Bani Haykal / Nipan Oranniwesna Prilla Tania / Vanessa Ban / Vincent Leong curated by Jason Wee
Silverlens, Singapore 12 September - 12 October 2014
RE/CALL/ RE/FORM/ RE/MASTER by Jason Wee
This exhibition occasions my thinking through acts of creative reuse and modes of material transfer within artistic practices; to the point, how shifts in the materiality of information and pleasure could constitute a deliberately naïve analogue to transformations in social materialities. Three processes are in focus: the syneasthetic recollection of one sensation (sound) that is provoked by an experience of a different sensation (sight); the transformation of found material into new physical form; and the transfer of ideas and information from one material substrate to another. These reshapings of materiality are analogous to the conturbations that we witness in contemporary practices, producing a frisson of unexpected intensity, an intensity that can be re-described in terms of potency or sonority. What these conurbations are exactly, as I hope to evidence in this short text, isn’t gestured at in para-texts ‘outside’ the work - in captions, marginalia, artist statements, and press release – but substantially taken up in the shaping of materiality. In keeping with these processes, I suggest that this writing proceeds as yet one more transcription, discussing the works in writing as they would appear to a viewer circling through the exhibition space. The transcription of the sounds of love unfolding, for Vanessa Ban, takes place over a weekend next to the open water. Her score Observation of Sound (Visualizing Silence) (2014) is an act of musicmaking as well as time-keeping, simultaneously suggesting the possibility of re-creating a sonic memory as well as its increasing distance between the present and that past. The experience of love as Vanessa scores it has both microtonalities and larger, synchronous harmonics, even in a score of ostensible silence. Love, it seems, resounds in waves.
The five smaller sketches are drawn from notational explorations in Vanessa’s sketchbook, each an attempt to transcribe a soundmaking spatial object into a drawing that recalls its original spatiality, each object a locational coordinate that specifies a moment in time and a place, and equally recalls that object’s musicality. In synesthesia, the affects of a private love affair become analogous to the sonorities of space, to the varying speeds of the ceiling fan, or to the irregular luminosity of the stars. Together, Vanessa’s notational forms and score are deliberately unorthodox as musical transcription, making its formal queerness apropos to the intimacies it notates. Bani Haykal’s instruments nakedly display the rudiments of their constructions, so that the modes of sound-making is evident. The changes in the speed of moving air – one basic definition for the creation of sound – is here acknowledged in one form (wind) but transformed into another, a processed lived recording meant to suggest the squeak of crickets. A sound that was deceptively successful, at least on the first days of the exhibition, when viewers, puzzled by its ‘lack’ of aural output, frequently mistook the crickets as a source of white noise from the green grounds of the barracks outside the gallery. Bani balances his source – a table fan - on a stack of four books on politics, diplomacy and the nation-state. When seen alongside his second work The Americans have colonised our subconscious (2014), Bani’s reveal of the mechanisms of sound-making exposes more than technological workings; on two wooden boards painted red and white, sits the circuitry through which the current of our nationalist articulation runs. While we recognize Bani’s use of electrified strings, the improvisational quality of his wall instrument 1
pushes any attempt at sound-making towards dissonance and noise. Taken ironically, the titular statement belies the real question - ‘who else’ occupies our subconscious impulses, given that the sounds we make on Bani’s instruments, dissonant or otherwise, are strummed by our own hands? Five pills in transparent capsules each contain a fine glittering dust, and a small star with surprising heft in the hand. The dust in Nipan’s capsules are medicinal only in the sense that arsenic is; they are a mix of Thai and Singapore coins grounded down by Nipan Oranniwesna to dust. They are poison pills of national economy. The metallic star is a similar alloy of two metals; this time Nipan melted the coins into a mold that forms an impure sixth star to the existing five in the Singapore flag, an intrusive, electric symbolic addition that now conducts inquiries into the partitions at the center of national identity-making. The lyrics of VichitVathakan (2014) are drawn from a song composed in 1938 by Luang Wichitwathakarn, an early promulgator of a form of Thai nationalism shaped in part through its arts and culture. Part of a history play “Maha Thewi”, the song exhorts its listeners to protect the kingdom like a fence around a house. The metaphor of domestic protection has strong nationalist overtones, with exhortations to fight, to display courage and to never surrender to the enemies taking over the kingdom. The song as rendered by Nipan is literally wooden, mute to emotionrousing melody, the fragile cellulose from which nationalism burns. In the wake of the May 22, 2014 coup, the lyrics to the “Thin Thai Song” develop pressing exigencies.
