Ernest Goh | ‘Bleached Bones: Last Words of the Dead Spoken by a Dying Sea’
Blueprint Art Space, Singapore
Bleached Bones is a visual catalogue of photographic prints by artist and photographer Ernest Goh. In this exhibition curated by Shireen Marican, bleached corals capture timeless, poignant last words of the departed.
Bleaching is a phenomenon when corals turn completely white after algae in their tissues are expelled when their waters are too warm — nature’s lasting reminder that climatic changes continue to influence ecological systems.
Ernest’s explorations across the shores of Nikoi Island in Indonesia led to a discovery of the unique formations of these bleached corals. In these, he finds a visual parallel to the alphabet system which he draws upon to contemplate lessons of life and living from death poems and last words.
When
11 January - 10 February 2025*
*closed 28 January – 2 February for Chinese New Year
Time
Daily: 11 am – 7 pm
Venue
Blueprint Art Space, 1 Commonwealth Lane, #04-28, Singapore 149544
Programmes
Fireside Chat: ‘Sensing in Practice’: Sat 25 January, 3 pm – 4.30 pm
Entry: S$6 / person (includes light refreshments).
Limited to 25 people. Register your spot here.
Join us for an afternoon of exchange between artists Ernest Goh, Victoria Hertel and Wong Zihao (bios below) on how they draw upon ‘senses’ in their respective practice, create sensory-making experiences to inspire imagination and wonderment, and share what balance between practice and purpose means to them personally. Bring your curiosity and your favourite mug to join us in this lively conversation facilitated by curator Shireen Marican.
Artist tour: Sat 8 February, 3 pm - 4 pm.
Artist-in-Attendance: Sat 11 January & Sat 18 January, 3 pm – 5 pm
Presented by
Part Of
Curated by
Shireen Marican
About the Artist (www.ernestgoh.com)
Artist and photographer Ernest Goh's (b. 1979) practice has been spent looking at the environment and its creatures, trying to understand the complex yet awe-inspiring interconnectivity between our planet and its inhabitants. Ernest Goh founded Ayer Ayer (www.ayerayer.com) - an ecologically-engaged initiative that reaches out to communities through visual and participatory artworks to further environmental protection and awareness. He is also the artistic director of Ubah Rumah, an artist residency and research outpost on Nikoi Island, Indonesia. Ayer Ayer's focus on ocean plastic in the regional waterways of South-East Asia has led to the creation of public art, digital gamification and social intervention projects.
The artist also created The Animal Book Co., a photography-based project that explores unique natural histories. Ernest’s animal portraits have been published in The Fish Book (2011), COCKS (2013, republished as Chickens in the US in 2015), and The Gift Book (2014). Ernest's work has been commissioned by and installed at the Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum, Singapore, collected by the Multimedia Art Museum, Moscow, and also resides in public and private collections.
Formerly a photojournalist, Ernest has documented South-East Asia extensively including the Burmese refugee crisis on the Thai-Burmese border and the aftermath and recovery of the 2004 Tsunami in Aceh, Indonesia. He has photographed for Time Magazine Asia, Newsweek, Der Spiegel, Monocle and the Smithsonian.
Ernest is an awardee of the Ministry of Sustainability and the Environment (Singapore) SG Eco Fund, and the National Environment Agency EcoFriend Award (2024). He also received the Discernment Award at the Icon de Martell Cordon Bleu Awards, Singapore (2012), the Sony World Photography Award (2013), the Incentivising Innovation Fund by the Institute of Contemporary Arts London, the Nesta UK for its Cultural Leadership Program (2009) and the Philips Design Award (1999).
About the Curator
Shireen Marican is a systems strategist, curator and educator motivated to advance the engagement of culture with people, institutions and organisations for a just and equitable environment and society. Shireen has extensive experience working across multidisciplinary contexts with and other cultural practitioners to co-create practice, programmes and strategy that engages with communities and culture more broadly to advance thinking around critical and social challenges in deeply intuitive and informed ways.
Fireside Chat
Victoria Hertel Velasco is a Singapore-based, German-Venezuelan artist working in sensory installation and techno-organic prototyping. Her practice combines perception technology and natural phenomena to create sensorial experiences that emphasise the interconnectedness of material networks as a way of reconciling human behaviour with environmental over-extension. Hertel Velasco received her BFA from the University of Barcelona and her MA in Fine Arts from LASALLE Singapore, in partnership with Goldsmiths, University of London. Her work has been featured in solo, duo, and group exhibitions, as well as in research residencies, across Europe and Asia, including Germany, Spain, Norway, Singapore, China, and Malaysia.
Wong Zi Hao is an artist, designer, researcher, and educator. He directs Superlative Futures, an art+design research agency that experiments with design in transdisciplinary ways to probe how cities and communities can better relate to neglected margins and the broken environment. In 2023, he received his PhD in Architecture at the National University of Singapore and has since developed his doctoral design-led research into his current artistic practice, probing neglect in the interstitial (and creatively fertile) margins of landscape and architecture, art and design. His work explores how critical care might look for these margins when neglect is speculatively undone.