UNIT.
Finbarr Fallon & Samantha Chia
Duo Exhibition
23 - 31 July 2022
Tues - Fri: 2 - 7pm
Sat - Sun: 11am - 7pm
Closed on Mondays
The photographic exhibition is a showcase for a documentary arts project titled “Unit.” (2020 - 2022), which looks at the homes and interiors of Singapore’s 1970s - 80s private residential architecture through a combination of photographs and interviews with the apartment’s resident(s).
Singapore’s architecture from the 1970s - 80s represents a time when the post- independence nation was grappling with concepts of modernity and how it would represent the nation on an international platform, with private residential architecture typically taking on bolder and more experimental forms as people increasingly transited towards high-rise living, both due to pressures from urban development and new lifestyle aspirations. Many of these buildings of architecture significance have been photographed from the outside, but rarely seen from the inside.
The exhibition will consist of photographic prints documenting 10 built projects,
in addition to interviews with the residents, where we have invited them to talk about what the building / apartment means to them, and the importance of home - concepts that have become all the more relevant due to Covid.
About the Artist(s)
Finbarr Fallon
Finbarr is a Singapore based artist and photographer, whose works explore the evolution and transformation of the modern urban environment. His work has been exhibited internationally, with recent showings at The Private Museum, Singapore Art Museum and Arts Science Museum. Prizes for his photographic work include the Atrium People’s Choice Award at The Blueprint Architectural Photography Awards (2019) for the Hong Kong graveyard documentary series Dead Space, and first prize at A*STAR’s Beautiful Science competition (2018) for the series Flora Phantasmagoria, which re-presents the Singapore as the City in Nature through infrared.
Samantha Chia
Samantha is an urban planner with a background in architecture, and a keen interest in writing and documenting the untold narratives that shape the history and urban fabric of Singapore. She graduated cum laude from the Delft University of Technology (Msc Arch) with a thesis paper on ‘Landscapes without Meaning -The fickleness of memory and the obsession with the image’ and design project titled ‘Ritual & Memory - Resisting the changing landscapes of Singapore’, shortlisted for the school’s ArchiPrix exhibition, which looked at re- establishing the relevance of the Hakka clan Ying Fo Fui Kun’s cemetery at Commonwealth, by reclaiming its purpose as a burial landscape in a rapidly changing Singapore. Her other interests include public policy and governance for which she won the United Nations 32nd Eisaku Sato Essay Contest (2017) - Award of Brilliance.
