Threads and Tensions - Yeo Workshop

Threads and Tensions
Yeo Workshop presents a group exhibition featuring five international artists (Singapore, Indonesia,
Philippines, Brussels and America) working with textile: Cian Dayritt, Fyerool Darma, Maryanto,
Marcin Dudek and Cole Sternberg. In these works that are part of a wider chapter of the artists’
interests, fabric is painted on, treated, ornamented, dyed, collaged and embroidered suggesting
the possibilities of textiles beyond mere ornamentation or utility, deploying the medium as a tool of
resistance, reflection and rumination.

Fyerool Darma’s work constitutes a canny play on the methods and aesthetics of the local souvenir
t-shirts, his work a deliberate generative mis-readings questioning these textiles role within the
consumer trade. Articulated in Cian Dayritt’s counter-cartographic embroideries, often framed
by the realities of his native Philippines, are themes of colonization and its histories, the dark side
of globalization, and the use and misuse of power. Marcin Dudek’s practice is structured around
autobiography and subcultural customs, particularly football, and those reflections are here reified
in the highly haptic surface of a piece crafted from numerous layers of medical tape, fabric, football
scarves and photographic images. Maryanto’s installation, a painting which assumes the form of a
tent, transposes his engagement with themes of over-development and ecological degradation into
the precarious physicality of a temporary shelter. Cole Sternberg is represented in the show with
his signature abstract paintings which are layered fields of colour as well as a fictional constitution
from his latest series, The Free Republic of California, an exercise in the ideation of a political and
communal utopia.

Cian Dayrit
Neocolonial Landscape
2020
Embroidery on fabric
155.5 cm x 125 cm

Cian Dayrit
Tree of Death and Decay
2018
Embroidery on cloth
186 cm x 146 cm

Biography
Cian Dayrit (born 1989, Philippines) studied art at the University of the Philippines.

Cian Dayrit’s work investigates notions of power and identity as they are represented and reproduced
in monuments, museums, maps and other institutionalized media. They often respond to different
marginalized communities, encouraging a critical reflection on colonial and privileged perspectives.
His projects which combine archival references, protest imagery and grassroots counter-mapping
show how empire scored out the maps of the modern world, how its aftermath perpetuates industrial
development, and how alternative territories might be imagined from the ground-up. Informed by the
experience of colonialism from the perspective of the Philippines, Dayrit’s work nonetheless resists being
fixed to a specific position or location.

Dayrit studied painting at the University of the Philippines. He was a recipient of Ateneo Art Award in
2017 and Cultural Center of the Philippines Thirteen Artists Award in 2018.

Some solo and group exhibitions include “The Crack Begins Within”, Berlin Biennale (2020); “Beyond
the God’s Eye” at Nome, Berlin (2019); “Part of the Labyrinth”, Gothenburg Biennial (2019); “Allegories
of Nation-Building” at Kaida, Manila (2018); “A Beast, a God and a Line”, Dhaka Art Summit (2018);
“Songs for Sabotage”, New Museum Triennale, New York (2018); “Busis Ibat Ha Kanayunan (Voices
From The Hinterlands)” at Bellas Artes, Manila and Bataan (2017); “The Bla-Bla Archaeological
Complex” at U.P. Vargas Museum, Manila (2013).

Maryanto
Untitled
2016
Acrylic on Canvas
30 cm x 40 cm

Maryanto
On the ground under the trees
2020
Canvas
Dimensions Variable

Biography
Maryanto (b.1977, Indonesia) creates evocative, black and white paintings, drawings, and
installations that undermine the romantic language of traditional landscape painting to examine
socio-political structures in the physical spaces that he depicts. Through fable-like and theatrical
settings, these landscapes are subjected to the whims of colonisers and capitalists through
technological development, industrialisation, pollution of the land and exploitation of its natural
resources.

