Vertical Submarine
Vertical Submarine is an independent art collective based in Singapore with three members - Joshua Yang, Justin Loke and Fiona Koh “who paint a bit, write a bit, draw a bit, but eat, drink and sleep a lot”.
The group was formed in 2003 and the name was taken from a word subvert that is rotated to be vert-sub and expanded to form Vertical Submarine. The group has been appearing in local exhibitions of intricate installations involving everyday objects, text and an acquired sense of humor.
The group won the Singapore President's Young Talents Award of 2009.
EXHIBTION:
ASIA: LOOKING SOUTH
10 September - 27 October 2011
Group exhibition at ARNDT Berlin
Founded in 2003 Vertical Submarine is an independent art collective based in Singapore with three members. The name was taken from the verb “subvert”, rotated to be “vert-sub” and expanded to “Vertical Submarine”. According to them, they “write, draw and paint a bit but eat, drink and sleep a lot.” Their works include installations, drawings and paintings which involve text, storytelling and an acquired sense of humour. In 2010, they laid siege to the Singapore Art Museum and displayed medieval instruments of torture including a fully functional guillotine. They have completed projects in Spain, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Korea. Collectively they have won several awards, including the “Credit Suisse Artist Residency Award” in 2009, “The President’s Young Talents Award” in 2009 and the “Singapore Art Show Judges’ Choice” in 2005. They have recently completed a residency at Gertrude Contemporary, Melbourne, Australia. The works on show “Table of Discontents” is an open tabletop containing six tools and eight books related to subversive ideologies. Influenced by Freud’s “Civilization and its Discontents” (1929) and Santiago Sierra’s art installation “300 Weapons” (2009), this table is designed like a giant book with legs. The table top (or book cover) is carved with the statement “Warning: Contains knowledge and tools that cause discomfort to most conformists”. The fourteen items beneath the glass cover include books such as “Selected Quotations of Mao ZeDong” (1964), “The Water Margin: Outlaws of the Marsh” (2010) by Shi
Naian, “Society of Spectacle” (1967) by Guy Debord, “Theory of Subject” (2009) by Alain Badiou, “The Coming Insurrection” (2009) by The Invisible Committee and “Patriotism” by Yukio Mishima, as well as a fake time bomb and tools, such as a machete, a rope and a wooden clog.
EXHIBTION:
ASIA: LOOKING SOUTH
10 September - 27 October 2011
Group exhibition at ARNDT Berlin
Vertical Submarine, Table of Discontents, 2010, mixed media, 95 x 120 x 84 cm | 37.4 x 47.24 x 33.07 in, edition of 3, VERT0001