Tiffany Singh
Creating a practice that sits somewhere between fine art and spiritual healing, Tiffany Singh is interested as much in making beautiful art as she is in the transformative qualities of her work. Working primarily as an installation artist, Singh has built a reputation on inviting audiences to participate and contribute to her work; a process that she explains brings her work into full realization.
Singh, who is of Maori, Indian and Samoan ancestry, has produced a variety of spaces within the gallery setting for audiences to partake in an alternate consciousness. In each instance, Singh conveys an element of humility when it comes to creating art intended for the benefit of others’ personal well-being.
Her practice continues to draw inspiration from her travels throughout India and Nepal, including her time spent studying Theravada and Mahayana Buddhism in Nepal, as well as the Essence of Religious Philosophy at The School of Spiritual Intelligence in the Northern Himalayan region of India. In 2005 she volunteered in Indian communities, using art as an empowering activity with children such as painting bright colours upon slum walls together. This experience made an impact on her practice and encouraged her to continue using creativity as vehicle for facilitating and empowering individuals.
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What colour is the sacred? |
Upon returning to NZ her exhibition What Colour Is The Sacred? (2010) unleashed a dialogue of exchange and co-authorship as key elements of the art work. By allowing audience members to exchange an item of their own for one of her wax effigies, she announced the arrival of art-as-conversation upon the local art scene. Her next exhibition Newton and the Piece Bomb (2010) allowed the colours of chakra to explode through a static, pristine gallery space as visitors were invited to activate the art work by dropping a spectrum of hanging vessels to the floor.
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Tiffany Singh, 'Knowing you, knowing me' |
While individuals bring the work to life, eventually the work itself contains enough borrowed energy to become active on its own. Einstein Was a Buddhist (2011) re-used materials from the previous exhibition at Artspace, echoing both an ethics of sustainability, as well as the Eastern philosophy of the cyclical nature of life. Those who had engaged with her work at Newton and the Piece Bomb had effectively transferred their energy to the work, sparking a continuous cycle of renewal and transfer. Keeping this energy alive and moving, the work was then transferred from Govett-Brewster to Parihaka marae with local iwi.
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| 'Einstein Was A Buddist', 2011 |
Her use of objects which traverse the religious-ordinary boundary, such as salt, rice, lentils, and flower petals, creates a sense of ‘everyday sacred’ in her work; inspired by the everyday practice of spirituality encountered in India. Knock on the Sky Listen to the Sound (2011) contained a series of spaces in different locations adorned with bamboo wind chimes; some for meditation, some for taking home in guardianship, some for evoking a monastery-like atmosphere. The multiplicity of space in her installations invites a sense of openness so that it is not so much about the objects on display but the space between; an openness to allow things to happen without too much control.
The future is bright for Singh, with a residency in Samoa, as well as exhibiting at the Contemporary Asian Art Biennal in Taiwan at the end of 2011. During that time her work will also exhibit in Aotearoa at the Papakura Art Gallery as part of The Southside Festival. She has also been awarded the Lucas Arts Residency in California for 2013.
If you would like to see more of Tiffany's work please visit her website here.
Represented by Melanie Roger Gallery