SPECIAL EXHIBITIONS

SEE ME, SEE YOU: EARLY VIDEO INSTALLATION OF SOUTHEAST ASIA

1 closing 17 Sep | tube televisions, black plinth, live video feed; Video, single channel, 4:3 format, black and white and sound (stereo), 58 sec; Video, single channel, 4:3 format, colour and sound (stereo), 49 sec. Collection

By staging and recreating seminal works by ten artists, See Me, See You: Early Video Installation in Southeast Asia locates the moment when the form first emerged in the region in the 1980s and 1990s. Driven by their curiosity towards novel mass-consumed technology as well as an urge to break away from the conventions of painting and sculpture, these artists turned to installation and performance, applying them in myriad combinations with the moving image. Video installation culminated from this interdisciplinarity and experimental impulse. Before the emergence of modern projection screens, video installation relied heavily on an old-school technological behemoth: the cathode-ray tube television. The first iterations of video installation were imposing sculptural objects, which encroached into the viewer’s space. From its nascent years until today, video installation unveiled modes of affecting audiences through layered spatial and temporal experiences, gaining ground as a medium that is now a staple of contemporary art.