Prilla’s short video Larung (2013) on the ecological costs of our everyday habits is themselves ecological; the figures are made with paper cutouts from recycled cardboard. The films themselves are meant to be diminutive, preferably seen through a pinhole, with a modest footprint on the wall, so to speak. The images too are recycled in her own fashion, her cutouts functioning as wall-mounted paper sculptures as well as puppets in a shadow puppet installation. The remastering in Larung of shadow theatre as video is one more transmutation in her recycling aesthetic. Her ongoing works from the past two years suggest that every iteration in our material transformations of things – from raw materials to processed goods and utilities to consumer products and back – carry with them significant and invisible externalities, to our environment and our society. Vincent Leong’s Plugobot and Socketron robots (both 2008) are witty constructions using a nerdy logic familiar to LEGO and Transformers aficionados. They are readymades as adaptive technology, sockets that enjoin maladaptive parts into a larger machine. But the evaluation of adaptation is no longer made in strictly functional terms, or seen another way, these robots are barely functional. These are machines pushing their use-value to its childlike, useless edge. They resemble toys but are challenging to play with, they are tabletop lamps on the verge of falling apart, they contain nightlights, doorbells and timers but the sum of their parts (and lumens) deny each of these components any ease or possibility of use. How useful really is a glaringly bright nightlight? The playful paradox in these robots, and in some of the other works in the exhibition, is that the more their use value diminishes, the more apparent is the labour production that went into it. A relation is drawn from one form of materiality to another by labour, in a way that 2
doesn’t dissolve use and value more than it transmutes them for alternative valuations. In Nipan’s case, for example, the monetary conversion devalues its original currencies to generate instead a poisonous symbolic value. When examined under these considerations of motive transformations, the materiality of any given medium and our aesthetic considerations of it - in terms of dimension, proportion, totality, viscosity, gravity, assembly, speed – are released from any final state of givenness. That is to say that they are never locked into a end-state of ‘it is what it is’, when the potential remains for materiality and our aesthetic categories to be reshaped into something other than their present. Cumulatively, these reshapings form what is for me a crucially naïve analogy for the incipiency of transformative change in other materialities. The naïvety spills out in two ways, the first being its insufficiency. Yes, materiality may not reach a final immutability, what then? I suggest it is in the second sense of naïvety as the initial and the intuitive that the analogy works when we consider change in social and political materialities. It is to hold out as a first and
naïve premise that transformation, reformation, even revolution, is possible when remaking these materialities. This naïvety also allows us to consider the changes in social materialities apart from our rational actions. Taking a leave from Schiller’s characterization of the naïve in poetry as a moving conviction, we could then see how transformation and change happens also with those who know not what they do. I do not think of this naïve analogy as foundational thought as much as it is extensive, capable of stretching out from the familiar into far-off, useful directions . Here’s one possible extension: that this naivety allows us to acknowledge a debt to existing things, in other words, our debt to the readymade. Not to insist on the publicity and reifying power art possesses and brings to even the most commonplace of objects, but to the privation of the readymade, to the readymade apart from the force of art, to its already-existing readiness to be something else. We are familiar with the readymade as an art-specific category, as a urinal, or as a soup can, or as a shiny balloon. But the analogy works as well for other existing materialities. What then do we acknowledge the audience that is ready to be something else, the public, the polity?
I must acknowledge here the work on analogies by the philosopher of science Douglas Hofstadter and psychologist Emmanuel Sander, and their joint volume Surfaces and Essences (New York:Basic Books, 2013). 3
Plugobot and Socketron, Vincent Leong Installation view at Silverlens, Singapore Photo: Silverlens Galleries 4
Vichitvathakan, Nipan Oranniwesna; Larung, Prilla Tania Installation view at Silverlens, Singapore Photo: Silverlens Galleries 5
Untitled (capsule) and Monument in progress, Nipan Oranniwesna Installation view at Silverlens, Singapore Photo: Silverlens Galleries 6
Observation of Sound (Visualizing Silence) and Observation of Sound (Sound Observation, Vanessa Ban; The National Conversation and The Americans have colonised our subconscious, Bani Haykal; Untitled (capsule) and Monument in progress, Nipan Oranniwesna Installation view at Silverlens, Singapore Photo: Silverlens Galleries 7
Plugobot and Socketron, Vincent Leong, Vichitvathakan, Nipan Oranniwesna; Larung, Prilla Tania, Untitled (capsule) and Monument in progress, Nipan Oranniwesna; The National Conversation and The Americans have colonised our subconscious, Bani Haykal; Observation of Sound (Visualizing Silence) and Observation of Sound (Sound Observation), Vanessa Ban Installation view at Silverlens, Singapore Video: Silverlens Galleries 8
The Americans have colonised our subconscious, Bani Haykal Installation view at Silverlens, Singapore Video: Silverlens Galleries 9
Gallery Event Bani Haykal Performance 09 October 2014 watch full performance here 10
BANI HAYKAL
