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Collection showcases the various projects and programmes at 72-13
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Heman Chong - Because, The Night
Second-hand bookshop
9 – 11 & 16 – 18 November 2017
10pm – 4am (Last Admission 3.15am)
Free admission
Based on a list of 50 books culled from a series of informal conversations (touching on inequality, racism, homophobia, overpopulation, forced migration, exploitation of labor, overconsumption, climate change, etc) with friends and strangers on Facebook, Because, The Night is a non-profit, second-hand bookshop produced by artist Heman Chong that will inhabit 72-13 for six nights in November 2017. It is open between 10 pm to 4 am; a space built for people who can't sleep at night, a temporary home for insomniacs. Books include "Men Explain Things to Me" by Rebecca Solnit, "2666" by Roberto Bolano, "The Bluest Eye" by Toni Morrison, "Archaeologies of the Future" by Frederic Jameson and many, many more.
Because, The Night extends and follows a thread in Chong's work that he has woven since 1997. His concerns about the production and distribution of knowledge have brought him to produce exhibitions, conferences, books; playing roles outside of the artist— as curator, writer and of course, the bookseller. The bookshop is a confluence of many things. It is at once a depository of ideas, but at the same time, a social space in which individuals exchange ways of reading and seeing ideas. Chong is particularly interested in the display and the trading of second-hand books, especially books that have been rejected from public and personal libraries; objects discarded and then later discovered by other readers. The book as an object passed from one hand to another, one eye to the next.
In conjunction with this bookshop with strange opening hours, Chong will show two sculptural works from his oeuvre. Firstly, a large selection of 'Stacks', a series he is well known for. They are free-standing compositions involving books and various glass receptacles (drinking cups, perfume bottles, etc) are stacked to form fragile and intriguing associations with each other. A new series 'After Hours' accompanies both the bookshop and the stacks as large, hulking sentinels in the space. These sculptures are fashioned after open-air stalls one would encounter in shopping centers or street markets where an entire stall selling all sorts of things are bound up in cloth after closing hours.
Full list of books
1. 2666 / Roberto Bolano
2. Never let me go / Kazuo Ishiguro
3. The Sirens of Titan / Kurt Vonnegut
4. The Road / Cormac McCarthy
5. W, or the Memory of Children / Georges Perec
6. Seeing / Jose Saramago
7. Blindness / Jose Saramago
8. The Savage Detectives / Roberto Bolano
9. The Rings of Saturn / W.G. Sebald
10. The Dispossessed / Ursula K. Le Guin
11. Written on the Body / Jeanette Winterson
12. The Handmaid's Tale / Margaret Atwood
13.The Origins of Totalitarianism / Hannah Arendt
14. Men Explain Things to Me / Rebecca Solnit
15. A Universal History of the Destruction of Books: From Ancient Sumer to Modem-day Iraq / Fernando Baez
16. Wanderlust / Rebecca Solnit
17. The Man in the High Castle / Philip K. Dick
18. The Encyclopedia of Early Earth / Isabel Greenberg
19. One Hundred Nights of Hero / Isabel Greenberg
20. Foe / J.M. Coetzee
21. Elizabeth Costello / J.M. Coetzee
22. Under the Skin / Michel Faber
23. Why This World: A Biography of Clarice Lispector / Benjamin Moser
24. The Hour of the Star / Clarice Lispector
25. The Golden Notebook / Doris Lessing
26. The Bluest Eye / Toni Morrison
27. Woman at Point Zero / Nawal El Saadawi
28. Woman on the Edge of Time / Marge Piercy
29. Archaeologies of the future / Frederic Jameson
30. The Atrocity Exhibition / J.G. Ballard
31. The Female Man / Joanna Russ
32. The Catch / Kenzaburö Oe
33. The Woman in the Dunes / Köbö Abe
34. Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit / Jeanette Winterson
35. Women Without Men: A Novel of Modem Iran / Shahmush Parsipur
36. Mrs Dalloway / Virginia Woolf
37. To the lighthouse / Virginia Woolf
38. Island of a Thousand Mirrors / Nayomi Munaweera
39. The Good Terrorist / Doris Lessing
40. I love Dick / Chris Kraus
41. Aliens and Anorexia / Chris Kraus
42. Torpor / Chris Kraus
43. Summer of Hate / Chris Kraus
44. Gilgi / Irmgard Keun
45. A Train of Powder / Rebecca West
46. The Gulag Archipelago / Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
47. V For Vendetta / Alan Moore
48. The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle I / Haruki Murakami
49. The Last Thing He Wanted / Joan Didion
50. A Field Guide to Getting Lost / Rebecca Solnit
Heman Chong is a Singaporean artist whose work is located at the intersection between image, performance, situations and writing. He has recently produced a series of interconnected exhibitions located in Art Sonje Center (Never, A Dull Moment, 2015), South London Gallery (An Arm, A Leg and Other Stories, 2015) and Rockbund Art Museum (Ifs, Ands, Or Buts, 2016). He is the co-director and founder (with Renée Staal) of "The Library of Unread Books" which has been installed in NTIJ Center for Contemporary Alt in Singapore, The Museum of Contemporary Art and Design (MCAD) in Manila and will be travelling to Casco Projects in Utrecht and Ilham Gallery in Kuala Lumpur. He is currently working on a novel "The Book of Drafts" which will be published by Polyparenthesis in 2019.
