In our time of conflict and uncertainty, one of the lines of enquiry in contemporary art is a retreat from the horrors of our social-political realities into an inner world of dreams and the fantastic. Yet this trajectory is no simple escape from life. The Chinese literati sages of old who retreated to the mountains were not merely escaping but seeking a way to live, navigate or even better the tumultuous times in which they found themselves. The dream-like worlds created by contemporary artists are also ways in which the rich repertoire of visual iconography in Asia is cleverly deployed to critique the current social-political fractures in oblique and suggestive ways beyond polemical positions. This exhibition, drawing upon visually arresting and unusual works of Asian contemporary art from Singapore- based collections demonstrates the depth and risk-taking among private collectors based in Singapore today.