Coinciding with the open house activities that have kicked off the year at Singapore’s Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (NAFA) is an exhibition of work by lecturers, tutors and technicians at the academy’s Department of 3D Design.

Simple Pleasures showcases over 30 works by more than half of the department’s staff, and highlights each of the 6 disciplines taught – environmental, exhibition, interior, furniture, jewellery and object design.

This is the first staff exhibition for the department, and one of its chief goals is to demonstrate the capabilities of the staff. Savvy students will no doubt scrutinise it carefully.

Here we look at a selection of the exhibited work.

Time & Space (from clockworks series) by Yong Jieyu

Yong Jieyu investigated the hypnotic perpetuity of clocks and their relationship with our transient existence with the timepiece Time & Space (from clockworks series). It transforms time from a number to a motion.

Material Experimentation by Tjiang Supertini Yuwono

Tjiang Supertini Yuwono presented a woven leather lamp as well as process materials in a display titled Material Experimentation. Incorporating aspects of traditional Indonesian basket weaving and investigating the effects of boiling the leather, Supertini’s lamp investigates history and dogma through material manipulation. It was produced through Air Division’s ‘Project VS’.

Assunta chair by Lanzavecchia + Wai

Hunn Wai, the Singapore-based half of design duo Lanzavecchia + Wai, exhibited the Assunta chair – part of a collection of furniture and objects by Lanzavecchia + Wai for the ageing population. Read our recent profile on Lanzavecchia + Wai here. 

’Swinging sisters’ #1 candelabra by Sabrina Long

Department head Sabrina Long presented ‘Swinging sisters’ #1 candelabra – a balancing composition of brass, aluminium and mild steel, and an elegant exploration of motion, material and time. 

Other work that captured our attention includes:

The Only Gum – a stainless steel sculpture by Baet Yeok Kuan

The End is the Beginning – plated silver sculptures by Karen Chan

Eroded Pain – oxidised copper sculpture by Jacquelina Heng Soo Ai

After Summer (detail) – porcelain painting by Ang Chiat

Chair for Day Dreamers by Jason Ong

Top image: Itty Bitty rocking stool by Melvin Ong

Catch Simple Pleasures at NAFA Galleries 1 and 2, NAFA Campus 1 (80 Bencoolen Street, Singapore) until 20 January 2013.

Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts
nafa.edu.sg