The Americans have colonised our subconscious enamel paint, electric guitar & bass pickups, machine heads, bridge, instrument strings on wooden planks 47.24 x 15.35 x 0.79 in • 120cm x 39cm x 2cm (each) 2014
The National Conversation electric fan, microphone, speaker, mixer, amplifier and used books variable Dimension 2014 11
NIPAN ORANNIWESNA
Vichitvathakan carved wooden text variable dimension 2014
detail
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NIPAN ORANNIWESNA
Monument in progress melted Thai and Singapore coins 2.16 x 0.59 in • 5.5 x 1.5 cm 2013 13
NIPAN ORANNIWESNA
Untitled (capsule) Thai and Singapore coin dust in capsule variable dimensions 2014 14
PRILLA TANIA
Larung Video 2 minutes 11 seconds 2013 Edition 2 of 6
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PRILLA TANIA
Larung, Prilla Tania Installation view at Silverlens, Singapore Photo: Silverlens Galleries 16
VANESSA BAN
Observation of Sound (Visualizing Silence) digital print on recycled paper 11.81 x 35.43 in • 30 x 90 cm 2014 editions of 3
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VANESSA BAN
Observation of Sound (Sound Observation I) digital print on acid free paper 13.89 x 9.84 in • 35.3 x 25 cm 2014 editions of 5 18
VANESSA BAN
Observation of Sound (Sound Observation II and III) digital print on acid free paper 13.89 x 9.84 in • 35.3 x 25 cm each 2014 editions of 5
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VANESSA BAN
Observation of Sound (Sound Observation IV and V) digital print on acid free paper 13.89 x 9.84 in • 35.3 x 25 cm each 2014 editions of 5
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VINCENT LEONG
Plugobot multisockets, nightlight, wireless doorbell receiver, fluorescent lightbulbs, electric timer, electric socket, electric wire 15.75 x 13.39 x 9.45 in • 40 x 34 x 24 cm 2008
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VINCENT LEONG Socketron multisockets, nightlights, UV lightbulbs, electric mosquito repellent, electric socket, electric wire 11.22 x 21.06 x 12.20 in • 28.5 x 53.5 x 31 cm 2008
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Silences We Are Familiar With, in collaboration with T.H.E Dance Company, da:ns Festival, The Esplanade, Singapore
book#6, with OFFCUFF, as part of World Event Young Artists, Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham, England
instructions to build a collapsible universe minus the annoying people, with OFFCUFF, LitUp Festival, Telok Ayer Performing Arts Centre, Singapore
instruments, both traditional and/or hacked, and his studies revolve around narratives, structured improvisation and
Enter The Headworm Hole, The Observatory, Goodman Arts Centre, Singapore
spoken word. He is also a member of b-quartet amongst other musical outfits. An Associate Artist with The Substation,
Crossings, in collaboration with The Necessary Stage (Singapore) and Trafik (Croatia), The Esplanade, Singapore
Bleeding Grace, in collaboration with Teater Ekamatra, The Esplanade, Singapore
The Cloud of Unknowing - Singapore Premier, in collaboration with Ho Tzu Nyen and Randolf Arriola, Gillman Barracks, Singapore
bani haykal + Heddy Boubaker (FR), La Maison Peinte, Toulouse, France
Le Labo Sonofage, Theatre Le Vent De Signes, Toulouse, France
UpInTheSkyFestival, Sinema Old School, Singapore
solo/sketches, with Nickolai D. Nickolov (IT), The Pigeonhole, Singapore
Visions of the East: Asia Through French Eyes “Hara Kiri”, with Leslie Low and Vivian Wang, National Museum of Singapore, Singapore
Q&A, as part of Sonic Visions by Song-Ming Ang, The Substation, Singapore
Playfreely, Goodman Arts Centre, Singapore
Mosaic Music Festival, with b-quartet, Opening act for Tortoise, The Esplanade, Singapore
2010
b-quartet + mux + OFFCUFF, Tribal Gathering of Tongue Tasters, The Substation, Singapore
Media/Art Kitchen-Politics of Humor and Play, Aomori Contemporary Arts Center, Japan
Uncommon Fields (conformity has replaced consciousness), with b-quartet, The Esplanade, Singapore
Media/Art Kitchen - Reality Distortion Field, Galeri Nasional Indonesia (Jakarta) / Art Row – Publika (Kuala Lumpur), Ayala Museum (Manila)
2009
Cityscapes, Singapore Design Festival, Singapore
people without people, with mux, The Substation, Singapore
What Day Is It Today?, The Studios, The Esplanade, Singapore
The Unpressionist, The Substation’s Lab Presents Imprimatura, The Substation, Singapore
BANI HAYKAL Bani Haykal (b. 1985, Singapore) experiments with text + music. His work stretches across various disciplines including installation, poetry and theatre, investigating cultural and socio-political climates coupled with perceptional and behavioural affects. As a soloist, he works primarily with acoustic
Haykal has collaborated, exhibited, performed and toured internationally, as an artist and a musician, participating in festivals including Media/Art Kitchen (Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines and Japan), da:ns Festival and The M1 Fringe Festival (Singapore) among others.
SOLO SHOWS 2013 Dormant Music, as part of The Art Incubator, Platform 3, Bandung, Indonesia
inside the subject, in collaboration with anGie seah and Mohamad Riduan, Institute of Contemporary Arts, Singapore
2012
Rethinking Music, The Substation Gallery, The Substation, Singapore
2011
Alternatives, The Substation Gallery, The Substation, Singapore
SE LECTE D GROUP SHOWS 2014 Re/call/Re/form/Re/master, curated by Jason Wee, Silverlens, Singapore
SE LECTE D PE RFORMANCE S 2014 The Cloud of Unknowing, in collaboration with Ho Tzu Nyen and Randolf Arriola, Singapore Art Museum, Singapore
2008
FEN Orchestra, with Otomo Yoshihide, Ryu Hankil, Yan Jun, Yuen Chee Wai, Sachiko M, dj sniff, Venzha Christ, Vu Nhat Tan, Yamaguchi Centre of Art and Media (YCAM), Yamaguchi, Japan
He Is Not An Impostor, in collaboration with George Chua, The Esplanade SPARKS Programme, The Esplanade, Singapore
EARTH by Alexander Dovzhenko (Live Film Score), The O.P.E.N (Singapore International Festival of Arts), 72–13, Singapore
Tobogganing (tomorrow is our permanent address), with b-quartet, The Play Den @ Arts House, Singapore
2007
Ten Thousand Tigers, in collaboration with Ho Tzu Nyen, The Esplanade, Singapore/ Halle G, Museums Quartier Wien, Austria
Feed The Poets (book launch), Singapore Writer’s Festival, The Playden @ The Arts House, Singapore
2013
3 Rituals, with ila + Syv Bruzeau, Centre for Contemporary Art, Gillman Barracks, Singapore
Forward Moves; Morpheus, in collaboration with diskodanny (Daniel K), Singapore Arts Festival, The Esplanade, Singapore
INCANTATIONS, The Observatory, Asian Tour (Philippines / Hong Kong / China / Korea / Japan)
Esplanade, SingaporeThe Arts House, Singapore
CHOPPA Festival, with David Toop (UK), Brian O’Reilly (US) and Darren Moore (AUS), Artistry, Singapore
AWARDS
book #7, with OFFCUFF, Centre for Contemporary Art, Gillman Barracks, Singapore
2004
BT Goldsmiths prize in Digital Media, London
Creative Destruction, in conjunction with Luminous Depths by Lee Mingwei, Peranakan Museum, Singapore
2004
Malaysian Video Award for Best Experimental Video: Amateur, Kuala Lumpur
The Observatory + MOE, Italy Tour, Italy
collapse, The Substation’s Associate Artist Research Programme Presentation, The Substation, Singapore
post-homesickness / a brief expression, in collaboration with Bottlesmoker, Duto Hardono, Homogenic and Muhammad Akbar, Platform 3, Bandung, Indonesia
2012
Fixations, The Observatory, Norwegian Tour (Oslo / Bergen / Stavanger / Hamar / Kristiansand)
Kalle Laar (GER) + bani haykal live, Nanyang Polytechnic, Singapore
E DUCATION 2001 Graduated from Sculpture Studio, Faculty of Art and Design, Bandung Institute of Technology
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NIPAN ORANNIWESNA
ART 80’s, HOF ART Gallery, Bangkok, Thailand
Krungthep 226, Bangkok Art and Culture Centre, Bangkok, Thailand
Nipan Oranniwesna’s (b. 1962, Thailand) artistic practice has spanned many years and forms of media. As a multi-media
2008
Positive Living, Bangkok University Gallery, Bangkok, Thailand
artist, he cogitates on issues of globalisation and migration, offering keen insights into the landscape of our changing world
Busan Biennale 2008, Korea
He lives and works in Bangkok, Thailand, where he is head of the Visual Arts Department in the School of Fine and Applied
This is not a Fairly Tale, Soka Contemporary Art Space, Taipei, Taiwan
Art at Bangkok University. His work has been exhibited widely throughout Thailand and internationally, at places such as the
More to Love, ARTAIDS Project,The Art Centre, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Art Centre, Chiengmai
Coffee, Cigalettes and Pad Thai Contemporary Art in Southeast Asia, Eslite Gallery Taipei, Taiwan
Monologue/ Dialogue II, BISCHOFF/WIESS, London, United Kingdom
Paradise Engineering, The Art Centre, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand
2007
Art on the Coffee Table, Ardel Gallery of Modern Art, Bangkok, Thailand
Being......at Home, Osage Gallery, Hong Kong
52nd Venice Biennale, Thai Pavilion, Italy
NIPAN ORANNIWESNA, Osage Gallery, Singapore
Show me Thai, Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, Japan
1997
Birthplace, Bangkok University Gallery, Bangkok, Thailand
1996
NIPAN ORANNIWESNA, Clay Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
School of Bangkok: who and where are we in this contemporary era, Bangkok University Gallery, Bangkok
Reminiscence of Earth, Yanaka Art Forum, Tokyo, Japan
2006
Monologue/ Dialogue, Bangkok University Gallery, Bangkok, Thailand
Reminiscence of Earth, Yokohama Museum of Art, Art Gallery, Yokohama, Japan
Dual Voltage, Bangkok University Gallery Rangsit Campus, Pathum Tanee
Reminiscence of Earth, Tokyo National University of Fine Art & Music, Japan
Crossflow, Numthong Gallery, Bangkok, Patriothall Gallery at WASPA, Edinburgh, Scotland
1995
Reminiscence of Earth, Clay Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
School of Bangkok, Tadu Contemporary Art, Bangkok, Thailand
1994
Gallery Yoyogi, Tokyo, Japan.
2005
Shield & Armor, Big Sky Mind, Cubao, Philippines
1993
Gallery Miharaya, Tokyo, Japan
2004
OH!, site-specific at abandon factory, Bangkok, Thailand
1992
Gallery Murazumi, Aichi, Japan
2003
Present Perfect, Bhirasri Institute of Modern Art, Bangkok, Thailand
1991
Gallery Murazumi, Aichi, Japan
2001
Recent work by Former Winner, The 10th International Print & Drawing Exhibition R.O.C., Bangkok, Thailand
Dedans – Dehors,Galleir Crous–Beaux-Arts, Paris, France
Kwarmroo khu Kwarmdee, Bangkok University Gallery, Bangkok, Thailand
2000
Glocal Scent of Thailand, curator: Chukit Panmongkon, Edsvik kunst och kultur, Sollentuna, Sweden
1999
International Biennial Drawing and Graphic Art, Gyor, Hungary
FAB, National Art Gallery, Bangkok University Gallery, Bangkok
1998
Book, site-specific at the former home of Kurusapa Publishing, Bangkok, Thailand
Sydney Biennale, the Singapore Biennale, the Kuandu Biennale and the Seoul Museum of Art.
SOLO SHOWS 2012 Speechless, 100 Tonson Gallery, Bangkok, Thailand 2009
SE LECTE D GROUP SHOWS 2014
Re/call/Re/form/Re/master, curated by Jason Wee, Silverlens, Singapore
MDIII: Fragility & Monumentality, Bangkok Art and Culture Centre, Bangkok, Thailand
Market Force: Erasure: From Conceptualism to Abstraction, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
2013
Singapore Biennale 2013: If The World Change, Singapore Art Museum, Singapore
Setouchi Triennale 2013, Asia Art Platform, Fukutake House,
Shodoshima, Japan
Art Basel Hong Kong, presented by Osage Gallery, Hong Kong
ART RE SIDE NCIE S
2012
Kuandu Biennale 2012: Artist in Wonderland, Kuandu Museum of Art, Taipei, Taiwan
2009
Koganecho Bazaar, Yokohama, Japan
18th Sydney Biennal: all our relations, The Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
2007
Sculpture Square, Singapore
Prints Tokyo 2012: International Print Exhibition, Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan
2006
Asian Cultural Contents Creation Center Workshop, Gwangju, Korea
SIGMA ASIA, Art Hong Kong 2012, presented by Osage Gallery, Hong Kong.