With support from National Arts Council and Cultural Matching Fund.
Ramesh Meyyappan - Off Kilter
Performance
11 – 14 October 2017, 8pm
At work and at home, Joe Kilter has his routine. Some people think Joe is obsessive. Joe would prefer not to be thought of at all. A change in his routine turns his world askew. His life is no longer his own, his house is knocked sideways and he's off his game. Joe Kilter is off-kilter. Feeling increasingly isolated, his life feels impossible until he is forced to exist in darkness.
Off Kilter explores mental well-being, identity, feeling a little bit different from everyone else and not quite being yourself.
Off Kilter is a darkly comedic visual theatre production, incorporating illusions and masterful non-verbal storytelling. Ramesh Meyyappan is a master of physical theatre, award-winning actor, and internationally renowned visual theatre artist. His last major work, Butterfly, played to sold-out audiences in the UK, USA, Singapore and at the Edinburgh Fringe.
Reviews
"...the sheer artistry Meyyappan brings to his performance — and the power of Joel Nah's supporting score and soundscape... makes Off Kilter a profoundly absorbing and moving show.”
- The Scotsman, Glasgow
"Ramesh is an artist who seeks out courage, hope and redemptive transformation in his storytelling ...one of his (Ramesh Meyyappan) finest performances yet.“
- The Herald, Glasgow
"Jaw-dropping display of both pure physical comedy and magic.. devastating moments of beauty, humour and pathos … this is a timely, deeply heartfelt gem.”
- The List, Glasgow
"A brilliant physical performer, Meyyappan's control and expressiveness of movement are magnetic, and he emanates a warmth and humour that constantly invites empathy.”
- Exeunt Magazine
"He clearly prefers to let his art speak for itself, and in this regard, he achieved great success with Off Kilter.”
- Extraordinary Horizons, Singapore
A co-production between TheatreWorks and Tron Theatre. With support from National Arts Council, Cultural Matching Fund, Arts Fund, Creative Scotland and Singapore International Foundation.
SIFA 2017
72-13 is the Venue and Equipment Partner of the Singapore International Festival of Arts 2017. Here are the SIFA 2017 programmes happening only at 72-13.
Performance
Thursday, 17 & Friday, 18 August 2017, 8pm
Saturday, 19 August 2017
3pm, 8pm
Sunday, 20 August 2017
3pm, 8pm
Hot on the heels of the New York Times bestseller and Singapore Literature Prize-winning "The Art of Charlie Chan Hock Chye", cartoonist Sonny Liew creates an all-new graphic novel for the stage. Using the superhero genre as a springboard to tell a story about ageing and mortality, the book for the stage looks to examine the limits of even superhuman abilities when confronted with the complex issues of greying societies, or when faced with the pain of losing loved ones to the ravages of time.
While Liew embarks on the creation of his new narrative, theatre-maker Edith Podesta brings her incredible, creative sensibilities to collaborate with him — bringing to life the art of the graphic novel in a unique production that melds the languages of comics and theatre, of two-dimensional drawings and live performance, of word balloons and spoken words.
Central to Becoming Graphic will be the concept of the 'voicer', who animates and breathes life into the characters of Liew's imagination as he draws a nuanced and layered story of the complex issues we face with ageing and mortality.
Sonny Liew's New York Times bestseller The Art of Charlie Chan Hock Chye was the first graphic novel to win the Singapore Literature Prize, and has been nominated for 6 Eisner Awards. He was a recipient of the National Arts Council's Young Artist Award in 2010, and his works include The Shadow Hero (with Gene Yang), Doctor Fate (with Paul Levitz) and Malinky Robot.
Edith Podesta is an actor, theatre-maker and choreographer based in Singapore. She studied Acting and Movement Studies at the National Institute of Dramatic Art's (NIDA), and holds a Master of Arts Fine Arts from LASALLE College of the Arts.
Her diverse artistic background includes co-founding A Group Of People, an award-winning collaborative ensemble of Singaporean actors and theatre-makers, including Production of the Year at the Straits Times Life! Theatre Awards for “A Cage Goes In Search Of A Bird” in 2010. Her production of Dark Room X8 for Esplanade Theatre Studios was selected as one of 2014 The Straits Times Theatre Picks, and in 2017 she was awarded Best Original Script and Production of the Year at the Straits Times Life! Theatre Awards for her production “BITCH: The Origin of the Female Species”, commissioned by the M1 Singapore Fringe Festival. In 2014, Edith was awarded Best Actress at the Straits Times Life! Theatre Awards for her role in Cake Theatrical Productions “Illogic”.
Institute of Critical Zoologists (ICZ) - The Nature Museum
31 August – 7 September 2017, 8pm
The Nature Museum is a fascinating exploration of Singapore's natural history through historical and fantastical narratives created by the Institute of Critical Zoologists (ICZ).
An immersive museological setting by Robert Zhao of ICZ, The Nature Museum takes you on a journey through photographs, artworks and historical documents both found and fabricated. Get lost in another time as you wander around the artful arrangements of books, posters and images captivatingly displayed on Victorian shelves and vitrines, accompanied by antiquated caption texts.
