ANGIN CLOUD

17 Jan 2024–30 Nov 2025
National Gallery Singapore
OUTBOUND commissions for 2025
Presented from January to November 2025, Angin Cloud is a multi-floor installation by Art Labor. It includes Jrai wood sculptures at street level, suspended pillars that reference farming structures used in peppercorn plantations and hammocks to recline in the museum’s basement. The installation was developed with vn-a (visual network art and architecture) an architecture studio working at the cross sections of architecture, art and urban planning based in Da Lat, Vietnam and Berlin, Germany and with Jrai artists, Puih Glơh, Romah Aleo, Rahlan Loh, Rcham Jeh, Siu Kin, Puih Han, Siu Lon and Siu Huel. Angin Cloud is part of Art Labor’s almost decade-long collaboration with the Jrai community. It is the third instalment of a research-led project, after Jrai Dew and JUA.
The Central Highlands have been shaped by environmental extraction tied to colonisation, war and economic development. Since the 1980s, the development of industrial farming of commodity crops, like pepper, has reshaped the highlands’ landscape. The hanging installation of pillars, designed with vn-a, resembles a cloud descending on the museum, raining a simulacra of brutalist cement pillars and farming instruments. The hanging installation is a sculptural intervention that visually transplants a hillside to the space between the two colonial buildings that constitute National Gallery Singapore: the former City Hall (opened in 1929) and Supreme Court (opened in 1939). “Angin,” a Jrai concept, refers to the dynamic potential for change found in the natural elements of water and air. Taking inspiration from Jrai cosmology and recalling the aesthetics of minimalism and land art, Angin Cloud presented in former seats of colonial and national power, advances a radical museological intervention that advocates for a pluralistic rendering of art history.
In collaborations with:
vn-a (visual network art architecture)
Jarai Dew artists
and humans, animals, plants, rivers, mountains and spirits of the Vietnam Central Highlands.
Curator: Kathleen Ditzig

Installation view of Angin Cloud, National Gallery of Singapore, Padang Atrium

Photo: Truong Minh Tuan