Singapore arts guide (Sept 23 to 30): Artist Irfan Hendrian sculpts paper into chairs

Residuum by Irfan Hendrian

Were anyone to raise the old cliche that print is dead, point him or her to something made by Indonesian artist Irfan Hendrian. The Bandung-based artist has turned paper into convincing window grilles, columns and corrugated walls, so it is not a stretch to say that he could help the ostensibly obsolete medium turn the corner in a digital world.

His new solo at Sullivan+Strumpf’s Tiong Bahru gallery is titled Residuum, which refers to what remains after a process of decay. It is perhaps also a nod to the medium’s fragility and stubborn persistence even as information today largely travels in bytes.

But Irfan’s trompe-l’oeil paper sculptures – often mistaken for wood from afar – have the look of something sturdier than its material, with hypnotic patterns resembling geological strata or land formations.

Trained in industrial printmaking processes, Irfan achieves this solidity by gluing and compressing thousands of strips of paper together until they appear almost airtight. Then, sometimes grinding away at these hardened surfaces, he gives the illusion of chipped wood or etched stone. In others, furiously torn paper gives rise to a furrier texture and delicious colour gradients.

In other words, he makes paper do things that it should not be able to do.

Those familiar with Irfan’s work will know that his paper work has often engaged with themes of being Chinese Indonesian. None of these themes are explicitly foregrounded in the work on show, as the exhibition sees the artist thinking more about materiality without needing to represent. After all, has not the history of paper been for so long in service of other mediums such as writing?

There are more traditional works that hang on the wall which, enabled by their large scale, can produce the same kinds of pleasures as looking at a painting by the abstract expressionist Mark Rothko.

But the surprises in the show are in the three functional chairs made of paper which you can hide a laptop and wine bottle in, as well as sit on.

With his eye for the sculptural possibilities of paper, the medium might well be a household essential again.

Where: Sullivan+Strumpf, 1M Yong Siak Street
MRT: Tiong Bahru
When: Till Oct 31; Tuesdays to Saturdays, 10am to 6pm; Sundays, 10am to 3pm
Admission: Free
Info: str.sg/tN66

Translation Day Singapore

With fiction in translation becoming a permanent fixture of The Straits Times’ bestsellers list, it is clear that Singaporean readers are longing for stories beyond the Anglophone world.

The return of Translation Day Singapore for its second edition offers ample opportunities for readers to sate their appetite for a worldlier literature.

International Booker Prize-winning translator Deepa Bhasthi is headlining the weekend with a lecture on multilingualism, which will be of interest to readers wanting insight into what translation can look like in a multilingual society like Singapore.

Her translation of Indian writer Banu Mushtaq’s Heart Lamp won plaudits for conjuring the multilingual milieu of southern India.

Singapore’s growing roster of translators publishing internationally are also featured. Translators Gene Png (The Midnight Shift), Shanna Tan (Welcome To The Hyunam-dong Bookshop) and Christina Ng (with a new translation of Chinese-language literary pioneer Dan Ying) are on a panel discussing women in translation.

It is moderated by Anitha Devi Pillai, who translated Kamaladevi Aravindan’s historical novel Sembawang into English.

This edition of Translation Day Singapore also ventures beyond the page.

Singaporean deaf artist Lily Goh, who has interpreted music for the likes of the Singapore Symphony Orchestra, is facilitating a workshop on deaf poetry across languages.

Practitioners working across various fields such as theatre and graphic design have also been enlisted to bring different dimensions to the act of translating.

Where: The Arts House at the Old Parliament, 1 Old Parliament Lane
MRT: City Hall
When: Sept 26 and 27, various timings
Admission: Free and ticketed, one-day pass for Sept 26 ($35) and individual tickets ($15, $20 and $30)
Info: str.sg/rBBaM

Augustin Hadelich in Singapore

Catch Grammy Award-winning violinist Augustin Hadelich in action as he performs Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto In D Major, Op. 35 with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra (SSO) in two concerts at the Esplanade Concert Hall on Sept 25 and 26.

Under the baton of French conductor Pierre Bleuse, the SSO will also premiere a commissioned work by Singaporean composer Zechariah Goh titled Dream(e)scapes. It tells the story of an old Peranakan woman who dreams of the mansion she grew up in, replete with the folk music of her childhood.

The programme also features Bela Bartok’s The Miraculous Mandarin – Suite and Maurice Ravel’s Daphnis et Chloe – Suite No. 2.

Audiences can also catch Hadelich in a more intimate recital setting at the Victoria Concert Hall on Sept 27 with a programme that ranges from Johann Sebastian Bach’s Partita No. 2 In D Minor, BWV 1004 to more contemporary work like Mark O’Connor Menuhin Caprice.

Where: Esplanade Concert Hall, 1 Esplanade Drive
MRT: City Hall/Esplanade
When: Sept 25 and 26, 7.30pm
Admission: $15 to $100
Info: str.sg/p476i

Where: Victoria Concert Hall, 11 Empress Place
MRT: City Hall
When: Sept 27, 4pm
Admission: $20 to $100
Info: str.sg/kK4bM