Artist and photographer "Robert Zhao" has become known for his layered narratives blending historical documentation and imaginative storytelling that provide thought-provoking commentary on natural as well as social issues. The installation is fleshed out by a guided tour and lecture-performance with Zhao, created in collaboration with playwright Joel Tan, weaving together myriad stories of our Island's rich flora and fauna, its little-known agriculture and aggressive landscaping, fully revealing the extent of Singapore's 'Garden City' moniker.
Underneath bubbles a deeper story of violence and control, hidden in much of Singapore's encounters with nature; forests recede while manicured greenery emerges. Rediscover the meaning behind images of the plantations and jungles of our past and ponder the implications of the clash between Nature and urban development on our tiny island.
In ICZ's inimitable style, The Nature Museum meshes past and future in an arresting work that will astonish all who are curious about the world around us.
Dries Verhoeven - Guilty Landscapes III
Video installation
31 August – 9 September 2017
3pm – 11pm
10 minute visit for only one audience member at a time
Ticket also allows entry to The Nature Museum, an exhibition at the same venue.
In an interactive video installation, the protagonist on the evening news looks directly at the viewer, providing a framework for each viewer to scrutinise his or her own feelings of discomfort. Dutch theatre-maker and visual artist Dries Verhoeven asks us: What if the people we watch on the news can look back at us? What if the gaze is reversed?
The 24-hour news cycle, continuously available on laptops, TVs and smartphones, makes us perpetual witnesses to complex situations across the globe. We feel uneasy with the confrontation of presumed poverty and desperation. "Guilty Landscapes III" transports images of uncomfortable responsibility into the white cube of a gallery.
In the otherwise empty space, a disconcerting landscape is projected on a large wall. As soon as a viewer steps into the room, he or she becomes an integral part of the installation. Every viewer experiences a truly individualised connection to the situation on screen. Suddenly, feelings of distance and proximity seem to merge.
Guilty Landscapes III challenges feelings of guilt and shame. The project investigates psychological complexes, such as the guilt of privilege and social hyper-awareness, all the while asking whether it is possible to reverse such relative social positions. Is it possible to meet the presumed victims without assumptions and pity?
In 2016, Verhoeven created a series of four episodes of Guilty Landscapes, commissioned by and for various European cities. SIFA will show the third episode from this series.
This event only allows one audience member at a time.
Dries Verhoeven (1976 Oosterhout, the Netherlands) is a theatre-maker and visual artist, specialising in installations and performances in museums and public spaces of cities. On the boundary between performance and installation art, he critically evaluates the relationships between the spectators, performers, everyday reality and art. The spectator is directly involved in the work or given the opportunity to steer his or her own experiences.
In his work, Verhoeven highlights aspects of the common social reality in which we live. He is not concerned with conveying a statement about reality, but mainly about unbalancing the visitor in order to evoke a shared vulnerability between the viewer and the viewed work. In recent years, the current crisis mindset and the influence of digital media on his interpersonal relationships, in particular, have formed the basis for his projects. Verhoeven currently resides in Berlin and Amsterdam.
Eng Kai Er / Faye Lim / Felicia Lim - The Roundest Circle
Performance
Thursday, 27 & Friday, 28 July 2017, 8pm
In "The Roundest Circle", the famous consensus robots Kai, Faye and Felicia convene and disperse in an attempt to arrange and re-arrange their interests, ideas, curves, lines and edges next to, under and on top of each other. With no designated leader within the three, they perform simultaneous leading and following, all the while taking, sharing and giving up physical and creative space.
What will be the outcome? Is the absence of a leader possible in making a performance?
Will you join us in this journey of discovery with Kai, Faye and Felicia as they venture into the undiscovered and the unchartered?
There will be a post-show discussion after each performance.
The Roundest Circle is conceived and performed by Eng Kai Er, Faye Lim and Felicia Lim.
The presentation of The Roundest Circle is part of TheatreWorks' long-established belief in developing and nurturing Singapore artists. It is also part of TheatreWorks' aim to present innovative contemporary experiences and artistic expressions that offer Singapore audiences alternatives. Its home, 72-13 is an incubator for artistic experiments by both artists and creatives, while being a consistent conduit for dialogues between disciplines and cultures. TheatreWorks intends to constantly build on our circle of Associates and in developing them, we grow and develop the Singapore arts ecosystem.
https://theroundestcircle2017.wordpress.com
With support from National Arts Council and Cultural Matching Fund.
The O.P.E.N. 2017
The O.P.E.N. - the pre-festival ideas from the Singapore International Festival of Arts (SIFA) 2017 will be happening at 72-13. 72-13 is the Venue and Equipment Partner of SIFA 2017. Here are the O.P.E.N. 2017 programmes happening only at 72-13.
ART AS RES PUBLICAE
Panel, Reading
Wednesday, 28 – Thursday, 29 June 2017, 7pm
Free admission with O.P.E.N. Pass, with limited single entry tickets available at the door.
A historic moment in Singapore, and definitely in the arts, where public discussants will have, for the first time, a dialogue in the open on a central question that has been referred to them. This year, opening the entire SIFA 2017, The O.P.E.N. looks at art as res publicae or art as public interests. The root word of 'republic', 'res publicae' is a Latin phrase loosely defined as 'public interests'. In the spirit of this definition, ART AS RES PUBLICAE will be exploring open questions of artworks, dialogue and negotiation. The central question that has to be unpacked: What is the 'intangible value' in an artwork?
