Cases are rising in Singapore, my home of many years and in many ways a place I feel deeply connected to. Of the 614 new cases overnight ONLY 4 were Singaporean or Permanent Resident. So that means the rest are foreign workers. This is not a new problem. Here is a work I made about a Burmese worker who lost the sight in one eye in 2016 due to bad living and working conditions in Singapore, toiling on the Tuas boats:
Read MorePress Release: A Desire for Closeness, solo exhibition, Jan 2020
Artist invites anyone feeling lonely to write to her & creates an exhibition about isolated communities in the epidemic of loneliness
Read MoreCommission an outdoor public sculpture - Stainless steel Hebrew text sculpture, Colorado, 2019
I was so happy to screen this video at the opening ceremony of this sculpture in October that I wanted to share it here on the blog: Some insight from me on how it was made and a time-lapse:
This video is about a public sculpture, 'The opposite of Love is Indifference', 2019, by artist Nicola Anthony. 'The Opposite of Love is Indifference' was sponsored by Melinda Goldrich GOLDRICH FAMILY FOUNDATION, and is a sculpture created for Chabad Jewish Community Centre in Aspen, and their community. Filming by Allen Kiely Music credit: Ether by Silent Partner from YouTube Audio Library
An Anthology of Displacement
My work tells the stories of people who live life on the border - be that the edge of a geography, an identity, or even time. For this series, I invited personal stories from migrants and newcomers who have crossed physical and mental borders.
Read MoreA new sound artwork: 'We are all Connected', 2019
At the recent ‘New Voices of Ireland’ exhibition, I launched a new sound artwork, heard through the crackling analogue speaker of an old-fashioned telephone.
Read MoreLook-back to 2018: Secretariat Residency in Myanmar
Lookback to 2018: This video documents the making of work during the mini-residency at the Secretariat Building of Yangon, Myanmar. With artists Nicola Anthony and Marc Nair.
Read MoreThe Artist as a migrant: From one Island to another
I feel it is time to share the reason why I make the work I do, to tell you a bit about my personal transcultural background. This is not written on my ‘artist bio’, but it is the thing that leads me to delve into the sometimes sensitive topics which I explore through art.
Read More'The Journey of Our Parallel Lives' at The Lightbox
‘The Journey of Our Parallel Lives’ is one of three new artworks of mine which will be on display at The Lightbox in Woking, UK as part of the Royal Society of Sculptors’ exhibition: Parallel Lines: Drawing and Sculpture. The piece was made in response to Kenneth Armitage’s artwork ‘Walking Group’. It will also be exhibited alongside Armitage’s piece as well as works by other great masters such as Dame Barbara Hepworth, Sir Anthony Caro, John Behan, Michael Ayrton, Lynn Chadwick, Eduardo Paolozzi.
Read More'Saving Our Souls' at The Lightbox
‘Saving our Souls’ is one of three new artworks of mine which will be on display at The Lightbox in Woking, UK as part of the Royal Society of Sculptors’ exhibition: Parallel Lines: Drawing and Sculpture. The piece was made in response to John Behan’s work Ghost Boat. It will also be exhibited alongside Behan’s piece as well as works by other great masters such as Dame Barbara Hepworth, Sir Anthony Caro, Lynn Chadwick, Eduardo Paolozzi, Michael Ayrton, and kenneth Armitage.
Read More'Maze Fragment' at The Lightbox
‘Maze Fragment’ is one of three new artworks which will be on display at The Lightbox in Woking, UK as part of the Royal Society of Sculptors’ exhibition: Parallel Lines: Drawing and Sculpture. The piece was made in response to Michael Ayrton’s sculpture ‘Maze Music’. It will also be exhibited alongside Ayrton’s piece as well as works by other great masters such as Dame Barbara Hepworth, Sir Anthony Caro, Lynn Chadwick, John Behan, Eduardo Paolozzi, and kenneth Armitage.
Read MoreLookback: Two artworks about 'home'.
Here, Nicola shares some thoughts on the works she has created for EXPARTE, an exhibition curated by curator collective Something Human in London, 2015. Discussing themes of language, text and journey, she describes her interactive artwork ‘Six Thousand Moments’ and her piece ‘Constellation’.
Read MoreRice by Eva - Inspired writing - Clockwork Moons
Carpe Art Journal features fiction, essays, reviews and personal anecdotes about art. The essay ‘Rice’ by Eva Wong Nava was inspired by one of the artworks in Nicola Anthony’s Clockwork Moon’s series. Clockwork Moons (Time Waits for No Migrant Man) triggered a childhood memory of loss and enlightenment prompting Eva to write this beautiful story. The story was nominated for the Pushcart Prize in 2018 by the Editor of Ariel Chart Magazine.
Read MoreIntersection, Yangon Exhibition
Intersection was an exhibition of poetry and visual art by Singaporean poet Marc Nair and visual artist Nicola Anthony. The work maps an architecture of memory at the junction of three diverse cities: Yangon, London, and Singapore.
Read MoreSecretariat Mini-Residency and Photo-box
From this one-day residency the piece “a staircase leads to the defined place for making art” was produced. The piece was a photo-box documenting the interventions in Secretariat. The box was made by a local Yangon man in the market square and includes a site specific poem written by Marc Nair.
Read MoreBurning and weaving: Time-lapse of installation artwork
This video is about Area Clearance - an installation artwork made in 2018, paired with a poem of the same name by Marc Nair. The artwork and poem tackle the subject of genocide of the Rohingya tribe in Myanmar, featuring burned paper, prayer leaves, ash and coal to make an archway which visitors can step into. Showcased at Myanm/art Gallery, Yangon, in collaboration with Intersections Gallery Singapore.
Read MoreVideo: The making of a public sculpture
The sculpture unveiling in 2018 coincided with the dedication ceremony for the USC Shoah Foundation’s new home at Leavey Library at University of Southern California in Los Angeles. The artwork features the life story of Jona Goldrich, a holocaust survivor who escaped from Poland during WW2. Jona’s testimony has been sculpted into an artwork.
Read MoreThe Artist's Year: A timecapsule of 2018
Video: New public sculpture unveiled in Los Angeles
Remembering our Father's Words, a public artwork by Nicola Anthony, 2018
A permanent sculpture on public view at USC Shoah Foundation, Leavey Library, Los Angeles, USA.
Read MoreUNEXPECTED HAPPINESS
In my research over the years I have spoken to many individuals who have generously shared their stories for me to retell in sculptural form. One thing I observed from these humbling conversations is that those I spoke to who had the most difficult and challenging stories to tell, also expressed the purest sense of happiness and joy. It will always remain unknown how happy we all are relative to each other, but I certainly get a sense that those who found happiness after struggle were the ones who recognised, appreciated and basked in that joy the most - even if it was just a fleeting moment.
Read MoreSaung featured in Artwork Focus
Suspended in mid-air, three delicate paper sculptures strike an ethereal image with intricate shadows cast on the wall behind. Boat-like in shape, with strings attached from the body to the elegantly curved neck, Humming History, Paper Notes, and Arpeggio by artist Nicola Anthony take as their inspiration the traditional court instrument of Burma (as Myanmar was known in ancient times): the saung, a harp carved from the root of a tree and strung with silk.
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