PKW gallery presents
Art in Conversation with Technology
6 September 2003
Singapore may well be one of the most wired cities in South East Asia, with ever
increasing wireless LAN networks in workplaces, Singapore ONE potentially
linking all homes to the information highway. The IT Master Plans launched by
the Ministry of Education, assembling impressive IT infrastructure, of different
scale, into all schools, promises engaged learning in an IT culture. With an
increasingly techno-savvy, techno-oriented audience, does it change expectations
and perceptions of art in Singapore?
Art and Technology are often seen as two different disciplines but with
convergent ideals, functions and audience. They can be said to hold the
principle that they are made by people, for people. ‘new’ Art or new ways of
seeing art and technological advances pushes set boundaries, questions the way
societies, communities and nations think and behave, or make money. Some live
on, for one or the other. Whilst the current generation of students in Singapore
are more IT-savvy, because of a greater promotion in the arts they may have had
more exposure to visual art than the previous generation did.
The relationship is symbiotic; art offers new or different perspectives of
looking at people and things, while technology enables artists to use new media
to express these perspectives. One may be specific and read the terms to refer
to contemporary art and contemporary Technology. The former will remind us of
artworks that are explicit to our socio-cultural context, the latter referring
to skills or equipment that are the epitome of our age: cloning, the Internet,
et al. One such intersection, we get cyber-arts. Where the two disciplines fail
to meet or are incompatible, we have possibly 3 scenarios. Firstly, artists in
caves; secondly, artists whose lives are engaged by technology but not
necessarily making works criticising modern technology since there is so much to
life; and artists with gadgets.
How one sees artists ‘engage’ technology in the process of art making is purely
a question of taste whether one likes or dislikes the technique.
Text: Lim Kok Boon
Concept: Vincent Leow
PKW is proud to present “Art in Conversation with Technology” as part of its
multi disciplinary talk on contemporary art in Singapore. Consisting of 3
sessions various practising artists will be presenting their works followed by
floor discussion. The focus will be on how and why artists engage or disengage
with technology in the process of art making.
The talk is free but limited seats available. Please call or email us early for
reservations to avoid disappointment.
For more information on the invited artists, please contact the Gallery at: T
+65 6292 7783 : F +65 6292 2936.
Programme
060903 Saturday
10.00 am
Introduction by Lim Kok Boon
Session 1 (10.15 am - 12.15 pm)
Does technology enable artists to express their art better?
Margaret Tan, Wil-kie Tan, Lim Kok Boon (moderator), Cheo Chai-Hiang and Cecily
Briggs
12.30pm–1.30pm LUNCH
Session 2 (1.30pm. – 3.30pm)
Is contemporary art defined by the usage of technology?
Lim Shing Ee, Ye Shufang, Venka Purushothaman (moderator), Colin Reaney, Michael
Lee
3.30pm. – 4.00pm TEA AND COFFEE BREAK
Session 3 (4.00pm – 6.00pm)
Do artists engage technology in their works, a question of choice or trend?
Lee Sze-Chin, Paul Lincoln, Pwee Kheng Hock (moderator), John Low, Khiew Huey
Chian
Artists involved:
Cecily Briggs
Cecily Briggs is a painter, writer and independent curator. She holds a BA in
Fine Art, a Post-Graduate Diploma in painting and a Masters Degree in
Communication & Cultural Studies. She is currently a Teaching Fellow at the
Visual & Performing Arts, National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological
University, Singapore.
Cheo Chai-Hiang
Cheo Chai-Hiang graduated from the Royal College of Art before becoming a Rome
Scholar at the British School at Rome. He was a Senior Lecturer at the School of
Contemporary Arts, University of Western Sydney. He is currently working on a
project with the Contemporary Asian Arts Centre.
Colin Reaney
Before taking up his present position here at NIE Singapore, he was head of
sculpture at the University of Southern Queensland (1989-1995) Queensland
University of Technology (1996-1997) and worked in the Creative and Visual Arts
degree programmes at Griffith University Brisbane Australia. He developed and
presented a series of workshops/lectures for Australian Flying Art Inc. over a
two-year period in the southern regional areas of Queensland. He has taught in
the US, and exhibited work within Australia, Europe and the Asian/Pacific
region, with artists-residencies in France, England and the US. He was part of a
team that under took a Caut Grant (Committee for the Advancement of University
Teaching) looking to "provide intellectual access and participative experience
in the Visual Arts at a Bachelor Degree level for interactive, self paced
learning in three dimensional studies" via the use/integration of the 'new
technologies.
John Low
John Low works with a variety of media for his installation works. He is
currently pursuing a PhD in Art at Curtin University and lectures at Nanyang
Academy of Fine Arts.
Khiew Huey Chian
Khiew Huey Chian graduated with a Master of Arts in Fine Art (Painting) at the
Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT), LASALLE-SIA College of the Arts,
Singapore in 2002. He received The Della Butcher Award (Certificate of Merit) in
1996 and the JCCI Arts Award (Arts Section) in 2000. He has been involved in
numerous exhibitions since 1996.
Lim Kok Boon
Lim Kok Boon is a visual artist that deals with an aesthetics of the
everyday. Occasionally, he writes on art for Vehicle and for friends. He
graduated from Goldsmiths College, London in 2001 and is currently a student at
NIE.
Lim Shing Ee
Shing Ee graduated from LASALLE-SIA college of the arts and went on study her
Masters at Musashino Art University, Tokyo under a JCCI art scholarship. She has
exhibited her works in various shows both in Japan and Singapore.
