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National Gallery Singapore Unveils Boundary-Pushing OUTBOUND Art Commissions for 2025
Singapore, June 19, 2025 – The National Gallery Singapore is set to redefine its architectural narrative with the latest installment of its acclaimed OUTBOUND program. This initiative, celebrated since 2018, commissions artists to create site-specific artworks that engage with the museum’s entrances and circulation spaces, fostering critical reflection and playful curiosity. This year’s OUTBOUND commissions feature ambitious works by Vietnam-based art collective Art Labor and London-based artist duo Vong Phaophanit and Claire Oboussier.
Art Labor’s “Cloud wind”: A Multi-Sensory Installation
From January through november 2025, visitors can experience Cloud wind, Art Labor’s multi-floor installation. This immersive artwork incorporates conventional Jrai wood sculptures at street level, suspended pillars evocative of peppercorn farming structures, and hammocks inviting repose in the museum’s basement.
Developed in collaboration with vn-a (visual network art and architecture), an architecture studio with bases in Da Lat, Vietnam, and Berlin, Germany, and also featuring the contribution of Jrai artists Puih Glơh, Romah Aleo, Rahlan loh, Rcham Jeh, Siu Kin, Puih Han, Siu Lon and Siu Huel, Cloud wind represents the culmination of nearly a decade of Art Labor’s collaborative work with the Jrai community. It is the third major installment in their research-driven series,following Jrai Dew and JUA.
Echoes of the Central Highlands
The installation powerfully evokes the transformations of the central Highlands, shaped by environmental extraction rooted in colonization, war, and economic development. Since the 1980s, the rise of industrial farming, particularly of pepper, has dramatically reshaped the landscape.
Designed in partnership with vn-a, the suspended pillars mimic a cloud descending on the museum, showering down a simulacrum of brutalist cement columns and agricultural tools. This sculptural intervention effectively transplants a hillside into the space between the National Gallery Singapore’s two iconic colonial-era buildings: the former City Hall (opened in 1929) and the Supreme Court (opened in 1939).
Drawing inspiration from Jrai cosmology, the piece incorporates the Jrai concept of “Angin,” representing the dynamic potential for change inherent in the natural elements of water and air. Cloud wind, presented within the ancient seats of colonial and national power, champions a diverse interpretation of art history through a radical museum intervention.
Vong phaophanit and Claire Oboussier’s “eidolon”: An Exploration of Perception
Launched in April 2025 within the City Hall Courtyard, Vong Phaophanit and Claire Oboussier present Eidolon, a work that intricately balances the abstract and the tangible. Set against the skylight, Eidolon comprises two parallel rows of beaded link-chains stretching between opposite corners.
These metallic chains, despite their industrial nature, form a delicate asymmetrical screen, subtly dividing the space. Intended as an extension of the courtyard’s interior, the work defies easy categorization; it is indeed neither a conventional hanging mobile nor a traditional suspended sculpture.
The artists draw upon the worldwide symbolism of beads, used throughout history for adornment, prayer, and trade. In Eidolon, these beads suggest connections that transcend linguistic and cultural boundaries.
The title, derived from the Greek word for “phantom,” alludes to the intangible, while its root, “eidos,” meaning “that which is seen,” implies presence.
The work functions as a veil or mirage, existing between suggestion and visibility. The overlapping vertical lines create a moiré effect, producing a dynamic visual experience that shifts between transparency and opacity, lightness and density. Eidolon encourages viewers to move and explore its elusive materiality and presence.
Through this installation, the symmetries of the building’s neoclassical lines remain visible, albeit gently diffused. As a counterpoint to the space’s layered histories-serving as a museum, a municipal building, and a private residence across different eras-Eidolon directs attention to both the visible and the hidden, inviting a renewed experience of the space.
Exhibition Details & Public Programs
The two commissions will be complemented by public programs extending until March 2026.
Here’s a rapid comparison of the two OUTBOUND commissions:
