Lecturer, Fine Arts

Zarina Muhammad

ZARINA MUHAMMAD
  • MA (Art History), Open University
  • BA (Hons) Fine Arts and English Literature, University of Western Australia, Australia

Zarina Muhammad is an artist, educator, and researcher whose practice interweaves text, sound, moving image, ritual performance, installation and participatory cartographies to explore spectral ecologies, ancestral technologies and the politics of place. 

Her ongoing research delves into subterranean water systems, shipwreck cosmologies, geo-spirited terrains and transcultural knowledge systems across Southeast Asia and the Indian Ocean. Engaging with notions of ecological witnessing and decolonial memory, her work has been widely presented at international biennales and institutions, most recently a solo presentation at the Singapore Pavilion—curated by Shubigi Rao—within the ASEAN pavilions of the 15th Gwangju Biennale.

Zarina is the recipient of the 2022 IMPART Art Prize. She is currently part of Actions for the Earth, a travelling exhibition produced by Independent Curators International and is developing new site-responsive installations across transregional coastal and riverine landscapes.

 

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Conference papers

  • ‘Can Ghosts Die?: Repositioning Magico-religious Belief Systems, Materiality and Modernity in Contemporary Southeast Asia’. The Tenth International Convention of Asia Scholars (ICAS 10). Organised by The Regional Center for Social Change and Sustainable Development (RSCD), with support from the Faculty of Social Sciences of Chiang Mai University (CMU) (2017)
  • ‘Magic, Belief, Sacred Geographies and Visualising the Unseen in Singapore: Repositioning and Performing the Otherworldly in Southeast Asian Myths and Folklore’. Visualising the City: International Visual Methods Conference. Organised by Singapore Institute of Technology (2017)
  • ‘Sea Stories, Spirits, Charms and Ceremonies: Repositioning and Performing the Otherworldly in Southeast Asian Maritime Myths and Folklore’. Conference on Mermaids, Maritime Folklore and Modernity. Organised by Island Dynamics Research Network (2017)
  • ‘Dancing Horses, Possessing Spirits and Invisible Histories: Re-Imagining the Borders of Magic and Modernity in Contemporary Southeast Asia’. Crossroads: The 11th International Conference Crossroads in Cultural Studies. Organised by the Institute for Culture and Society, Western Sydney University, and the University of Sydney (2016)
  • ‘Cultural Struggle and Praxis: Negotiating Power and the Everyday’. The Sixth Asian Conference on Cultural Studies. Organised by IAFOR (The International Academic Forum). Held at the Kobe Art Centre; Japan (2016)
  • ‘Magic, Belief, and Cultural Production in Singapore: Engaging with Southeast Asian Traditional Art Forms in the Island City’. Island Cities and Urban Archipelagos. Organised by Island Dynamics Research Network & the University of Hong Kong (2016)
  • ‘Who sees? Whose voice?: Possessing Spirits, Invisible Histories and the Artist as Ethnographer’. Vitality and Viability: Arts Ecosystems in Asia. Organised by Asia Pacific Network for Cultural Education and Research and Cambodian Living Arts; Phnom Penh, Cambodia (2016)
  • ‘Who sees? Whose voice?: Dancing Horses, Possessing Spirits and Invisible Histories’. Undercurrents: Unearthing Hidden Social and Discursive Practices. Organised by the Inter-Asia Cultural Studies Society, University of Indonesia and Airlangga University; Surabaya, Indonesia (2015)

  • Winner, Artist Category, Impart Art Prize (2022)
  • Finalist (Moving Image), The Julian Baer Next Generation Art Prize (2021)
  • Nominated by Claire Tancons for the Paulo Cunha e Silva Art Prize, where 48 international artists under the age of 40 are nominated by a group of 16 curators (2019)
  • Shortlist for President’s Young Talent (2018)

Exhibitions (select)