ART AS RES PUBLICAE is a public education programme about art, aimed at understanding what an artwork is and assessing whether the artwork raises our consciousness for living in a republic.
Every year, The O.P.E.N., SIFA's pre-festival of ideas, serves as our broad public education programme exploring world issues. Every alternate year, SIFA has a legacy of conducting public education programmes to research relevant questions in Singapore society. In 2015, we looked at land use in "The Lesson" directed by Drama Box.
This year, distinct artworks will be used as case studies for public discussants every night. Invited commentators will offer their perspectives to contextualise the discussions, which will be facilitated by an experienced moderator.
In this conference workshop, the task ahead for ALL will be to explore the distinct artworks to generate deliberative reflection, bring civic consciousness to the fore and better understand what the artworks are about.
Fun, safe and responsible, ART AS RES PUBLICAE will let you hear the discussants at work and even contribute with questions from the floor.
Programme
Wednesday, 28 June 2017
Panel
We convene to discuss Some Complexities Surrounding Pluralism In Singapore. The commentators are:
- Dr. Ad Maulod (class, intersectionality perspective)
- Alfian Sa'at (writer's perspective)
- Choo Zheng Xi (civil society, legal perspective)
- Imran Taib (diversity perspective—the false divide and unheard voices)
- Dr. June Yap (value of arts in society)
- Reverend Miak Siew (moral, religious, spiritual perspective)
Reading
Tan Kheng Hua and Claire Wong will read scenes from Singapore playwright and lawyer Eleanor Wong's script Wills & Secession. First staged in 1995, "Wills & Secession", the second play in a rich trilogy written by Eleanor Wong, made a huge impact then. It has become a classic of Singapore theatre, remembered for its bold ideas, sharp writing, and witty, incisively honest portrayal of Ellen Toh (ET), a respected gay lawyer who leads a double life in mainstream Singapore.
Thursday, 29 June 2017
Panel
We turn the spotlight onto Singapore's Future Of Care In Ageing: Long Term Care, Quality, Well-Being, And Dignity. The commentators are:
- Angela Liong (arts perspective)
- Anita Kapoor (media advocacy perspective)
- Dr. Jeremy Lim (economics of care: collaboration & strategic partnerships perspective)
- Assoc. Prof. Philip Yap Lin Kiatiel (medical perspective)
- Radha Basu, Lien Foundation (philanthropy perspective)
- Dr. Vivienne Wee (gender perspective in care-poverty cycle)
Screening
Video excerpts will be screened from Dementia, a Hungarian production by Proton Theatre directed by Kornel Mundruczo, presented in SIFA 2015. The drama, set in a psychiatric hospital on the brink of closing, confronts the audience with hard questions on the value of individual worth over economic outcomes. What is the point of helping those who are suffering — specifically those who are not cognisant of their own state — and numbing them further with modern medicine? The final scene, where each patient chooses death over deprivation, offers opportunity for reflection on personal choice, the dignity to control one's destiny.
Ho Rui An - For Lack of A Better World Series
Installation, Workshop, Artist Talk
29 June – 9 July 2017
'For lack of a better word', we say, as the qualification we make to what comes after that may be too facile, crass or even vulgar to be uttered cold. The expression marks the moment when we provisionally simplify, only to later complexify. Engaging with this slippery ground of language, this curation series within The O.P.E.N. considers how the work of critique today likewise demands that we grasp at the limits of available idioms.
- Ho Rui An, curator
Committed to furthering the conversation with the next generation of artists, Singapore International Festival of Arts (SIFA) has invited Ho Rui An, featured in the first SIFA 2014 edition in association with the 89+ project of Hans Ulrich Obrist, to return to the festival with his own curation centred on the enchantment of the spoken word, For Lack Of A Better Word.
What happens when we cannot find the right words? Are we still able to do things with words? These are questions posed by the shifting and emergent realities that characterise the complex and uncertain worlds in which we live. In response, the artists gathered in this section of The O.P.E.N. draw on their experiences in Singapore, the broader Southeast Asia region and the Gulf to show that from the lacuna also arises the possibility of speaking (and listening) otherwise.
Sidd Perez and Vuth Lyno - For Lack of A Better Word Series: UNSETTLED ASSIGNMENTS
Visual installation, Workshop, Film screening
29 June – 9 July 2017
Opening 29 June, 7pm – 10pm
Tuesday – Saturday, 12pm
Sunday, 12pm – 6pm
Monday: Closed
Free admission with O.P.E.N. Pass, with limited single entry tickets available at the door.
Unsettled Assignments considers the networks of unsettled South-South relations produced through post-colonial conflicts and peacekeeping interventions in Southeast Asia. Children were born in Cambodia in 1993 to African fathers serving in the United Nations peacekeeping troops. After "the fall of Saigon" in 1975, South Vietnamese asylum-seekers took refuge at the Philippine First Asylum Center, where they were screened, validated and sent to other refugee processing centres in the Philippines before finally leaving for the United States or other countries in the West.
