Fashion On Display: 204 Days /
Fashion On Display: 204 Days /
Conceived as a year-long curatorial experiment, Fashion On Display opened a fashion gallery in a 300 sq ft mezzanine unit in Heng Loong Building, an industrial property located in Bukit Batok. Since its opening in May 2022, it has staged four fashion exhibitions, each exploring a different facet of fashion and everyday dress with various collaborators from the local fashion community.
With a lease beginning on 20 February 2022 and ending on 20 February 2023, the temporary nature of Fashion On Display has been central to what the gallery has produced curatorially. By working closely with fashion practitioners, every exhibition at Fashion On Display has been exclusively dedicated to the exploration of fashion and dress. Each show also set out to challenge an aspect of fashion curation — such as by spotlighting under-explored narratives of fashion; relying on alternative sources of dress objects; and employing low-budget, experimental ways of displaying dress.
Fashion On Display: 204 Days is a summative showcase of the gallery’s past four fashion exhibitions: Dressing for the Dream Space, The Soul of Things, CAPSULE 2009, and Fitting In. Featuring objects, ephemera, and zines from these four exhibitions, the gallery has been set up as part-workspace, part-exhibition to recap the curatorial activities of this year-long experiment. In this final programme of Fashion On Display, visitors are invited to revisit their experiences of the gallery’s exhibitions, and share their hopes for future independent fashion spaces in Singapore.
Programmes
Curator’s Tours
28 January, Saturday, 2PM - 3PM
4 February, Saturday, 3:30PM - 4:30PM
11 February, Saturday, 2PM - 3PM
Join fashion writer and curator Weiqi Yap for a tour of Fashion On Display: 204 Days, a summative showcase recapping the four fashion exhibitions staged in its past year of operations: Dressing for the Dream Space, The Soul of Things, CAPSULE 2009, and Fitting In. In this final programme of Fashion On Display, Weiqi will share the process and challenges of independent fashion exhibition-making, alongside a selection of objects, ephemera, and publications from the gallery's past exhibitions.
Free admission. Drop-ins welcome.
Panel Discussion: The Value of Independent Fashion Spaces
4 February, Saturday, 2PM - 3PM
What is the value of an independent fashion space? What might our ideal fashion space in Singapore look like? Join two of Fashion On Display’s collaborators, fashion researchers and educators Angelene Wong (The Soul of Things, 19 Aug – 3 Sep 2022) and Daniela Monasterios Tan (CAPSULE 2009, 30 Sep – 23 Oct 2022) alongside fashion writer and curator Weiqi Yap as they explore the intersections of fashion research and their respective creative practices; and the value of interdisciplinary collaboration and independent fashion spaces.
Free admission.
In Conversation: Fashion Image-Making in Singapore
11 February, Saturday, 1PM - 2PM
As an image-making industry, fashion often straddles commerce and creativity. Fashion images are often complex in the ways they reinforce or challenge ideas of fashionability. In the context of Singapore's fashion media landscape, how might fashion photography push the boundaries of what we deem fashionable and desirable? Fashion photography has long played an integral role in the visual representation of fashion, yet explorations of this unique genre has remained relatively unexplored in a Singaporean context. Join fashion photographer Ethan Lai and fashion curator Weiqi Yap as they chat about Ethan's photographic practice and the role of fashion image-making in Singaporean fashion media.
Free admission.