Artist Talk: Intersections between art, culture and spirituality

Join Erzan Adam as he reflects and shares insights from his residency project, the risalah — prompted by his conversations and encounters with the invisible communities of Kampong Gelam. In his practice, he draws connections between art and various aspects of his cultural, spiritual and human identity.

The risalah (رسالة , meaning "message" in Arabic) serves as a pamphlet to document and compile the artist’s sketches and personal reflections, highlighting stories gleaned from his conversations with the isolated and marginalised, who go around unnoticed in Kampong Gelam. Referencing the Khutbah (Friday sermons), the artist distributed the risalah on the streets of Kampong Gelam, acting in solidarity with the community who makes a living by selling attars or objects on the streets, and inviting readers to reflect on how we can draw nearer to one another as a broader community.

Special thanks to Wardah Books for hosting us!

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Erzan Adam (b.1976, Singapore) is an artist and arts educator at LASALLE College of the Arts (Fine Arts). As an artist, he is interested in defining the self in the context of abstraction.

Centred around the neighbourhood — people, places, stories — as the unit of exhibition and representation, the Associate Artist Programme situates a group of artists within a neighbourhood, connecting them to local communities, businesses and historical places. The AAP serves as an alternative model and offers neighbourhood immersion, curatorial support and peer-to-peer dialogues. It does not expect any exhibitional outcome beyond a public-facing work-in-progress presentations or sharing sessions.

The first edition took place in the next art walk neighbourhood, Kampong Gelam for the period of 1 Sep 2022 to 31 Aug 2023 with 5 local and 3 international artists selected by an Advisory Committee.

For more information, please visit: https://ohopenhouse.org/AAP-2022

Wardah Books is a bookshop specialising in books on Islam in the English language. Operating in Kampong Gelam since the bookshop was founded in 2002, Wardah Books has steadily grown its inventory of books to over 2500 titles in categories ranging from Arts to Philosophy, Quranic studies to regional history, fiction to children's books. The bookshop takes an active role in reading promotion in the community and holds regular book clubs, reading sessions and author sessions. While many contemporary distractions disrupt the systematic pursuit of knowledge and steal away moments of quiet reading, they believe that the secret gift of reading is time.

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

Wardah Books, 58 Bussorah Street, Singapore, Singapore