RÉVOLUTION! - A Fools' Dialogue
Alliance Française de Singapour, Singapore
Initiated and developed the collaboration between Mr. Lim’s Shop of Visual Treasures and Alliance Française de Singapour, shaping the exhibition from initial concept to public presentation. Acted as curator and main project lead, overseeing the narrative, artist selection, spatial direction, installation coordination, collector relations, and artwork sales. Led private tours for potential buyers and collectors, translating the exhibition’s curatorial vision into meaningful acquisition conversations and contributing to the sale of nine artworks.
Attendance:
1284
RÉVOLUTION! - A Fools' Dialogue brings together twenty local outsider artists, each responding directly to an artwork by a revolutionary French master. These are our riff-raffs and rule-breakers, inspired yet challenging the standard set by France with a fearless and frank perspective. By answering and reinterpreting French references, these artists define their own Singaporean stories, engaging a necessary dialogue between a young culture and an established canon.
Revolutions begin when fools have dialogues. It takes a unique courage to be unafraid of tradition, a bravery France pioneered through the artists referenced who strayed away from conventions and redefined art itself. Today, the Singapore art scene remains nascent and raw. In the wake of the French trailblazers, this show aims to highlight the path Singaporeans are carving for themselves.
Revolutions begin when fools have dialogues. It takes a unique courage to be unafraid of tradition, a bravery France pioneered through the artists referenced who strayed away from conventions and redefined art itself. Today, the Singapore art scene remains nascent and raw. In the wake of the French trailblazers, this show aims to highlight the path Singaporeans are carving for themselves.
ZONE 1:
Nature, Translated
French landscapes, gardens, flowers, and animals are reimagined through Singaporean memories, climates, and ways of seeing. In this section, nature becomes a shared language: transformed by place, emotion, science, and personal history.
Featured Works:Andy Yang - Drifting Towards Ecstasy Claude Monet - Water Lillies
Christine R. Bay - Flora’s Zephyr
William-Adolphe Bouguereau -
Flora and Zephyr
Dewi
Andini -
Memento Mori
Claude
Monet -
Jeanne-Marguerite Lecadre in the Garden
ZONE 2:
Forms of Revolution
This section explores how artists respond to French masterpieces not only by changing the image, but by changing the medium itself. Through light, photography, newspaper, print, texture, and experimental surfaces, the works question identity, love, suffering, mortality, violence, and belief.
Featured Works:
Clarice Tjahyadi - Belle et Bonne,
After Ingres’
Madame Moitessier
Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres -
Madame Moitessier
Iyvone
Kho -
Transient Echo
Claude
Monet -
Water Lilies, Reflections of Weeping Willows
Fiona Koh -
After the Market
Pierre-Auguste Renoir -
Les Poissons
Ezzam
Rahman - Three shades darker
Auguste
Rodin - The Three Shades
Vasan Sitthiket
- 2 Dancers
Henri Matisse - Blue Nude i - ivI Jeremy
Hiah
- Paradise Terrorize
Dance
Henri
Matisse - Dance
Mojoko - Vanity
Auguste Toulmouche
- Vanité
ZONE 3:
Faces of Self and Society
The final section turns toward people: portraits, bodies, gestures, and characters. Here, French references become mirrors for contemporary Singapore, exploring how individuals see themselves, how communities are represented, and how social stories are carried through the human figure.
Featured Works:
Noc Vvyne
Lim - A Stray Cat’s Abode #25 based on Interior by Marisot
Berthe Morisot -
Interior
LIYU
-
Sunday afternoon on
the island of Singapore
Georges Seurat - Un dimanche après-midi à l'île de la Grande Jatte
Riki Antoni - Friendship 1
Henri Rousseau - L'Enfant à la poupée Ou Ruiting
- Anger and/or sorrow
Suzanne Valadon - Self-Portrait Jewell
Dalina - ‘magdalene’
Hugues Merle - Mary Magdalene in the cave Tiffany Yao - Welcome to Singapore
Frédéric Soulacroix - Afternoon Tea for Three (or Tea Time)
Samuel
Chen - Traditional Breakfast
Édouard Manet - Un bar aux Folies Bergère Samuel
Chen - Garden of Prosperity
Édouard Vuillard - Femme en robe rouge Huang
Zhanwen - The King of Clowns
Bernard Buffet - The Clown with the Green Background
Vania
Gunarti
- “a bird, not yet”
Jean-Baptiste Simeon Chardin -Still Life with Partridge and Pear Michael
Cu Fua -
Orbit of Rehearsal
Edgar Degas - Little Dancer of Fourteen Years
OPENING NIGHT
Christine R. Bay - Flora’s Zephyr
William-Adolphe Bouguereau -
Flora and Zephyr
Dewi Andini - Memento Mori
Claude Monet - Jeanne-Marguerite Lecadre in the Garden
Henri Matisse - Blue Nude i - ivI
the island of Singapore
Bernard Buffet - The Clown with the Green Background