Maryanto graduated from the Faculty of Fine Art, Indonesia Institute of the Art, Yogyakarta in
2005, and completed a residency at the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam in 2013. Maryanto has
recently presented solo exhibitions at Yeo Workshop, Singapore (2017 and 2015); Art Basel
Hong Kong, Discoveries Section (2016); the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten, Amsterdam;
ArtAffairs, Amsterdam; and Heden, Denhaag (2013). He has also recently participated in notable
group exhibitions at the Koganei Art Spot Chateau, Tokyo (2018); the Samstag Museum of Art,
Adelaide; the Asia Culture Centre, Gwangju; the Bozar Centre for Fine Arts, Brussels (2017);
the Singapore Art Museum, Singapore (2015); and the Stedelijk Museum Bureau Amsterdam,
Amsterdam (2013). Maryanto has also been featured at international biennials such as the 2nd
Industrial Biennale, Labin, Croatia (2018); the Setouchi Triennale, Naoshima, Japan (2016); the
Jakarta and Jogja Biennales, Indonesia (2015); and the Moscow Biennale, Moscow, Russia
(2013). Maryanto lives and works in Yogyakarta.

Fyerool Darma
Swarga (with water view of Marina Bay Sands and Helix Bridge)
2021
Direct to garment on heavy cotton, resin, wood
23 cm x 30.5 cm

Fyerool Darma
Export us to Timezone (with the view of Singapore Flyer and fireworks)
2021
Dye sublimation print on polysynthetic cotton, resin, wood
23 cm x 30.5 cm

Fyerool Darma
Rukh (at Marina Bay Sands with Eagle, Merlion and flames)
2021
Direct to garment on heavy cotton, resin, wood
23 cm x 30.5 cm

Fyerool Darma
Lofi Sunset d’Palawan (overlooking Batam and The Principality of Madripoor)
2021
Dye sublimation print on cotton, resin, wood
23 cm x 30.5 cm

Fyerool Darma
Warp speed (over Marina Bay Sands and Art Science Museum)
2021
Direct to garment on heavy cotton, resin, wood
23 cm x 30.5 cm

Fyerool Darma
Playlist of lights (over the Supertree Grove, Central Business District with
tail of Merlion)
2021
Dye sublimation print on polysynthetic cotton, resin, wood
23 cm x 30.5 cm

obj
In these new series of works, ‘obj’, Fyerool catalogues scenes and imageries by looking through souvenir
t-shirts from Singapore. From direct-to-garment printing to dye sublimation printings, as methods used
for these products, these textiles were initially produced as objects of export or souvenirs. The author
of the design is unknown yet its production or its brand is. In this series, the imageries were exported
onto textiles and stretched like a painting and layers of resin is applied as a varnish.

Through these objects Fyerool enquires on the minimal gesture of the painter and what values do these
images found on souvenir t-shirts possibly mean as archive images, and what part does methods such
as direct-to-garment printing and dye sublimation printing represent to contemporary folk aesthetics
given its role within the consumer trade.

These series of works is part of an ongoing catalogue of objects for his upcoming individual presentation
in middle of 2021, Revs your Heart, Thank God We Live. The presentation is a continuation to his long-
term project ‘After Ballads’(2017- present).

Biography
Fyerool Darma continues to live and work in Singapore.

These object and material experimentations are based on an extensive visual vocabulary drawn from
popular culture, literature, the archives, the Internet and the artist’s own life.

He has presented his projects through group exhibitions such as As the West Slept, Silver Art Projects;
Transient Museum of a Thousand Conversation: LIR at ISCP (International Studio and Curatorial
Program), both in New York, United States; Lost and found: Imagining new worlds, Institute of
Contemporary Arts Singapore (all in 2019) and An Atlas of Mirrors, Singapore Biennale (2016), and
his long-term project After Ballads, NUS Museum, Singapore (2017-18).

He was Artist-in-Residence (1 October 2019 – 28 April 2020) at NTU - Centre of Contemporary Arts
where he presented Vivarium (wiifl∞w w/ l4if but t4k£ ø forms,

Marcin Dudek
Ultraskraina
2020
Acrylic paint, UV varnish on wood and aluminium, medical
tape, image transfer
160 cm x 20 cm

Ultraskraina
Built as a landscape, Marcin Dudek’s work Ultraskraina uses postcards and natural motifs to create a fictional
territory for ultras. ‘Kraina’ meaning ‘land’, Dudek maps out a region with sky, hills and water. Horizon lines
cover the top of the work, becoming thicker and thicker as they descend. This can be compared to spectators
on stadium bleachers, who appear larger and more in focus the lower they are. As we continue down the
work, figurative elements populate the canvas; rudimentary hooligan postcards, celebrating local teams.
These cards were often composed of four to eight images from the stadium, full of crowds and even smoke
or fire, glued together with text written upon them. Below, forms resembling hills are composed of small tape
dots and lines knitted together, as a flowing river of dots flows through just as a crowd pours into a stadium,
navigating its path to the stands.

