National Gallery Singapore has launched the third and final installment of its free online course series, titled "Art and the Environment in Southeast Asia: Making in a Changing World." The course examines how contemporary artists from the region—including Art Labor, Sharon Chin, Sopheap Pich, and Robert Zhao Renhui—respond to ecological issues through community-engaged and place-specific practices, using works like Chin's participatory beach ceremony and Zhao's Venice Biennale installation.
The course matters because it makes critical regional artistic discourse accessible globally, framing art as a vital tool for understanding and addressing environmental crises. By focusing on Southeast Asian perspectives, it highlights localized, culturally-rooted responses to climate change and modernization, promoting art's role in fostering empathy, dialogue, and collective reflection on urgent ecological challenges.