SINGAPORE — One of the works at LASALLE College of the Arts’ 30th anniversary survey show Modern Love is a sculpture by Ahmad Abu Bakar. Titled Direction, it features a weather vane-like arrow on top of a base featuring the words “Conservative”, “Evolution”, “Conceptual” and “Beautiful”.

In the context of this show, it’s quite tempting to take it as the starting point to read what the show has to say about the direction of the institution’s artistic production (or, while I’m at it, NAFA’s own non-anniversary-pegged group show, which is also ongoing and where its own contemporary and traditional output are presented side-by-side).

But anyway, back to LASALLE.

Curated by Khairuddin Hori, artist-curator alumni and new Palais de Tokyo deputy programming editor, and ICAS director Bala Starr, Modern Love — which takes up four galleries over two levels — comprises works from 30 artists that “exemplify the diverse approaches and independent thinking of LASALLE graduates”.

Essentially, a “Best Of” la.

Not in terms of works, though, but artists. And it *is* a rather representative — as opposed to definitive — line-up spanning those three decades: From “seniors” like Zai Kuning, Lee Wen, Amanda Heng and Vincent Leow to mid-career ones like KYTV’s Rizman Putra, Jeremy Sharma and Choy Ka Fai (separately) to new blood like Godwin Koay, Melissa Tan and Ruben Pang.

The range of medium seems covered: Painting, sculpture, video, installation, sound, and you’ve got performance relics and performances lined up, too.

There are quite a few interesting surprises here, as themes and works ping-pong back and forth. You see tendencies towards tongue-in-cheek personas, as in Shubigi Rao’s S Raoul, Heng’s SQ Girl and Rizman’s silly sportsman. Side by side, materiality of Jane Lee and Justin Lim’s paintings are highlighted, the drips and patterns, the sculptural potential. Jon Chan’s paintings and Koay’s watercolours, too, are in dialogue, both in terms of socio-political themes and in how the comment on the relationship between their medium of choice and print or broadcast media.

Aside from a one-off performance on the history of Singapore performance art via food, Lina Adam’s other work in the show is a tender tribute to the late Juliana Yasin (herself a LASALLE alumni), a photographic documentation of her last days.

Zul Mahmod’s sound thingamajigs find a surprising (at least to me) counterpoint in Donna Ong’s intricate (though not the more familiar delicate) installation, a veritable musical mega-instrument for a one-man-band made of household items. (And speaking of sound-related works, I also liked sound-performance artist Angie Seah’s Voice Is Psychological, comprising a video documentation of her performance, a “manual” and sculptures of mouths.)

All these said, here’s the thing: As a whole, Modern Love is a perfectly decent snapshot show but not the kind of exhibition one anticipates from an art school celebrating 30 years of success.

Maybe that’s reserved for Year 25 or Year 50, but for Year 30, it doesn’t look or feel like a pull-out-the-stops kind of show. Not so much because of the artists but because of the works it chooses to show.

Choy’s expansive and extensive Hakka-centric Lan Fang Chronicles exhibition (seen before at SAM@8Q and the Singapore Arts Festival) is reduced to bits and pieces. One of the more underrated artists, in my opinion, is Zaki Razak. His ambitious three-in-one project (his black balloons, an “Abang Guard” performance, and a roundtable discussion-as-performance) is presented as relic, the ballot card samples where people get to vote for their favourite work. Meanwhile, one of the more popular and commercially-successful alumni of LASALLE, PHUNK, is represented simply by the words LOVE stuck on the glass wall instead of, say, their more in-your-face Love Bomb sculptures.

One thing that also confuses me pertains to the matter of old versus new works. Granted Modern Love doesn’t claim to be a historical survey, but, not to discount the individual practices of the KYTV people, the defunct collective surely deserves a shout out?

If the show wants to present more current works (even by established ones, as is the case with Lee Wen’s altar installation for same-sex union), then, as interesting as the piece is, what do I make of the presence of a 1998 video documentation of a performance of Suzann Victor, who has gone on to do other things, like her swinging chandeliers?

Still, these niggling questions aside, I hope I’m not raining on this particular parade. Three decades of churning out a Who’s Who list in the Singapore visual arts scene? That surely deserves a pat on the back.

Modern Love runs until Feb 1, 2015, 10am to 6pm, at LASALLE College of the Arts’ basement and basement mezzanine galleries. Closed on Mondays and public holidays. Free admission.