With the increasing global concern about the impact of plastic waste on the marine environment, international and local efforts have been undertaken across different fields. During this talk, Singaporean visual artist Ernest Goh shares his thoughts on Ayer Ayer Project, a multi-faceted art project which combines art-making, public participation and social innovation to confront ocean plastic waste. He will discuss his recent collaborations and presentations in Singapore and Malaysia.

The talk will be moderated by Brack, a Singapore-based platform for socially-engaged artists in Southeast Asia. The discussion seeks to inspire interdisciplinary collaborations and collective action towards developing sustainable practices in Singapore and the region.

Learn more at the talk on 2 August, 12pm to 1 pm @ Temasek Shophouse. A confirmation email will be sent to all successful RSVPs by 1 August 2019.

About Ernest Goh

Founder and artist at Ayer Ayer Project, Ernest is a visual artist in natural history and wildlife, Ernest’s animal portraits have been published in The Fish Book (2011), Cocks (2013, republished as Chickens in the US in 2015), and The Gift Book (2014). He presented an exhibition, Breakfast at 8 Jungle at 9 (Objectifs – Centre for Photography and Film, Singapore, 2015), exploring the famed British explorer and naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace’s time in Singapore and the Asian region in the 1850s.

Ernest has received the Discernment Award at the ICON de Martell Cordon Bleu Awards, Singapore (2012) and the Sony World Photography Award (2013). He is also the creative director of The Animal Book Co., an independent outfit that works with animal welfare groups through art and design. In 2019, Ernest founded Ayer Ayer, an ecologically-engaged art project that reaches out to communities through visual, experiential and participatory artworks.

Previously a photojournalist with The Straits Times, Ernest has freelanced for wire agencies and international publications such as Smithsonian and Monocle. His documentary work has been published in Beyond Masks (2004), a book documenting the experiences of healthcare workers inside Singapore’s largest hospital during the SARS outbreak, and in the multimedia piece Altered Land (2009), which showcased his four-year documentation of the aftermath of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami in Aceh, Indonesia. www.theanimalbook.com

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