Big towers: Joanna Piotrowska, Francesco Simeti, Bedwyr Williams

Big towers, the first exhibition at ICA Singapore by newly appointed curator Caterina Riva, addresses her encounter with another geography and context, where expectations, regulations, fears and dreams call for a readjustment. It presents the works of three artists from Europe: Joanna Piotrowska, Francesco Simeti and Bedwyr Williams. 

Joanna Piotrowska’s black and white photographs portray women alone in their homes surrounded by treasured possessions. Books, clothes and pieces of furniture are arranged in a stack at Piotrowska’s invitation. Each protagonist shapes their temporary structure differently and it might resemble a fort, an oasis or a tent. The artist’s camera captures and makes visible a psychological as well as a physical space.

Francesco Simeti’s Curtain, a tactile backdrop to the exhibition, ­interweaves histories of art from East and West while providing an iconographic compendium of painting, sculpture and photography.

In the video animation Tyrrau mawr [Big towers] Bedwyr Williams imagines a city founded on rapid development, verticality and technology, not unlike Singapore. In his voice-over Williams recounts the stories of some of the inhabitants—an architect, a poet, a tradesman—of this imaginary city.

Caterina Riva co-founded FormContent, a curatorial project space born in London in 2007. She was director and curator of Artspace NZ in Auckland (2011–14). In recent years she has been thinking about new models of being and working as a curator through residencies, articles, exhibitions and grant applications. 

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Cover image: Bedwyr Williams, Tyrrau Mawr, 2016. © Courtesy the artist