Through a visual installation, workshop and film screening, Sidd Perez and Vuth Lyno read into the residues left by these foreign military bases and camp-towns within the region. They track the lives from this unresolved history of conflict and peacekeeping.
Sidd Perez is an assistant curator at the NUS Museum. Previously based in Manila, she is the co-founder of Planting Rice, an independent curatorial and resource platform, and worked as the curatorial associate for The Drawing Room.
Vuth Lyno is an artist, curator and artistic director of Sa Sa Art Projects, Phnom Penh's only artist-run space. His artistic and curatorial practice is primarily participatory in nature, exploring collective learning and experimentation, and sharing of multiple voices through mutual exchanges.
Tan Biyun - For Lack of A Better Word Series: The Unforgetting Space
Exhibition
29 June – 9 July 2017
Opening 29 June, 7pm – 10pm
Tuesday – Saturday, 12pm – 9pm
Sunday, 12pm – 6pm
Monday: Closed
Free admission with O.P.E.N. Pass, with limited single entry tickets available at the door
Brilliant historian Eric Hobsbawm made persuasive arguments about the importance of building memory or mounting a 'protest against forgetting'. Conceived with this in mind, The Unforgetting Space is an interactive and participatory installation featuring old textbooks, dating back to the 1970s, that Tan Biyun has collected.
Tan posits a speculative near-future where the urgency to remember is central to counter the fast-spreading enterprise of forgetting. No longer just dusty old tomes with questionable relevance, these books have been repurposed as triggers to initiate a process of reclaiming histories by the public.
Paying no heed to 'look but don't touch', Tan invites her audiences to participate in the experience by asking them to select a paragraph or two from a historical episode described in the textbooks and retype it using the typewriters provided. The audiences are further encouraged to contribute a text from their own sources to co-create their histories.
With "The Unforgetting Space", Tan hopes to offer a space of reflexivity that seeks an inclusive understanding of the past so as to expand the possibilities of the future.
Tan Biyun makes work on issues concerning community life, human rights and social justice. Her recent exhibitions include Future Trees & the Pulp of History, NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore (Singapore) and Survey: Space, Sharing, Haunting, The Substation (Singapore). Her performance, Waiting for Butterflies (2015-6), at the GUY U ACTION Contemporary Performance Art Festival in Shenzhen, China, was a response against the environment destruction caused by overdevelopment.
For Lack of A Better Word Series
: OPEN HISTORIES: EXCHANGES
In conjunction with Tan Biyun's exhibition of The Unforgetting Space and Sidd Perez and Vuth Lyno's Unsettled Assignments, O.P.E.N. Histories: Exchanges is a series of workshops and a film screening that offers a deeper engagement with the ideas surrounding the exhibitions.
Workshop
30 June, 4 – 7 July 2017, 3pm
These workshops with Tan Biyun look at how visual source materials, such as photographs, films, artworks and illustrations, teach us about our past. By simply relying on our history textbooks, it is often difficult to get a full sense of the lived experience of our everyday realities. What do the images in our history textbooks tell us about our past? How do their meanings shift between different contextual frames? Join Tan Biyun, together with Victoria Tan (30 June and 4 July) and Wong Hui Yu (6 and 7 July), on an immersive journey towards the learning of history that engages our senses.
Image courtesy of Vuth Lyno
Workshop
Saturday, 1 July 2017, 11am
This half-day workshop with Sidd Perez and Vuth Lyno begins with presentations on conflict and peacekeeping within post-colonial Southeast Asia, culminating in group activities to examine how Singapore is implicated in this history. Through this process, you will also draw on your personal stories and collective histories in an attempt to incubate a language that grapples with the complex relations developed between post-colonial countries.
Screening
Saturday, 1 July 2017, 7pm
Introduction & post-screening dialogue with Vuth Lyno. In Kavich Neang's documentary Where I Go (2013), the Cambodian film-maker discusses the experience of growing up and discrimination faced by a pair of mixed-race Cambodian siblings: San Pattica, whose father was a United Nations peacekeeper from Cameroon in Cambodia from 1992 to 1993, and his sister, whose father is Ghanaian.
Ho Rui An / Lantian Xie / Zhou Zhao - For Lack of A Better Word Series: Artist Talk
Artist Talk
Sunday, 9 July 2017, 3pm
Free admission with O.P.E.N. Pass, with limited single entry tickets available at the door
Join artists Ho Rui An, Lantian Xie and Zou Zhao as they discuss their practices and draw relations between the different contexts in which they work.
Singapore-based Ho Rui An is an artist and writer working in the intersections of contemporary art, cinema, performance and theory. He writes, talks and thinks around images, with an interest in investigating their emergence, transmission and disappearance within contexts of globalism and governance.
He has presented projects at the Serpentine Galleries (London), LIJMA/Westbau (Zürich), Hessel Museum of Art and CCS Bard Galleries (Annandale-on-Hudson), QUT Art Museum (Brisbane), 2nd Kochi-Muziris Biennale, T PAM Performing Arts Meeting in Yokohama, Para Site (Hong Kong), NUS Museum (Singapore) and N TU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore. He is the Singapore desk editor for ArtAsiaPacific and has contributed to numerous publications.