Subject Shall Remain Anonymous, Give Art Space, Singapore
2011
City- Net Asia 2011, Seoul Museum of Art, Korea
AWARDS 2004 BT Goldsmiths prize in Digital Media, London 2004
Malaysian Video Award for Best Experimental Video: Amateur, Kuala Lumpur
Wonderland, g23, Bangkok, Thailand
2011
We Who Saw Signs, Institute of Contemporary Arts Singapore Gallery 1, Singapore
THIS IS NOT A FAIRY TALE, g23, Bangkok, Thailand
SOS Sounding Creativity, Bangkok University Gallery, Bangkok, Thailand
E DUCATION 2004 Goldsmiths College, University of London, London Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA)
2010
PAPER MATTERS, Bangkok Art and Culture Centre, Bangkok, Thailand
2000
Thai Yo : Thai Japanese Contemporary Art, Bangkok Art and Culture Centre, Bangkok, Thailand
2009
Unsung Melody in an Lullaby, Bangkok University Gallery, Bangkok, Thailand
Safe place the future, VER Gallery, Bangkok
Centre of Advanced Design (CENFAD), Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Foundation Studies
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PRILLA TANIA
archiveAID 2011, a fundraising event for IVAA (Indonesian Visual Art Archive) and Pustaka, Indonesia
influx, Galeri Cipta II, Taman Ismail Marzuki, Jakarta, Indonesia
Prilla Tania, (b. 1979, Indonesia) began her career as an artist in 2003. Her works began from her observations on
Close The Gap: Indonesian Art Today, MIFA, Melbourne, Australia
everyday activities. She is interested in how humans relate to their natural surroundings as well as the relationship
2010
DECOMPRESSION#10, Ruru and Friends, Galeri Nasional, Jakarta, Indonesia
between culture and nature. Although she’s more known as a video artist, she also works with other media from
Contemporary Art Indonesia-ID, Kunstraum Kreuzberg/Bethanien, Berlin, Germany
performance to paper cutting and sometimes even combining several media and technique. Most of her works are
MEDIACTION, Chiyoda Arts 3331, Tokyo, Japan
site-specific therefore she rarely shown her work twice, also because some of them are ephemeral, like her paper
Eattoipa, Taiwan International Video Art Exhibition, Hong Gah Museum, Taipei, Taiwan
Shopping, Nadi Gallery, Jakarta Art District, Jakarta, Indonesia
Nu Substance: The Loss of The Real, Selasar Sunaryo Art Space, Bandung, Indonesia
2010
Lihat! Video art from Indonesia, Galería Jesús Gallardo, León, Mexico
n.b.k. Video-Forum, Neuer Berliner Kunstverein, Berlin, Germany
cutting works and performances. Since 2007, she has joined several artist in residence programs in Australia, Asia, and Europe; this experience has exposed her to different cultures and geographic situations which enriches her exploration and observations on culture and nature.
SOLO SHOWS 2013 E, Selasar Sunaryo Art Space, Bandung, Indonesia 2012
Ik Ben De Chloroman, HIER HEDEN, Den Haag, The Netherlands
2011
Video Out, Focus On Prilla Tania; 5th OK.Video Festival, Flesh; Linggar Seni, Jakarta, Indonesia
2009
mikrokosmos, MD Art Space, Jakarta, Indonesia
2008
tanah di dasar samudera, Cemara 6 Gallery, Jakarta, Indonesia
2005
watching me watching you watching me, Room#1, Bandung, Indonesia
2003
Phiruku, Centre Culturel Français de Bandung, Bandung, Indonesia
Magainin, Jakarta Art District, Jakarta, Indonesia
Halimun, Lawangwangi Art and Science Estate, Bandung, Indonesia
2009
Beyond The Dutch, Centraal Museum Utrecht, The Netherlands
Very Fun Park, Fubon Art Foundation Taipei, Taiwan
ligne a ligne, Indonesian National Gallery, Jakarta, Indonesia
Hybridization, North Art Space, Ancol-Jakarta, Indonesia
Bandung Art Now, Indonesian National Gallery, Jakarta, Indonesia
Jakarta Biennale, Fluid Zones, Indonesian National Gallery, Jakarta with VideoBabes
2008
Deer Andry, tribute to Andry Mochamad, S14 Bandung, Indonesia
ZE HUI LAI, Taipei Artist Village, Taipei, Taiwan
SE LECTE D GROUP SHOWS 2014 Re/call/Re/form/Re/master, curated by Jason Wee, Silverlens, Singapore
10th Year Anniversary of Selasar Sunaryo Art Space, Selasar Sunaryo Art Space, Bandung with VideoBabes
The Fifth Fukuoka Asian Art Triennale, Fukuoka Asian Art Museum, Japan
Konsumsi atau Mati, Byar Creative Industry, Semarang, Indonesia
Media/Art Kitchen-Politics of Humor and Play, Aomori Contemporary Arts Center, Japan
Ruang dalam Hitam Putih, S14 Bandung, Indonesia
ART JOG 2014 : Legacies Of Power, Yogyakarta, Indonesia
