Review: Entanglement: the Ambivalence of Identity

‘Entanglement: the Ambivalence of Identity’ is an exploration into belonging, affiliation, and identity. The five artists – Simon Fujiwara, Anthony Key, Dave Lewis, Nina Mangalanayagam and Navin Rawanchaikul – all have the same starting point; their own biographies. But, their approaches to these concepts, as well as the ways in which they communicate their findings thereafter, are radically different.

For one, the exhibition is made up of a wide range of diverse media, ranging from photography, painting, and sculpture, to appropriated objects, video art, and even a spoof TV show. Furthermore, each artist, through their chosen medium, examines a different dimension of identity from their peers: Key, for instance, plays with perceptions and stereotypes; Lewis takes his lead from science; Mangalanayagam investigates the role of body language and its relation to the spoken word; Rawanchaikul explores ideas of collaboration; while Fujiwara delves into cross-cultural confusion.

Both artistically and intellectually, this is a wide-ranging exhibition, drawing our attentions to the bewildering intricacies of identity construction in an environment of constant change, whether in terms of time, politics or place.

[Review by Olivia Mull]