Alexandre Singh - The Verification of Mono-ha

Text and images by Chen Chi-Hsiang. From April 22 to June 19 at the Palais de Tokyo. During major renovations, the Palais de Tokyo operated with reduced space but continued its small exhibition area near the entrance. It regularly hosts solo exhibitions by emerging artists in the darkroom space, focusing on exploratory works centered on contemporary objects, environments, spatial, and sound installations.

Alexandre Singh (born 1980), an emerging artist from New York, USA, creates a unique perspective through intellectual argumentation regarding everyday consumer society objects. He pioneers an approach spanning object, sound, theater, and conceptual art, presenting works via spatial object installations and vocal readings that resemble an ironic archaeology of intellectual phenomena between reality and imagination, virtuality and truth.

In this solo exhibition "The Verification of Mono-ha," the darkroom is arranged as a square theater. A series of everyday objects are displayed on white pedestals above: a toaster, a bottle of Javel bleach, two cassette players (one square, one long), a white sculpture composed of triangles of varying sizes, and an oval chain toy, among others. Platforms with chairs are placed in the four corners for the audience to sit and watch, with speakers hidden underneath. The audience frequently hears readings discussing the verification of the relationship between these objects, art, and culture. Amidst the rhythmic cadence of the voices, it resembles Molière’s emotionally charged theater or evokes the psychological cinematic scenes of Woody Allen.