Lee Sze-Chin
Lee Sze-Chin graduated from Goldsmiths College, London in 2002 and is currently
serving his NS. Some exhibitions which he was involved in include “B.E.A.U.T.Y”
at Utterly Art, Singapore and “See Singapore!” The Contemplation Room Project in
Overgaden, Copenhagen, Mr Lee presents: Mr and Mrs. Lee’s Chinatown tour.
Margaret Tan
Margaret Tan received her diploma in Visual Arts (Painting) LASALLE-SIA College
of the Arts in 1999 and went on to complete a degree at the Royal Melbourne
Institute of Technology (RMIT) conducted at LASALLE-SIA College of he Arts. She
is a practicing artist who situates her practice within a feminist context. She
works with a wide range of medium from objects, performance and installation to
new media. She was the recipient of the Outstanding Achievement Award (RMIT) in
her Bachelor of Fine Arts programme and became the first Artist-in-Residence
with the Cyberarts Initiative, University Scholars Programme, National
University of Singapore.
Michael Lee
Michael Lee Hong Hwee is a visual artist, art writer and independent curator. He
co-curated Eye-dentifying Peranakan Cultures (NAFA Middle Gallery, 2001-2) and
Cinepolitans: Inhabitants of a Filmic City (Jendela, Esplanade – Theatres on the
Bay, 2003), and has written for Asian Cinema, Singapore Architect, vehicle, iSh
and various art exhibition catalogues. He has won awards for his collaborative
videos, including first prize for the Experimental Category in the University
Film and Video AssociReceived: from AlphaPri-MTA by gw3alpha.nafa.edu.sation’s
Student Short Film Competition 1997 in
Texas, USA, and the United Television International Award for Distinction 1996
in Singapore. He has participated in numerous local artexhibitions, such as 20th
UOB Painting of the Year (UOB Plaza, 2001), Nokia Singapore Art (Singapore Art
Museum, 2001-2) and Sensitive Parts (Plastique Kinetic Worms, 2003). He is
currently Acting Deputy Head of the Fine Art Department in Nanyang Academy of
Fine Arts, Singapore, where he lectures on Western art history and selected
topics in art theory. Concerned about the relations between desire and space, he
is particularly intrigued by how human wishes may reflect, affect and interact
with the architectural environment. Michael has a Master of Communication
Studies from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.
Paul Lincoln
Lecturer, art maker and Georgette Chen scholarship recipient, Paul Lincoln
received a BFA (Painting) from Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology,
Australia in 1999 and is currently lecturing Interactive Art at the School of
Multimedia Art, LASALLE-SIA College of the Arts, Singapore. He is a founding
member of the web art group www.codedpixels.org and a committee member of the
ACM, SIGGRAPH Singapore Chapter. Primarily interested in thematic investigations
of social division and discourses in mass media, Paul implements formalistic and
comparative language in his work. His most recent endeavors have been in the
artistic direction of Mixed Reality Technology with Dr. Adrian D. Cheok of the
National University of Singapore and they recently exhibited at the Festival Ars
Electronica 2002, Futurelab – Ars Electronica Centre, Austria (2002) and at
GRAPHITE 2003, Australia (2003).
Pwee Keng Hock
Keng Hock is a molecular biologist with a PhD in Plant Molecular Biology from
University of Cambridge and has lectured at the National University of Singapore
from 1992-2001.He is currently the director of Biomin Laboratory Singapore Pte
Ltd and one of the directors of Utterly Art.
Venka Purushothaman
Venka Purushothaman is Senior Lecturer of Arts Management at LASALLE-SIA College
of the Arts. He specialises in teaching and researching critical issues in the
visual arts, cultural policy and arts business. Venka has published in various
journals, periodicals and exhibition catalogues and sits on a number of expert
and resource panels on funding and programming in Singapore. Prior to his career
in academia, Venka was a marketing specialist with a number of arts
organisations including the Esplanade-Theatres on the Bay, The Arts Magazine and
the National Arts Council. His research interests include Asian aesthetics in
popular culture and cultural policy. Recently he edited a book on arts doyens in
Singapore titled Narratives: Notes on a Cultural Journey.
Wilkie Tan
Wilkie Tan graduated from Slade School of Fine Art, University College London in
1999, and received his postgraduate diploma in education at Nanyang
technological University, Singapore in 2002. Working mainly with video, film and
multimedia, his works deal with themes of memory, change and tension. He was a
finalist in the 6th Singapore International Film Festival, Silver Screen Awards
for Short Films, for his stop-motion animation ‘Seed’.
Ye Shufang
Ye Shufang deals explores issues of impermanence, audience interaction and
site-specificity in contemporary art-making. These issues, fundamental to her
practice, form a premise within which has evolved projects that deal with simple
practices, ready-mades, and ephemeral materials. Many of Shufang’s projects and
installations attempt to level the art-making process with the most
mundane/basic/simple of ‘non-art’ processes; and to suggest that one process is
necessary to the other; neither is more poetic/crucial/ or carries higher ideals
than the other; engaging in either makes one more aware of the other. By using
everyday objects and temporal materials, Shufang is also examining the value and
shelf-life of a work of art.
With support:
National Arts Council (Singapore)
JCCI (Singapore)
Plastique Kinetic Worms opens on Tuesdays to Saturdays from 11am to 6pm
Closed on Sundays, Mondays and Public Holidays.
For more information, please contact us at Tel: 6292 7783 € Fax: 6292 2936
61 Kerbau Road Singapore 219185.
Little India Arts Belt, Little India MRT station exit E.
website: www.pkworms.org.sg € e-mail: admin@pkworms.org.sg
a non-profit organisation