A Kind of Magic

An exhibition by Juliana Tan
Curated by Ng Hui Hsien
30 May to 22 Jun 2025
Objectifs Lower Galleries

Opening: Fri 30 May 2025, 7pm – 9pm
Free admission

Related events
Artist Talk with Juliana Tan and Ng Hui Hsien (Please register: https://a-kind-of-magic.peatix.com/)
Sat 14 Jun 2025, 2pm – 3.30pm
Free admission

A Kind of Magic is a photographic journey through a city that no longer exists. Traversing an interplay between imagined and experienced realities, the images serve as a portal to a temporal landscape that has been irrevocably altered by external forces. Rooted in the artist's personal displacement from 1998 Indonesia, a period marked by significant societal unrest and racial tension, the work transforms personal narrative into a resonant exploration of universal themes: displacement, remembrance, and the enduring quest to reclaim our own story.

About the artist
Juliana Tan is a photographer whose work is rooted in the ephemeral. Her instinct is underscored by her rapt yet gentle observation of the world around her. Juliana's sensitivity to shifting lights, hues and timing deftly informs her images as an intimate, yet infinite, dialogue—a single moment in time captured within the process of becoming.

Her first monograph, A Kind of Magic, was published by Jordan, jordan Édition in 2025. Her work Clear Mandate, in collaboration with Khoo Guo Jie, was shown at Angkor Photo Festival 2020.

About the curator
Ng Hui Hsien works as an artist, educator, and curator. Through her artworks, she seeks to evoke stillness and wonder, especially towards our inner landscapes and the more-than-human world. Her artworks have been internationally exhibited in institutions and festivals, including the MOU Museum of Onomichi City University (Japan), GRASSI Museum of Applied Arts (Germany), Reykjavík Museum of Photography (Iceland), and Comma Space (Singapore).

As an independent curator, Hui Hsien has worked with Angkor Photo Festival (Cambodia) and The Private Museum (Singapore) to present a projection screening and an exhibition respectively in 2024.