9 February 2022 – STAGING: MAPPLETHORPE at Appetite

There’s a nice little selection of Robert Mapplethorpe photographs up at Appetite till 9 April 2022.

You won’t find his controversial, aggressively sexual photographs here (if you don’t already know it, google his NSFW 1978 work “Self Portrait with Whip”), but what you will find is a quiet, contemplative series of works that hang beautifully in the shophouse space at 72a Amoy street. Everything is for sale too if you fancy a big-name acquisition to add to your collection.

Appetite’s one of the few multidimensional spaces in town that marries food with art in an attempt to create new and interesting entry points into the art world. Does it work? Well, yes and no. The lounge areas which allow you to sit back on comfortable sofas and actually face the works create a lovely atmosphere. It helps you to imagine what your own home could look like with pops of interesting art.

The second storey passageway, however, feels a bit like an afterthought as there isn’t a lot of space to linger and look at the works. In the Kitchen where dinner is served, your backs face the works in the room and you can’t see them while you eat.

It’s an interesting conundrum – does the art need to be totally in your face to achieve the full ‘art gallery’ effect? Or is there something different going on here? Should we instead be thinking about art as such an innate part of our lives and living spaces, that there’s really no need to overstate the point?

One thing’s undeniable though – Appetite’s commitment to quality art content is clear. We were led on an excellent tour by Curator (and Plural writer) Seet Yun Teng. If you go, we’d highly recommend requesting a similar one.

We truly do recommend taking the time to soak in Mapplethorpe’s black-and-white photographs. And since he worked purely with film, there’s a stunning painterly quality to his signature use of light and shadow. There are even some striking, sculptural compositions that have been haunting our minds ever since.

And how was the food? Great! We paid for all our meals and had a super time. Service was top notch and the dishes memorable and creative, as they’re nods to the restaurant’s research into food history. Our faves included the hamachi ceviche adorned with torched oranges, vanilla, and ginger oil. It draws on the restaurant’s research discovery that preparing fish with tropical fruit was popular in Southeast Asia, rather than just in Peru, where ceviche was thought to come from.

There’s also a luscious scallop served with a mushroom medley and foam made with kulim, a fruit that’s native to the region and emits a pungent truffle-like scent. We left feeling satiated, but not stuffed to the gills sick.

It’s not the most affordable dinner in town, but a really refreshing, relaxing art experience.