MANIFESTO, Indonesian National Gallery, Jakarta, Indonesia
HKAC 2nd Annual Collectors Contemporary Collaboration-Passion/Possesion, Hong Kong Arts Center, Hong Kong
The Past, The Forgotten, National Museum of Singapore, Singapore
2007
Beyond the Boundary, IASKA (International Art Space Kellerberrin Australia), Kellerberrin, Australia
The Past, The Forgotten, Bizart, Shanghai, China; Rumah Seni Yaitu, Semarang; Erasmushuis, Jakarta; Rumah Seni Cemeti, Yogyakarta; The Netherlands Institute of War
Art Dubai 2014, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Weight and Weightlessness, Dia Lo Gue Art Space, Jakarta, Indonesia
Screening Programs PROJECT 35 Volume 2, Platform3, Bandung, Indonesia
Documenation(NIOD), Amsterdam; Artotek, Den Haag, The Netherlands
2013
Gambar Idoep, Galeri Semarang, Indonesia
Intimate Distance, Indonesian Women Arists, Indoesian National Gallery, Jakarta with VideoBabes
Not A Dead End, Jogja Biennale XII, Jogja National Museum, Yogyakarta, Indonesia
Apa Kabar Indonesia, Indonesia-South Korea 40 years Diplomatic Relationship, LOTTE Avenue, Kuningan Jakarta, Indonesia
MANIFESTO, Indonesian National Gallery, Jakarta, Indonesia
Crossing Contemporary Culture, MiFa, Melbourne, Australia
The Past, The Forgotten, National Museum of Singapore, Singapore
2012
Inside The Moment, Crane Arts, Philadenphia, USA
Drift, Ruangrupa, Jakarta, Indonesia
Manifesto#3, Galeri Nasional, Jakarta, Indonesia
The Fountain Of Lamneth, Gajah Gallery, Singapore
Bandung Contemporary Art Award #2, Lawangwangi Art and Science Estate, Bandung, Indonesia
2011
WE ARE MOVING: Fundraising Exhibition, PLATFORM3, Bandung, Indonesia
Flight for Light: Indonesian Art and Religiousity, ART 1 New Museum and Art Space, Jakarta, Indonesia
[in]corporeal, OK!Video-Flesh, Galeri Nasional, Jakarta, Indonesia
Membajak TV, Galeri Salihara, Jakarta, Indonesia
Contemporary Landscape, Lawangwangi Art and Science Estate, Bandung, Indonesia
ART RE SIDE NCIE S 2009 Koganecho Bazaar, Yokohama, Japan 2007
Sculpture Square, Singapore
2006
Asian Cultural Contents Creation Center Workshop, Gwangju, Korea
AWARDS 2004 BT Goldsmiths prize in Digital Media, London 2004
Malaysian Video Award for Best Experimental Video: Amateur, Kuala Lumpur
E DUCATION 2001 Graduated from Sculpture Studio, Faculty of Art and Design, Bandung Institute of Technology 25
VANESSA BAN
2012 - 2014 (Present) Adjunct Lecturer Orita Sinclair School of Design Conducting classes for full-time and part-time students in basic software skillset, publication design, typography and the fundamentals of design.
Vanessa Ban (b. 1988, Singapore) is a graphic designer, artist, and lecturer. Her work cohabits contemporary art and graphic design. She is interested in the mediation between design and art language and is invested in holding the
2012 - 2014 Co-Founder BAN–FAM LLP Indepedent collective working on visual and spatial installations. Past exhibitions include group and solo shows at 2902 Gallery, TCC (the gallery), and Institue of Contemporary Arts Singapore.
tension between these two forms of aesthetic discourses. Premising the category of an artwork as a foundation to her thought process, she sees design as a complementary discursive partner that can subtly speak to the art object. Notable exhibitions include shows at the London Design Festival, Phunk Studio, Institute of Contemporary Arts
2011
Singapore, Aliwal Arts Centre, 2902 Gallery, the Red Dot Design Museum and Post-Museum.
SE LECTE D SHOWS 2014 Re/call/Re/form/Re/master, curated by Jason Wee, Silverlens, Singapore
Sands Art of Shopping, Marina Bay Sands, Singapore
Print Lab, Grey Projects, Singapore
2013
COS•MO, Institute of Contemporary Arts Singapore, Singapore
100 Friends 100 Songs, TCC (the gallery), Singapore
Transmission, Phunk Studio, Singapore
1 Dimensional Society, Institute of Contemporary Arts Singapore, Singapore
Designer Pentagram Assisted designers with a variety of team primarily led by Naresh Ramchandani and Dominic Lippa. Projects include pitch and live projects for the Tate Galleries London, YouTube and Equistone Banks Europe. 2009 Designer Asylum Assisted the Creative Director on projects including Fred Perry Singapore, Chocolate Research Facility and IE Singapore. 2008 Designer 2902 Gallery Created the gallery’s collaterals including EDMs, catalogues, pamplets and exhibition graphic design.
