How site-specific art takes shape at Esplanade
Published: 28 Apr 2025
Time taken : ~10mins
This is a phrase that artist Yang Jie used in explaining the concept behind the installation Breath of the Land《呼吸之地》, a collaboration between him and veteran Singapore artist Lim Soo Ngee.
Exploring Singapore’s ever-evolving built environment, the exhibition reflects on the toil that has gone into building the landscapes that we see today. The duo also shares how they used familiar materials in unusual ways, as they reimagined the country as a living, breathing organism—one that remembers, and one that also forgets.
Aptly, this phrase also applies to the creation of this installation, and of many other site-specific visual arts exhibitions at Esplanade. In this video, Esplanade’s visual arts team provides some insight into what goes into materialising the constant cycle of exhibitions by local and regional artists in Singapore’s national performing arts centre.
Breath of the Land《呼吸之地》is at Esplanade Concourse until 6 Jul 2025.
Read more about this exhibition in this artist interview.
Lim Soo Ngee (b.1962, Singapore) is one of Singapore’s most notable sculptors. His works focus on the relationship between the urban environment and its inhabitants’ spiritual alienation and often lend themselves to humorous and poetic narratives that reflect on the human condition. He has exhibited in Singapore and internationally and continues to participate in international sculpture symposiums. His works are in the collections of The National Gallery of Singapore, Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts Singapore, Ngee Ann Kongsi Singapore and The MaGMA Collection.
The practice of Yang Jie (b.1984, Singapore) explores the interconnections between humans, objects and everyday life. With a background in electronic engineering and sculpture, he reinterprets the human experience through found objects and mechanical movements, transforming discarded relics into kinetic sculptures that perform. Recent projects by Yang include Traces and Shadows at the Singapore International Festival of Arts (2024) and the solo exhibition The Waiting Machine, Comma Space (2020). He recently participated in an artist residency at Künstlerhaus Bethanien in 2024.
The exhibitions at Esplanade's visual arts spaces—Jendela (Visual Arts Space), Esplanade Concourse, Esplanade Tunnel and Esplanade Community Wall—present commissioned site-specific works that undergird the centre's commitment to nurturing new work and supporting the development of long-standing projects by Singapore and Southeast Asian artists.
