natural appearance o a material, I decide on how much work needs to be done. Some
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As you can see in the works in the show, I like to create ar ticial textures on the stones, which would then interact with the natural ones in interesting ways. The textures are made using a variety o methods, including sand-blasting and polishing.
What about your creative process?
Many o my works are rather large, and to complete them, I need help rom skilled cratsmen. They are really hard to nd in Singapore and Malaysia, but I have access to some good ones in a workshop in Fujian province, China, where I spend a good amount o time. I usually make a maquette, which is a scale model, o my design, and consult with the local masons on the choice o material. I may even need their help in making the maquette: the model is usually about hal the size o the nal product, so depending on the design, it can be quite sizeable.
HAN SAI POR
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HAN SAI POR
the nal work, either by mysel or by directing a team o masons. This occurs rather requently. requently. Second, the masons are not trained in art. They are good in replicating a design, but tend to be less competent in making aesthetic decisions. There is thereore a great deal o need or my input.
What projects are you working on?
I usually have ongoing special commissions to work on. At the same time, a party has expressed interest in publishing a small catalogue o my public art works. A signicant portion o my por tolio consists o large, outdoor pieces. Some o these are in private collection, while others are installed in public spaces. Existing catalogues o my sculptures have tended to ocus on the smaller works, which means that a large part o my oeuvre has been let out. I look orward to seeing a publication that eatures the bigger works. The Changing Landscape is at The Luxe Art Museum, 6 Handy Road, #02-01, The Luxe, Singapore 229234, from 1 March 2010 to 25 April 2010. The exhibition is open Tuesdays to Sundays from 11am to 7pm. It is closed on Mondays and