Lit Up Festival 2013, Aliwal Arts Centre, Singapore
2011
Not Too Far Away, 2902 Gallery, Singapore
London Design Festival, London
2009
All You Need is Love, Post-Museum, Singapore
E DUCATION 2014 Typography Summer School New York Certificate, Typographic Studies in Graphic Design
2008
Persistence of Living; Memory, 2902 Gallery, Singapore
2011
Thirteen;, 2902 Gallery, Singapore
London College of Communication BA Hons (Upper Sec) Graphic and Media Design
MAAD – The Graduate Showcase, Red Dot Design Museum, Singapore
2008
Temasek Polytechnic Diploma Visual Communication
TALKS AND WORKSHOPS 2014 Introduction to Typography, Grey Projects, Singapore
Introduction to Desktop Publishing, Grey Projects, Singapore
2013
Insights on the Design Industry, Institue of Technical Education (AMK), Singapore
Pursuing a Design Education, Temasek Polytechnic, Singapore
Design Collaboration, First Media Design School, Singapore
FEATURE S 2011 IMPRINT Innovative Book & Publication Design, published by Sandu Publishing, China
International Design Yearbook, published by MDX Publishing, China
Casual Days Issue 01, published by Casual Poet Culture, Singapore
2010
Almost Everything, published by Front Row Singapore, Singapore
Ceriph (Issue 2), published by Math Paper Press, Singapore
WORK EXPE RIE NCE 2012 - 2014 (Present) Vanessa Ban Studio Independent graphic design studio focusing on print and typographic work. Recent clients include Singapore International Photography Festival, Singapore Tyler Print Institute, Institute of Contemporary Arts Singapore and The Design Society Singapore. 26
VINCENT LEONG
JASON WEE
Vincent Leong (b. 1979, Malaysia) is an iconoclast and saboteur whose works in video, assemblage and site-specific
Jason Wee (b. 1979, Singapore) is an artist and a writer. His art practice is concerned with the hollowing out of singular
installation often pare down experience to sets of structures and systems. By selecting aspects of the ordinary and the
authority in favour of multiple perspectives and polyphony. He transforms these singular histories and spaces into various
popular, he investigates social misconceptions within a larger cultural context.
visual and written materials. His interests lie in their conundrums, idealism and unexplored futures. He is the author of the performance script Tongues (2012) and the poetry book The Monsters Between Us (2013), named
SOLO SHOWS 2014 Vincent Leong: Hari Ini Dalam Sejarah (This Day in History), Silverlens, Singapore 2012
You Are Here, Valentine Willie Fine Art, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
2007
Tropical Paradise, Sculpture Square, Singapore
The Exhibition That Was, Valentine Willie Fine Art, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
2006
The Fake Show, Reka Art Space, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
SE LECTE D GROUP SHOWS 2014 Re/call/Re/form/Re/master, curated by Jason Wee, Silverlens, Singapore
by TODAY newspaper as one of the top art picks of 2013. He is the 2014 NUS-Arts House Writer-in-Residence, and the 2013 Artist-in-Residence at Gyeonggi Creation Center. He is a graduate of The New School and Harvard University.
RE SIDE NCIE S & FE LLOWSHIPS 2014 Artist-in-Residence, Gyeonggi Creation Center, South Korea Writer-in-Residence, University Scholars Program, Cinnamon College, National University of Singapore 2013
Artist-in-Residence, Contemporary Art Japan, Tokyo, Japan
2009
Artist-in-Residence, Tokyo Wonder Site, Aoyama, Tokyo
Artist-in-Residence, ‘Moved, Mutated and Disturbed Identities’, Asia-Europe Foundation & Casino Luxembourg, Luxembourg
Fall into the Sea, to become an Island, Run Amok Gallery, Penang, Malaysia
2013
No Country: Contemporary Art for South and Southeast Asia, Guggenheim Museum, New York
2012
CUT2012: New Photography From Southeast Asia: Politics, Valentine Willie Fine Art, Singapore
2008
Artist-in-Residence, International Symposium of Electronic Arts, Singapore
Tanah Ayer: Malaysian Stories from the Land, Selasar Sunaryo Art Space, Bandung, Indonesia
2007
Artist-in-Residence, Artspace, Sydney
The Future of Exhibition: It Feels Like I’ve Been Here Before, Institute of Contemporary Arts Singapore, Singapore
2006
Studio Fellow, Whitney Museum Independent Study Program, New York
2011 2010
2005 Summer Institute Residency, The Kitchen, Sidney Kahn Summer Institute, New York
2009
Some Rooms, Osage Gallery, Hong Kong
13th Jakarta Biennale, Galeri Nasional Indonesia, Jakarta
SOLO SHOWS
2008
Contemporary Art in School Project (CAIS), Stella Maris School, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
2015
(upcoming) ArtStage Platform, Silverlens, Manila
2007
The Independence Project, Galeri Petronas, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
2014
(upcoming) Requiem, Michael Jannsen Gallery
Selamat Datang ke Malaysia, Gallery 4A, Sydney; and Valentine Willie Fine Art, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
2012
Master Plan, Chan Hampe Galleries, Singapore
4 Young Contemporaries, Num Thong Gallery, Bangkok, Thailand
Threshold, 13, Jari Art Space, Gwangju and Zeroone Design Center, Seoul, Korea
2005
3 Young Contemporaries, Valentine Willie Fine Art Gallery, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
ART RE SIDE NCIE S 2009 Koganecho Bazaar, Yokohama, Japan
2009
Ruins, Valentine Willie Fine Art, Kuala Lumpur
Ruins, Valentine Willie Fine Art, Singapore
2007
Captain’s Log, Tan Kay Ngee Architects Gallery, Singapore
2006
A View Of The Ground, Utterly Art, Singapore
2005
Treasure, Substation, Singapore
2004
Farewell at 5pm, Alliance Francaise de Singapour, Singapore
2007
Sculpture Square, Singapore
2003
Reka Art, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
2006
Asian Cultural Contents Creation Center Workshop, Gwangju, Korea
2002
Tilt, Art Motion Gallery, Singapore
AWARDS 2004 BT Goldsmiths prize in Digital Media, London 2004
