As someone who’s always gravitated toward art with “tangible” ideas and themes – concepts I could easily grasp and identify – I’ll admit I walked into Suzann Victor’s Constellations with a bit of scepticism. Contemporary art, especially the more abstract variety, is something I’m still new to. But when I was met with over 20 meticulously crafted works in this exhibition, I could not help but pause and rethink my bias.
Constellations showcases Victor’s latest works from her 2022 and 2024 residencies at the STPI Creative Workshop, and I was lucky enough to have Suzann Victor herself lead my tour, eloquently walking us through the nuances of her art. Her exploration of human perception, sensory experiences, and natural phenomena was poetically detailed through her command over materials like glass, light, and even movement.
And I love how this exhibit invited audience participation! The artworks changed based on our movements/actions (which I’ll dive into in a bit), with shadows lengthening, contracting, and patterns of light reflecting. It was a tactile experience that challenged how I perceive space – something I think we need as digitally mediated experiences continue to take over our lives.
So, as someone who once shied away from abstract art, let me take you on my journey through this exhibition.
Constellations

“Art has the power to reorganize our perception and consciousness.” The first line that Suzann Victor opened the tour with became the backbone of her exhibition, as she walked us through how she employed absence and visibility to create a proliferating presence.
Because transparency isn’t emptiness; it’s a form of absence that conducts visibility, which Victor called “stories within stories within stories.” And Victor invited us, the audience, to co-author the work. I didn’t understand what she meant by this at first, but the concept became crystal clear as the tour progressed.
This is how Constellations taught us to recognise the different dimensions that exist within us and around us.
The Kinetics of Light
In the first section, using transparent acrylic discs, Victor demonstrated how light can be used to manipulate how the works are reflected on surrounding surfaces. It was surreal watching the painted modular discs cast coloured shadows alongside these light prints in fractal forms, creating patterns that resembled features that exist in the natural world – like mycelium, mangroves, and lightning.

Victor’s approach rendered the acrylic discs more than mere surfaces – they magnified overlooked elements, reminding us of the infinite connections between the seen and the unseen.
By shining a flashlight on the works, I discovered the kinetic nature of the art. With each angle of the light, the piece seemed to shift with new reflections and shadows. And just like that, I was no longer just a viewer – but a co-author, as Victor intended.
One work that stood out to me was The Image Stammers I. At first glance, it was nearly invisible, blending into the room as though hiding. But when I shone my light on it, the surface tension came alive, forming secondary prints that danced across the walls. It was like magic.
And with the added blue pigment on Fractally Yours, the discs responded to the light with an ethereal glow at certain angles. I couldn’t stop admiring how the torch in my hand kept shaping and reshaping the piece before my eyes!
Victor’s technique, called Tension-Printing, recalls the natural patterns of roots, lightning, and arterial networks. And as I admired the transient light prints on the walls, I realised that this was what grounded the works in the tangible and familiar, bridging the gap between the abstract and the physical.
In the Shadows

After playing with light and colour in the first section, Concrete Shadow was the flipside. Here, transparency gave way to its antithesis. The black-painted acrylic discs absorbed light rather than conducting it, and pulled me into a realm of shadows.
Standing at the end of what felt like a corridor of darkness, I was struck by the staggering shift in tone. Where the earlier works embraced light’s buoyancy, the Concrete Shadow works anchored the gallery in a shrouded stillness.
I felt compelled to slow down, to stop chasing any reflections or shadows and sit with the stillness. And I’m sure the placement of this section next to the first was a deliberate choice to guide not just our vision – but our emotions, too, through perception and experience.
A Dance Between Layers
As for the third section, ENIGMA – In Two Movements and Simulation I & II, it was all about playing tricks on the eyes. This time, Victor introduced mesh, a surface that can simultaneously reveal and obscure, depending on how you approached it.

Victor’s lithographs-on-mesh and lithographs-on-paper worked in tandem, with the two surfaces layered and separated by a few centimeters of space. At first glance, the interaction between the layers seemed subtle, but as I walked across them, the illusions took form.
From side angles, the back layers would vanish while the mesh became opaque, its colour becoming deeper and richer. I found this so fascinating! The mesh layer acted as a veil, with its tiny apertures – as one could call it – holding onto the pigment like they were pixels.

And then came this large structural piece! Victor shared the genesis of this work, how she had relinquished control and incorporated chance into its creation. She got the workshop technicians to push her around on a trolley while she wielded her brush, creating strokes decided by the trolley’s movements. And the result was this playful yet profound record of shared spontaneity! What an endearing origin story.
A Trace of History
Seeing Backwards was an intimate look into the roots of creation itself. Here, Victor flipped the traditional narrative of painting on its head – literally! By presenting the underside of a painted transparent disc, I witnessed the earliest gestures and processes that went into the work, privy to a creative stage that’s typically concealed.

The visible layers were born from both Victor’s spontaneous and hesitant decisions. They told a story of how painting is inherently archival, a medium that preserves proof of moments in time. The first few strokes on a blank canvas/surface are often the most unguarded, and Seeing Backwards laid them bare, in all their glory.
I realised that Victor’s choice to foreground the “back” of the artwork had a parallel with the human experience. Just as the disc revealed its origins, so too do our own histories inform who we are, even if they remain hidden beneath our outward impression. By making visible what is typically unseen, Victor revealed the beauty and significance of beginnings!
The Art of Movement and Return
Then there was a series of dynamic works. Cardinal, Propellor, Spin, and Vanish were products of interconnecting opaque and transparent acrylic discs. Designed to be spun, these pieces brought the exhibition’s exploration of light, shadow, opacity, and transparency into motion. Movement was integral to their essence, and they created a sense of open-endedness when they morphed into fluid shapes when spun.

But the most symbolic piece of all, to me at least, was Home. Configured into a cross, it portrayed the idea of finding stability amidst chaos. The piece could be spun from any end, and yet, through magnetic attraction, it always returned to its original position – its “home.”
This element of balance was a fitting metaphor for the exhibition as a whole. While art can challenge and shift perspectives, it can also ground us, offering a point of return even as it spins our perceptions.
My Takeaways

My biggest takeaway from this exhibition was how Victor challenged the notions of materiality, authorship, and the completion of art. Her approach to using multiple circular discs, with no predetermined arrangement or orientation, showed the remarkable trust she had in the process.
There was a kind of blindness to the outcome, or perhaps, as I like to think of it, a blissful ignorance. As if Victor allowed the works to take on a life of their own.
For me, this exhibition was a poignant lesson that art doesn’t just exist for us to consume passively – it exists for us to participate, reflect, and even “co-author” its meaning.
So, if you’ve got some time on your hands, why not spend it interacting with the works in Constellations? I can attest, you won’t regret gaining a new perspective of your surroundings!
Details
🗓️Date: 15 January to 2 March 2025
📍Location: STPI Creative Workshop and Gallery, 41 Robertson Quay, Singapore 238236
💲Price: Free admission
⏰Opening Hours: 10am to 7pm (Sundays: 11am to 5pm)
Curious for more? Check out the official STPI website and follow their socials on Instagram and Facebook. The world of art awaits you!
Photos by Kristen Ong of the DANAMIC team.