Lantian Xie is an artist from Dubai who makes images, objects, stories and situations. Previous works include a taxidermy peacock, an ashtray stolen from an artist's studio, a collection of romance novels from a used book store, colour pencil drawings of bygone hotels and home delivery motorcycles parked outside. He holds an MFA from the Art Institute of Chicago and is editor-at-large at Dubai- based publishing practice The State.
Working in the mediums of performance, video and writing, Zou Zhao explores issues surrounding language, ideology, subjectivity and translation through the materiality of the voice. Working between New York and Singapore, she has exhibited at the Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Art Gallery (New York), LUMA/Westbau (Zürich), Centre Pompidou (Paris), Camden Arts Centre (London), Artesonje Center (Seoul) and Institute of Contemporary Arts (Singapore). In 2013, she received the Berenice Goodwin Award for Performance from Slade School of Fine Art, University College London.
Zai Tang - Spectres
Image courtesy of A.G. Mesa
Audio-visual
installation
Opening
5 July 2017, 7pm – 10pm
6 – 8 July 2017, 12pm – 5pm
Closing 9 July 2017, 12pm – 6pm
Free admission with O.P.E.N. Pass, with limited single entry tickets available at the door
Spectres is an artistic response to the Anthropocene epoch, a geological time when human activity has been the dominant influence on climate and the environment.
Evoking dystopian narratives of a future in which the wildlife of Singapore has all but vanished, Spectres takes the form of an immersive audio-visual installation. Its environment is haunted by the remnants of sounds that once inhabited this island. Derived from artist, composer and sound designer Zai Tang's archive of field recordings in local natural habitats, Spectres brings these deceased sonorities back to life, re-animating them using digital imaging and sound visualisation techniques.
Yet, these ethereal images and sounds no longer resemble the creatures from which they originated. They have metamorphosed into myriad phantasmagoric forms and disfigured expressions, embodying a deep, full vision of a desolate horizon.
An unforgettable, immersive aural experience from the artist who brought you "Respect", featuring recordings from Bukit Brown cemetery.
Zai Tang is an artist, composer and sound designer based in Singapore. With roots in electronic music, turntablism, multimedia installation and composition for moving image, his work currently navigates the terrain between sound, space and the body. Zai obtained his BA in Creative Music Technology from Bath Spa University and received a Post-Graduate Professional Development Award by AHRC to study MA Digital Arts at Camberwell College of Arts. Since 2006 he has been presenting solo and collaborative work locally and internationally, including most recently Esplanade's da:ns Festival with Amrita Performing Arts (2016), Singapur Unheimlich (2015) at the IFA Gallery Berlin/Stuttgart, as well as the
52nd/ 56th Venice Biennale (2007/2015) in collaboration with Tang Da Wu and Charles Lim respectively.
Image courtesy of Weizhong Deng
Bani Haykal / Cheryl Ong / Dennis Tan/ Dharma / Fuzz Lee / Natalie Alexandra / Shark Fung / Wu Jun Han / Yuen Chee Wai / Zai Tang - Spectres LIVE
Performance
6 – 8 July 2017, 8pm
Free admission with O.P.E.N. Pass, with limited single entry tickets available at the door
Each evening, three Singapore-based musicians are invited to play with artist, composer and sound designer Zai Tang. Through two hours of improvised, experimental music, they will explore sonic dialogues on the theme of disappearance.
By day, Spectres is an audio-visual installation exploring the spectre of extinction. By night, it transforms into a performance space, Spectres LIVE. Come listen to veterans and newbies of the Singapore indie electronic scene as they create raw and passionate music together.
Bani Haykal's interest is at the intersection of musicology, political economy of data and speculative fiction. A member of B-quartet and Erik Satay & The Kampong Arkestra.
banihaykal.wordpress.com.
Cheryl Ong graduated from the Central Conservatory of Music, Beijing, and spent a year at the Royal Danish Academy of Music.
soundcloud.com/observatorysg/ye-shen-traditional
Dennis Tan, a curious listener and tinkerer, instigated the experimental music collective BALBALAB.
soundcloud.com/srnisquarewhite
Dharma was the guitarist of The Observatory for the first seven albums.
soundcloud.com/dharma-shan
Fuzz Lee approaches composition with silence, light glitch electronics, textural and design and the mindset of a painter.
elintseeker.bandcamp.com
Natalie Alexandra has been experimenting with sonic experiences using electronic effects, creating ambience and enhancing emotions evoked through the guzheng.
soundcloud.com/finatalie-alexara
Shark Fung has been described as "a bound man sewed up in a mail sack trying to wriggle two with nothing mom than a small nail file to make his escape".
soundcloud.com/ujikaji/awk-wah-avaalbum-preview
Wu Jun Han performs in the audio-visual medium, expanded from a background in video art.
about.me/junhanwu
Yuen Chee Wai co-founded FEN (Far East Network), an improvisational music quartet focused on cross-disciplinary collaborations within Asia.
vimeo.com/89595752
Beverly Wee / Edward Choy / Gerald Chew / Issac Lim / Jo Tan / Joshua Lim / Julie Wee / Sharda Harrison / Tan Mae Shen / Tan Shou Chen / Timothy Wan - Dramatised Readings
Dramatised Readings
Saturday, 3 June 2017
2pm – 10pm
Free Admission
Beverly Wee, Isaac Lim and Tan Mae Shen first joined TheatreWorks' Writing from the Heart Playwriting Workshops in 2015 conducted by Tony Perez, an internationally renowned playwright and artist. After which, Tony provided dramaturgical mentorship over one year to these three playwrights. Now, their works are ready for a showcase via a dramatised reading!
