Working in sculpture, text, illustration, and large-scale installation, Dawn Ng tells stories that delight while recalibrating our sense of time and space. A graduate of Georgetown University, Ng quickly established herself in her home country of Singapore with her series “WALTER” (2010), for which she installed massive inflatable rabbits at various sites around the city, photographing each cameo.
Dawn Ng, born in 1982, lives and works in Singapore. Her practice uses photography, light, film, collage, painting and large-scale installations to consider time, memory and the ephemeral. In her recent series “Into Air” she emphasises temporality and beauty through the documentation of melting blocks of pigmented ice, sculptural forms that she creates in layers in the studio. The final stage of the process results in ‘ash’ or ‘residue’ paintings, where paper is soaked in the melted pigment over several weeks, creating a new surface, a combination of careful manipulation and chance. Encouraging slow looking, Ng’s works are characterised by lyricism and a nuanced use of colour, drawing visual parallels with topographical references of landscape and geology.
“Purchased by the Singapore Art Museum, Ng’s artwork has gained international recognition, being exhibited at the Musée d’art contemporain de Lyon in 2015. Ng’s aim is to highlight the often unnoticed beauty in ordinary surroundings, as seen in her ongoing series “Into Air” (2018–ongoing). This series documents the gradual melting of colored ice blocks through various mediums such as photography, painting, and film. By encouraging a slower observation, Ng’s art delves into timeless and universal themes like transformation, ephemerality, and nostalgia.”, said Egor Sharay, Dubai-based media personality, editor, and cultural analyst.