Malaysian Video Award for Best Experimental Video: Amateur, Kuala Lumpur
E DUCATION 2004 Goldsmiths College, University of London, London Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) 2000
Centre of Advanced Design (CENFAD), Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Foundation Studies
SE LECTE D GROUP SHOWS 2014 Anthropos New York, Sundaram Tagore Gallery, New York
Notes on Performance, Objectifs Gallery
Parallax, Gyeongju Arts Center, Gyeongsangbuk-do, Korea
Parallax, Hanam Art Center, Gyeonggi, Korea
2013
Parallax, Blue Square Nemo Galleries, Seoul, Korea
The Invisibility Project, The Arts House, Singapore
Free Jazz, Opening Performances, Centre for Contemporary Art, Singapore
Plaza North Art Centre, Saitama City, Japan
Anthropos, Sundaram Tagore Gallery, Singapore
Anthropos, Numthong Gallery, Bangkok 27
New Black City, Art Stage Singapore (commissioned project)
2012
18@8, Weiling Gallery, Kuala Lumpur
18@8, ION Gallery, Singapore
Project Glocal in ‘DiverseCity’, 8Q Singapore Art Museum, Singapore
Project Glocal, Vargas Museum, University of Philippines, Quezon City
Portraiture Now, Objectifs Gallery, Singapore
E DUCATION 2010-2012
Masters of Design Studies, Art, Design and the Public Domain,
Graduate School of Design,Harvard University, Cambridge 2004-2007
Masters of Fine Arts in Photography and Related Technologies, The New School, New York
Studied with Simon Critchley (Theories of the Political), Agnes Heller (Kant, Marx), Edward S. Casey (Deleuze and Bergson)
New Strange Faces, Valentine Willie Fine Art, Singapore
1999-2004
Bachelors of Arts in Political Science and English Literature, with honors. National University of Singapore
A Place of Our Own, Objectifs Gallery, Singapore
Thesis: “I Am What I Am: Violence and Subjectivity in Derrida and Levinas”
2011
Imagine Malaysia, Valentine Willie Fine Art, Singapore
Unshakeable, Light Editions Gallery, Singapore
2010
Future Perfect, SHContemporary, Shanghai
Electric Dreams, Give Art, Singapore
After LKY, Valentine Willie Fine Art, Singapore
MM I Love You, Objectifs Center for Photography and Filmmaking, Singapore
The Future of Exhibitions, Institute of Contemporary Arts, Singapore
Incessantly Creative, Light Editions Gallery, Singapore
Faith & Reason, Manila Contemporary
ICON de Martell Cordon Bleu Photography Prize, Raffles City, Singapore
No Conical Hats: Southeast Asian works on paper, Give Art, Singapore
A Thousand Times Yes, Manila Contemporary
APPOINTME NTS 2014
Graduate Thesis Supervisor (Arts Management), LaSalle College of the Arts, Singapore
2013
Undergraduate Lecturer (Arts Management), LaSalle College of the Arts, Singapore
2012
Member, International Advisory Panel, Lasalle College of the Arts, Singapore
Assessor, Graduate Dissertation (MA. Arts and Cultural Management), Lasalle College of the Arts, Singapore Guest Critic, Sophomore Photography Seminar, Parsons The New School of Design 2010
Undergraduate Tutor, School of Art, Design and Media, Nanyang Technological University. Taught “Western Art History”
2009-present
Graduate Studio Supervisor (MA. Fine Arts), LaSalle College of the Arts, Singapore
2009-present
Graduate Thesis Supervisor (Art History), LaSalle College of the Arts, Singapore
2009
Graduate Lecturer (MA. Arts and Cultural Management), LaSalle College of the Arts, Singapore. Taught “Perspectives on Art, Culture and Globalization”
External Assessor, School of Arts, Design and Media, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. Graded “Western Art History” Faculty, ‘Shooting Home’ Juried Workshop, Objectifs Centre of Photography, Singapore 2008
Undergraduate Thesis Supervisor, LaSalle College of the Arts, Singapore
Undergraduate Lecturer (BA. Arts Management), LaSalle College of the Arts, Singapore. Taught “The Arts in Context: The Contemporary” 2007
Graduate Thesis Advisor (MA. Fine Arts), LaSalle College of the Arts, Singapore
Adjunct Faculty, Objectifs Center of Photography, Singapore 2006
Adjunct Faculty, International Center of Photography, New York. Taught “A View of the Ground. Landscape Theory and Photography”
2004-present
Editor, Softblow Poetry Journal, Singapore’s only journal dedicated to poetry
2003-2004
Editor, Vehicle, Singapore’s only visual arts and visual culture magazine
2001-2004
Guest Editor, the2ndRule.com intermedia journal
28
SILVERLENS (Manila and Singapore), through its exhibition program, artist representation, art fair participation, and institutional collaboration, aims to place its artists within the broader framework of international contemporary art dialogue. SILVERLENS, founded by Isa Lorenzo and Rachel Rillo, has earned recognition from both artists and collectors as one of the leading contemporary art galleries in Southeast Asia. Artists represented include Maria Taniguchi, Patricia Eustaquio, Gary Ross Pastrana, Luis Lorenzana, and I Lann Yee. Recent collaborations include the Museum of Contemporary Art and Design Manila, Vargas Museum Manila, and Singapore Art Museum. Silverlens participates annually in key international art fairs.
RE/CALL/RE/FORM/RE/MASTER Copyright Š 2014 Silverlens Inc. All rights reserved. Published by Silverlens Singapore Pte Ltd RE/CALL/RE/FORM/RE/MASTER by Bani Haykal, Nipan Oranniwesna, Prilla Tania, Vanessa Ban and Vincent Leong, Curated by Jason Wee presented in Silverlens, 12 September to 12 October 2014, at 47 Malan Road, #01-25, Gillman Barracks. Exhibition Notes by Jason Wee No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or otherwise, without the prior written consent of the above mentioned copyright holders, with the exception of brief excerpts and quotations used in articles, critical essays or research. ISBN: 978-981-09-2583-3 Back Cover Image: Observation of Sound (Visualizing Silence), 2014; Vanessa Ban (detail)
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