Rock and ?

What happens when an ancient craft steps out of the margins and into the centre of contemporary artistic practice? Chinese stone seals typically occupy the margins as a stamp of authorship or official mark when an artist or calligrapher signs off on a masterpiece. Yet the seals themselves possess a layered complexity and capacity for poeticism that deserves further attention.

Bringing together the work of two artists Michelle JN Lim and Tan Seow Wei, Rock and ? seeks to foreground the seal. Lim and Tan take the seal as a primary creative force in their mixed media works, incorporating seal imprints into collage, printmaking, painting and fibre arts in loose, experimental ways. In doing so, they take an art form that has historically occupied the margins of calligraphy and painting into the spotlight, and show that seal carving has potential as a living, experimental language.