Guest curated by Samantha Yap, Time Passes is conceived as a corridor of time that echoes the indeterminate passage of our days as we navigate through the pandemic that is still to pass, and the detritus it will leave behind. Its title references the middle chapter in Virginia Woolf’s novel To the Lighthouse that captures a movement in time and feeling.

Conceptualised during this necessary time apart, this exhibition stages our return to one another and to shared public spaces. It recognises the lingering tenderness of our collective time apart and our time now, together but still apart. The works in the exhibition manifest acts of caretaking through the handling of different materials, and the commitment towards uncovering possibilities of living and relating even through difficulty and uncertainty.

Time Passes is part of Proposals for Novel Ways of Being, a collective response by the visual arts community to the global pandemic.

Divaagar, Render Tender (installation), 2020. Image courtesy of Singapore Art Museum.