Synopsis

The Strange Archive presents speculative artworks that reimagine the archive as a living, contested space rather than a static repository. To make strange is to see again: here, the archive signals a site of care, continuity, and labour that remains porous and reflexive, shaped by omission and desire. This first iteration, developed for ArtWeek 2026 at Tanjong Pagar Distripark, lays the groundwork for a long-term curatorial and research platform exploring how forgotten stories, unrealised projects, and obscured memories may be reactivated through exhibition making.

Public Programmes

The public programmes accompanying The Strange Archive invite audiences to engage directly with the exhibition’s central questions about memory, erasure, speculation, and the politics and art of archiving.

Exhibition Opening
17 January 2026 · 6:00 PM
Celebrate the launch of The Strange Archive, where archives are reimagined as living, evolving spaces shaped by memory, omission, and speculation.

Drawing Dialogues: Stories of Decay
18 January 2026 · 9:00 AM – 12:00 PM · Labrador Park · Meeting Point: Labrador Park MRT Exit A
Free Admission · Registration Required · Registration: tinyurl.com/storiesofdecay

Follow IG @thestrangearchive.sg for updates

Gather at Labrador Park for a guided walk led by Superlative Futures (Dr. Wong Zi Hao and Liu Dian Cong) through Berlayer Creek, an ecosystem where decay, decomposition, and regeneration take place in quiet cycles. Participants will return by bus to Tanjong Pagar Distripark to create drawings and short written reflections inspired by their observations. Open to participants of all experience levels.

Curator’s Tour: Making The Archive Strange

18 & 25 January 2026 · 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM
Join curator Adrian Tan and artists to uncover stories, omissions, and speculative reimaginings behind the works.

Panel Discussion: Art, Archives & Speculative Futures
24 January 2026 · 2:00 PM – 4:00 PM
Artists, historians, and archivists discuss how reimagining archives opens new ways of understanding the past and imagining the future.

Artist Dialogue: Singapore Art Archive Project
25 January 2026 · 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM
Artist-archivist Koh Nguang How shares insights into Chua Mia Tee’s National Language Class and Lee Boon Wan’s Portrait of a Lady, reflecting on his archival practice and the process of identifying the central figure that connects both paintings.

UOB

12 Jan 2026 to 31 Mar 2026

Free admission

Presenting "Reimagined Realities", the first solo exhibition by Ezra Chan - a Singaporean interdisciplinary artist who reimagines everyday environments into richly layered visual narratives.

The Columns Gallery Singapore

20 Jan 2026 to 31 Jan 2026

Free admission

The Columns Gallery Singapore presents Isang Dipang Langit: Fragments of Memory, Fields of Now, showcasing a myriad of contemporary Filipino artists exploring the boundaries between memory, place, and identity.

Singapore Art Museum

16 Jan 2026 to 18 May 2026

Free during Singapore Art Week

Material Intelligence returns with Bagus Pandega and Elia Nurvista, whose works explore Indonesia's extractive economies, plantations, mining, and electric futures while envisioning uncertain tomorrows shaped by materials bound to them.
Exhibition

Padimai Art & Tech Studio

19 Nov 2025 to 1 Apr 2026

Free admission

Your View Matter is a VR artwork exploring Platonic solids and a sphere through immersive, shifting moiré patterns and sound, responsive to viewers' movements, blending digital space with perception.