The three playwrights will hear their play read by actors and receive feedback from the director, actors and audience; making this a perfect opportunity to test the drafts of their work and interrogate the main landscape of the play with a team of experienced director, actors, as well as to hear from you, the audience. There will be a 20-minute post-show discussion after each reading.
Directed by Tan Shou Chen, the dramatised readings are performed by Edward Choy, Gerald Chew, Jo Tan, Joshua Lim, Julie Wee, Sharda Harrison and Timothy Wan.
Programme
Go Home by Isaac Lim
2pm – 4pm
Father and son. Estranged. They return to a house filled with memories, both pleasant and painful. The two men negotiate with other, as they share secrets and lies. Through intimate conversations, multiple swearings, and loads of baggage, emotional and otherwise, this forgotten space opens up to be more dirty than it appears. Together, they try to make it livable again. Can they find the comfort they long for in a home they never quite belong?
13.13.13 by Tan Mae Shen |
4.30pm – 6.30pm
William and Sam have the perfect relationship. Sam doesn’t want children; William doesn't want to be married. 13.13.13. explores the form, substance and intimacy of a relationship when a binding agreement unravels.
Of What Could Be by Beverly Wee
8pm – 10pm
Exploring the conflict between pursuing our dreams and the pressures of the practical aspects of life. Whether it's missed opportunities of the past we hold on to or the "if only" events we long for believing they will make our lives better. When faced with a second chance, will you dare to take it and is it truly the answer to a more perfect life? Are our ideal scenarios we imagine truly as perfect as we project them to be when they play out in real life? Do we chase our ideals or learn to be content with what we what have?
Told through a complicated relationship brought about by situational circumstances, GIRL takes a second chance to pursue what she always believed would make her life more perfect at the expense of what she has. Life is messy and complicated. And the ones who stay in our lives are the ones we choose, who choose us back.
TheatreWorks is dedicated to nurturing and developing new writing from the community. Our script development focuses on exploration and creative dialogue between artists, away from the pressures of performance outcomes. It is not intended that writers will produce a performance-ready script by the end of the entire process; nor to conclude the process with the public reading this June. It is more to get feedback and responses from an interested audience to help contribute to the development of these newly written scripts.
With support from National Arts Council and Cultural Matching Fund.
Tony Perez - Writing from the Heart Playwriting Workshops
Workshop
29 May – 4 June 2017
Registration Fee: SGD 200
Open to participants 17 years and above.
*Limited to 20 participants
Session 1, Introduction to Writing from the Heart, Personal Mythology & Deconstruction, Character & Dialogue
29 May 2017
7.30pm – 10.30pm
Session 2, Structuring & Restructuring
30 May 2017
7.30pm – 10.30pm
Session 3, Envisioning Theatrical Space
31 May 2017
7.30pm – 10.30pm
Session 4, Powers of Observation
1 June 2017
7.30pm – 10.30pm
Session 5, Pushing Character and Plot Forward
2 June 2017
7.30pm – 10.30pm
Session 6, Dramaturgy & Rehearsing for Dramatic Readings
4 June 2017
10am – 1pm
Session 7, Group Dynamics & Drama Readings of Works in Progress
4 June 2017
2pm – 5pm
Please note, you will be expected to present a short script by the end of the workshop. There will be no sessions on Saturday, 3 June 2017.
Our ever-popular Writing from the Heart Playwriting Workshops is back! After the successful edition of Writing from the Heart workshops in 2014 – 2016, TheatreWorks is pleased to invite Filipino playwright Tony Perez back once again to conduct an interactive playwriting workshop as part of its Writing & Community programme.
This series of workshops aims to:
• Unearth and inspire new playwriting enthusiasts from within the
community
• Share one of the region's best playwright's skills and expertise with the community
• Develop new plays through a post-workshop mentorship and
dramaturgy programme
Writing from the Heart has previously discovered over 40 new writers and provided them with basic skills in playwriting. Through a series of hands-on exercises, which include drawing, dialogue and interpersonal interaction between participants, the mentor and within themselves, these exercises draw out the writers' potential from within and these discoveries became important material and inspiration for playwriting.
Emerging Singaporean playwright Helmi Yusof, first penned his new play My Mother Buys Condoms at the workshop in 2014. It was then further developed over a period of one year through a series of dramaturgical clinics under the guidance of Perez, before being presented to the public at a dramatized reading in July 2015. Since then, it has been picked up by local theatre company Wild Rice to be staged professionally as a full production at the Singapore Theatre Festival in July 2016. Helmi Yusof is one of the success stories that TheatreWorks is proud to have nurtured and supported through its Writing & Community programme.
Quotes from Previous Participants
Tony's teaching approach makes people feel empowered. I've never met a teacher like him. The workshops were honest, emotional and visceral, it exceeded all my expectation.
- Jason Montes, participant Of Writing from the Heart 2016.