  • Actions for Water, curated by Sharmila Wood, Tin Sheds Gallery, University of Sydney (2025)
  • South Plus: Constructing Historical Pluralism Ⅲ─Ocean in Us: Southern Visions of Women Artists, presented in collaboration between Kaoshiung Museum of Fine Art, National Gallery Singapore and Singapore Art Museum; Kaoshiung, Taiwan (2025)
  • When the World Stops Turning, curated by Teng Yen Hui and Janice Kim, Starch Singapore/Frame Seongsu; Singapore/Seoul, South Korea (2024)
  • ASEAN Pavillions, Singapore Pavillion, 15th Gwangju Biennale, curated by Shubigi Rao; Gwangju, South Korea (2024)
  • 3rd Lahore Biennale: Of Mountains and Seas, curated by John Tain; Lahore, Pakistan (2024)
  • FotoFest Biennial: Critical Geography, curated by Steven Evans; Houston, US (2024)
  • Actions for the Earth, a travelling group exhibition curated by Sharmila Wood, supported and produced by Independent Curators International; New York (2023–present)
  • HOME/ LAND: Recent Moving Images from Southeast Asia, group exhibition curated by Alfonse Chiu, Swab Art Fair; Barcelona, Spain (2023)
  • Subterranean Trails, in collaboration with Zachary Chan and Joel Tan, commissioned by Goethe Institute Singapore (2023)
  • onsite 01, group exhibition curated by Mary Pasanga, BUG Space 2, Bangkok University Gallery; Thailand (2023)
  • Singapore Biennale 2022 – Natasha, curated by June Yap, Nida Ghouse, Ala Younis, Binna Choi (2022–2023)
  • Shaking Land and Water, group exhibition curated by Lynda Tay, commissioned by the Esplanade Singapore, organised in collaboration with Sasa Art Project, Cambodia (2022)
  • Lonely Vectors, group exhibition in collaboration with Zachary Chan and Joel Tan, curated by Joella Kiu, Kenneth Tan and Mi You, commissioned by the Singapore Art Museum (2022)
  • Nodes of Silence, group exhibition in collaboration with the Singapore Association for the Visually Handicapped and the Singapore Association for the Deaf, Starch (2022)
  • Free Jazz IV: Geomancers, group exhibition, curated by Anna Lovecchio and Magdalena Magiera, presented as part of Art Week Singapore (2022). This work was also presented at IHME Helsinki in the same year
  • The Julius Baer Next Generation Art Prize Virtual Exhibition, group exhibition in collaboration with Zachary Chan, shortlisted as one of the ten finalists for the inaugural Julius Baer Next Generation Art Prize (2021)
  • Between the Living and Archive, group exhibition curated by Syaheedah Iskandar and Fajrina Razak, Gillman Barracks (2021)
  • If Forests Talk, group exhibition, curated by Kent Chan, presented as part of Art Week Singapore (2021). This work was also presented at the Singapore Pavilion at the World Expo 2020 Dubai in 2022
  • 2219: Futures Imagined, group exhibition, ArtScience Museum; Singapore (2019)
  • Apotropaic Texts, commissioned exhibition for N.O.W. (Not Ordinary Work) Festival, curated by Noorlinah Mohamed, T-Works, 72-13; Singapore (2019)
  • Pharmacopoeias for Accredited Agents of Poisoning, solo exhibition, StoryFest 2019, Arts House; Singapore (2019)
  • Stories We Tell to Scare Ourselves With, group exhibition curated by Jason Wee and Anita Hsiang-Ning Huang, Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA); Taipei, Taiwan (2019)
  • President’s Young Talents Exhibition, curated by Andrea Fam, 8Q, Singapore Art Museum (2018)

  • Contemporary art practice, historiography and theory in Southeast Asia. Engaging with the challenges in negotiating categories, narratives and boundaries pertaining to Asian identity—cultural, linguistic, historical, and its relationship with beliefs, traditions and practices.
  • (Pre)colonial, Postcolonial and contemporary understandings of myth, materiality, ritual, folk religion, mysticism and magic. Exploring issues related to the cultural revisions and anxieties stemming from the shifting boundaries of belief systems and religious plurality within the contexts of regional contemporary cultural landscapes.