The multitude of postcards attests to the production of memorabilia and the fetichism of objects. Fan culture,
whether idolising sports teams, bands or celebrities, can push us to plaster our living spaces in images,
showing our allegiance to our object of worship. Dudek expands each image with tape, working with the
grid of images as if on a jacquard loom, expanding and elaborating the patterns he was given. Vivid primary
colours act as a thermogram, showing the temperatures of bodies, emotions, and even the artwork. Splashes
of sky blue reveal themselves from behind the collage, as hits of deep red weave themselves through the
piece, reminiscent of blood or bruises. One can also notice sound waves on the upper right, as the artist
portrays a multi-sensorial experience through touch, sound, sight, and emotion. These various means of
perception create different ways of reading the piece: we can see the work as a thermal image, a map, a
soundscape, or all of them together, forming a topography of intensities.

Biography
Working within the areas of performance, installations, objects, and collages, Marcin Dudek creates situations
based on the confrontation between the world of violence and the world of art. Dudek’s objects touch upon
important questions regarding control, the hierarchy of power, and mechanisms ruling the release of violence
and aggression as seen from sociological, historical, and psychological standpoints.

After leaving Poland aged 21, he studied at the University Mozarteum, Salzburg and at Central Saint
Martins, London, graduating in 2005 and 2007 respectively. His work has been exhibited internationally at
institutions including the Moscow Museum of Modern Art, Salzburger Kunstverein (AT), the Arad Art Museum
(RO), Bunkier Sztuki Gallery in Krakow (PL), the Goethe-Institut Ukraine, and The Warehouse Dallas (US).
His installation “The Cathedral of Human Labor” (2013) is on permanent view at the Verbeke Foundation in
Belgium. In 2018, he presented a large installation at Manifesta 12 Palermo, which was followed by a solo
exhibition at the Wrocław Contemporary Museum. Current and upcoming exhibitions include the “Psychic
Wounds” at The Warehouse Dallas (US) curated by Gavin Delahunty and a group exhibition at 180 The
Strand/ Vinyl Factory, curated by OOF, London (UK).

Dudek lives and works in Brussels, Belgium.

Cole Sternberg
a hopeful moment behind the trees, avoiding their red
Mixed media on linen
2020
127 cm x 178 cm approx.

Cole Sternberg
entry into force of the paris agreement,
Ink on German etching paper
2020
35.6 cm x 27.9 cm
Edition of 3 + 1 AP

Biography
Cole Sternberg is a conceptual artist who lives and works in Los Angeles.

His practice contemplates humanity’s existential quandary: that of being hopelessly destructive, yet
forever and inevitably linked with nature. Through varied media (including painting, sculpture, installation,
performance, photography, film and writing), Sternberg positions the aspirations of humankind against
the dominant and regenerative forces of the environment and the arbitration of time. For the artist, the
conclusion is unavoidable. Human enterprises -- art, language, history, law, and republic -- are ephemeral
/ illusory endeavors that attempt to reflect, parallel, and challenge the ascendency of nature to no avail.
In recent years, Sternberg’s painting practice has centered on the environment acting as the true artist.
Some pieces have incorporated poetry, suggesting imprecise narratives or descriptions that can’t be
fully apprehended through words. His photographs interrupt time, while historical and cultural myths are
pursued and deconstructed in sculptural installations and film. These confrontations frequently materialize
in instances of erasure; erasure of marks and words, erasure of history, or the erasure of the natural
environment. Sternberg’s works remain subversive in their unremitting search for truth, noting humanity’s
attempts to create beautiful permanence while failing admirably.

Sternberg has exhibited nationally and internationally, including exhibitions at the American University
Museum (Washington, DC), El Segundo Museum of Art (El Segundo, CA), Hochhaus Hansa (a Ruhr.2010
Museum, Dortmund, Germany), There There (Los Angeles), Primary (Miami), David B. Smith Gallery
(Denver), Los Angeles Nomadic Division (LAND, Los Angeles), Paris Photo (Los Angeles), Zona Maco
(Mexico City), ArtBo (Bogota), Art Los Angeles Contemporary (ALAC), e105 Gallery (Berlin), LA>