Tony Perez is a wonderful, thoroughly unconventional and intuitive teacher. He talks about everything from chakra points and meditation to Freud and Jung, and you're asked to try them out in class, so you have to have a very, very open mind.
- Helmi Yusof, participant of Writing from the Heart 2015.
Everyday there was a self discovery — from our favourite character in a fairytale to our imbalanced chakras, which we balanced through the use of a pendulum, to the Eros and Thanatos concept which improves the inner voice in writing.
- Eliete Vivino, participant of Writing from the Heart 2014.
Tony Perez is a Filipino playwright, novelist, and visual artist with an M.A. degree in Religious Studies, an M.A. candidacy in Clinical Psychology, and an A.B. in Communication. He has authored two major, full-length trilogies of plays in Tagalog, some of which have been translated into English and Polish. His full-length play "Trip to The South" was performed in New York and in Singapore; another full-length play, "On The North Diversion Road," was performed in Melbourne and in Singapore. After having more than 40 books published in the Philippines, he is devoting the rest of his life to posting his new and forthcoming books in cyberspace. They can be accessed through his main blog site, http://www.tonyperezphilippines.blogspot.com. His artworks have been showcased in more than 15 exhibitions.
Perez is also the founder of the Spirit Questors, a group of young, psychic volunteers who render service to the public free of charge. Among his other interests are fiber art, puppetry, the use of drama in psychotherapy. In his home country, he conducts workshops to underserved audiences such as victims of human trafficking and sexual abuse, children in conflict with the law, prison inmates, child combatants, and residents of drug rehabilitation centers.
Perez has worked with TheatreWorks since the 1990s. He led in workshops like Writing from the Subconscious (1990). Explore the Physical Psychic Sense for Creative Writing (1992) and wrote Trip to the South performed at the ASEAN Season Festival in 1991.
With support from National Arts Council and Cultural Matching Fund.
Eng Kai Er / Faye Lim / Felicia Lim - Work-in-Progress: The Roundest Circle
Work-In-Progress
Friday, 21 & Saturday, 22 April 2017, 8pm
Three dance artists are at a crossroads in their rehearsal process. They are each unwilling to make decisions on behalf of the group and are adamant on consensus making. Yet these three amiable women express their individual preferences in rehearsals. Through the power of persuasion, facilitation and coy-ness they employ subtle strategies to communicate what they want.
Is all this possible? Can they find enough common ground so that what the group wants is also what each individual wants?
Come witness TheatreWorks' Associate artist Eng Kai Er and her two collaborators Faye Lim and Felicia Lim, translate their shared knowledge into a unified performance. The work is rooted in their practice of dance improvisation and driven by curiosity, collaboration, and contestation of ideas.
Kai Er, Faye and Felicia are at the halfway point of their project due for presentation in July. In this April work-in-progress showing, see what they have been exploring from January to April! And in the post-performance dialogue, tell them what you think!
TheatreWorks believes that it is crucial that it extends support to independent artists like Eng Kai Er, Faye Lim & Felicia Lim as independent art practice is the very embodiment of the notion that art is never any "one" thing and the independent scene is able to generate and sustain the vital creativity in the Singapore arts ecosystem. Equally important is that artists should be given an opportunity to consider their practice, develop a new idea or a new way of working. The impact of a period of research & development on an artist's future work can be significant. An appropriate research and development phase can be the first step in making a great idea happen.
With support from National Arts Council.
Ali Anwar / Fiona Lim / Kimberly Arriola / Matthew Fam / Thomas Lim - Grey Matters
Performance
Wednesday, 15 February 2017, 3pm
Grey Matters traces the journey of Damien, who faces the stresses of adjusting to major changes in his life, such as preparing for a national exam, fulfilling his leadership role in his CCAs and living up to the expectations of his family, friends and teachers. Damien neglects to properly take care of his mental health, and when it all becomes too much, he opens a mental first aid kit that he found under his table.
While we are familiar with physical illnesses and injuries, we often forget that our mental health needs to be taken care of as well. Grey Matters hopes to not only provide coping strategies for periods of intense stress, but also as we go about our daily lives. After all, our grey matter matters.
This performance is a new specially tailored pilot programme for schools exploring the issue of stress and how it affects students' mental health. Tackling perceptions that 'young people do not go through stress' and misconceptions that 'people who go for counselling are crazy' — Grey Matters aims to better prepare and equip students with the ability to cope with increasing amount of stress.
Grey Matters is a new programme presented as part of TheatreWorks' Writers' Laboratory Writing & Community Programme in partnership with the South East Community Development Council.
Grey Matters is written and directed by Thomas Lim, and performed by Ali Anwar, Fiona Lim, Kimberly Arriola and Matthew Fam.
The presentation of Grey Matters is part of TheatreWorks' Writing & Community Programme in partnership with the South East Community Development Council to nurture and develop new playwrights from the community. Writing & Community is a holistic, unique writing programme that serves the community through harnessing the talents and creativity in the community.
Writing & Community is a strand of TheatreWorks Engagement to encourage audience appreciation of the Arts, and deepen the knowledge of its patrons as well as stakeholders.
https://writingandcommunity2017.wordpress.com/
With support from National Arts Council and Cultural Matching Fund. Community Partner: South East Community Development Council.