Grace Tan begins artist residency at CQT

Artist Grace Tan giving a talk at CQT to introduce her work. She begins a four-month residency at the Centre in September.

In September, CQT welcomed multidisciplinary artist Grace Tan as Artist-in-Residence. Grace is the second artist to begin a four-month residency at CQT this year after artist Wong Zi Hao, who finished his residency in July. During her residency, Grace will develop a public art proposal that speaks to the Centre’s research and ambition, which could be commissioned for display at CQT.

Grace has a background in fashion design. When she started her own practice, kwodrent, in 2003, she explored how to transform rectangular patterns of fabrics to wearable pieces. She then progressed to working with paper, and later on, to materials including Carrara marble, calcium carbonate, and loose pigments as sculpting materials. Some of Grace’s works also reference scientific concepts and structures. For example, n. 357 – critical point (indigo) demonstrates the concept of self-organised criticality while n. 332 - Bach, Mobius, and a Mad Tea-Party takes inspiration from the non-orientable surface of the Mobius strip.

She has also worked on large public art commissions in Singapore. These include Woven Field (2015) at Downtown Line Little India Station, GROUND (2015), an art connector that brings the public to Singapore’s old Supreme Court and former City Hall, now the National Gallery, and State of Equilibrium (2018) at Raffles City.

On 13 September, Grace gave a short talk at CQT to introduce herself and her work. During the talk, open to all CQTians, Grace said that a unifying theme across her works is materiality and construction, and a presence of structure.

Artist-in-Residence Grace Tan and NUS Museum curator Karen Lim went on a tour of Principal Investigator Yvonne Gao’s lab.

The talk was followed by a visit to the lab of Principal Investigator Yvonne Gao. Yvonne’s group has a research focus on developing modular quantum devices using superconducting circuits. In the weeks ahead, Grace will also visit the labs of other CQT research groups and meet with theorists to explore quantum concepts.

CQT’s Artist-in-Residence programme is organised in collaboration with NUS Museum under the NUS Public Art Initiative, which was launched in 2021. The Initiative manages and develops public art on the University campus, engages in interdisciplinary collaborations and learning, and runs internships for students.

NUS Museum curator Karen Lim, Secretariat of the NUS Public Art Committee co-designed the Artist-in-Residence (AiR) programme for CQT and participated in selection of the artists. Karen collaborates closely with artists in the AiR programme. Likewise, she will work closely with Grace throughout her residency to support her research and idea development.

Zi Hao, CQT’s last Artist-in-Residence, presented his art concept on Seeing+Sensing Fragility in July 2022. Inspired by how quantum physicists use “light as optical aids to visualise the ephemeral and fleeting presence of atoms within a material”, Zi Hao’s proposed artwork explored what it means to see fragility. His art concept was accepted by CQT to be further developed into a public artwork in 2023.