An interdisciplinary production, consisting of two parts:
the performance If the Universe, between Circle and Ellipse, Slips and the sound
and visual exhibition Sounds Like Mirrors.
WHAT IS IT?
Text, sound, visual art and movement converge in an exploration of the shifting
poles of power between self and other. The shape of the work spins within the
tension of the circle and ellipse, where negative yields into positive space,
image into anti-image, word into sound into gesture into image into moment of
experience.
The works occupy and unite the spaces of two shophouses, 61 & 63 Kerbau Road
(home to Plastique Kinetic Worms) at Little India’s Arts Belt.
Performances on 3,4,5 August. at 8 p.m.
a contribution of $5 per person at the door will be appreciated to help defray
production costs.
Visual and sound exhibition on till 7 August. 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.
WHO’S INVOLVED?
The work is conceived and directed by interdisciplinary artist, Susie Lingham.
Susie, known for her idiosyncratic approach, was last heard in, Feedback, in One
Breath, a text and soundwork for the ‘Loudhailer Park’ at Asian Comments,
Copenhagen, Demark (2002). She also wrote an equation of vulnerability, a book
produced in collaboration with visual artist, Suzann Victor, which was published
by the former Contemporary Asian Arts Centre, Singapore (2002). This month,
Susie has taken time off her PhD research to pull together a dynamic local team
of promising emergent talents and accomplished practitioners in various art
disciplines from visual art to performance, for this unusual production.
An extraordinary team of 17
Singaporean artists from various disciplines.
WHY BOTHER?
You could describe it as a rare moment in contemporary art, a paradoxically
‘baroque minimalist’ experience. An aubergine-coloured hall of art-mirrors;
claustrophobic steely soundscape; stark lighting; a “staircase creature” in
severe flame-coloured taffeta with a train over two-and-a-half metres long; one
pair of illuminated talking heads in dialogue with two bodies in elasticized
orbit around each other.
Plastique Kinetic Worms is proud to present this alternative art performance, If
the Universe, between Circle and Ellipse, Slips; and the sound and visual
exhibition, Sounds Like Mirrors.
A Dialogue With Memory
Mixed media
Lingham graduated as Merit Award Student from the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts
with a Diploma in Fine Arts in 1990. She is co-founder-director of 5th Passage
Artists Ltd., a non-profit arts company which organizes exhibitions and produces
multimedia events. Lingham also co-founded the Book Theatre, an original "visual
theatre" concept, through which she produced many shows that were performed in
public areas and schools.
Her selected exhibitions include: The Artists' Project, Raw Theatre 3,
Singapore, 1994; Surrogate Desires, Pacific Plaza, Singapore, 1994; Artists
General Assembly, 5th Passage Contemporary Art Space, Singapore, 1993; Abeno-Soho
Art Project, Osaka, Japan, 1993; A Dialogue with Memory, The Substation,
Singapore, 1993; Body Fields, 5th Passage Contemporary Art Space, Singapore,
1992; and Arte & Materia, National Museum Art Gallery, Singapore, 1990.
In 1994 Lingham was on the panel of speakers for the second in a series of three
talks organized by the Singapore Art Museum to study the relationships between
art education, art training, art practice, and the social realities of
Singapore. The series was entitled Creating Culture, and took place in the
National Museum Theatrette.
Susie Lingham, lecturer
Fine Arts, Lasalle SIA College of the Arts
melbourneconnectionasia 2004
The Substation, Singapore
May/June
Artists
Alan Oei
Susie Lingham
Hazel Lim
Ho Tzu Nyen
Lee Wen
Arts Central Battle at Waterloo Series 3
Every Thursday at 10.30pm
Set in a mock courtroom set, art practitioners, administrators and enthusiasts
come together in a battle of words in Art Central's yearly debate in its third
season. With mind over matter, opinions are thrown across to each opposing teams
to state their case. Studio audiences vote at the end of the courtroom session
to determine the winning team. Hosted and moderated by Remesh Panicker.
Ep. 2: THE ARTS SHOULD TAKE A BACKSEAT WHEN TIMES ARE BAD
When the economy has taken a turn for the worse, is arts a priority for the
society?
Guest speakers
Raghunath Doraisamy, lawyer, Arts-goer
Melvinder Singh, actor
Susie Lingham, artist
Wee Li Lin, filmmaker
Women and Art
The Friday Event on 10 March 2000
The last session in the series looks at the position of woman artists in
Singapore today. Is gender of the artist significant in their art-making? How
useful are labels like "feminist art", "woman's art" or " woman issues" in the
understanding and appraisal of artwork? How are "women/woman" issues perceived
and presented by male artists? Do they differ from those of their female
counterpart?
Speakers:
Jasmine Ng - Film editor
Jasmine Ng works as a film editor at Video Headquarters. She co-produced
Moveable Feast which won the Best Short Film award at the 1996 Singapore
International Film Festival and edited the movie Twelve Storeys.
Amanda Heng - Artmaker/Cultural Worker
A full-time practising artist, Amanda Heng works in multi-media installation and
performance art. Her recent exhibitions were at the Womanifesto II in Bangkok,
the first Fukuoka Asian Art Triennale, the Rand Festival in Austria and the
third Asia-Pacific Triennale in Brisbane, Australia.
Kok Heng Leun - Artistic director
Koh Heng Leun is a bilingual theatre director with over 30 plays in his
repertoire which includes Mr Beng ¢XV the Musical, Sour Relationship, Galileo, I
Feel the Earth (co-directed with Alvin Tan) and Three Years in the Life and
Death of Land. He also writes plays and is currently Artistic Director of the
Drama Box.
Susie Lingham - Artist/Writer
An artist and writer, Susie Lingham adopts an interdisciplinary approach to her
art practice. She has recently returned from completing art studies in
Australia.
Moderator : Constance Singam -Lecturer/activist
Apart from her teaching commitments , Constance Singham is an avid activist,
having served formerly as President of Aware and recently in several committees
like the The Working Committee and the Education committee at Aware. She also
writes and is currently working on a book on Singapore women to be published in
the Millenium.
Venue : The Substation Classroom
Time : 7.30 to 9.30pm
The Friday Event has been kindly supported by the Lee Foundation, the NAC and
the Substation.
Nokia Singapore Art 2002: Weekend Series - Borders
Singapore Art Museum Auditorium, 2pm - 3.15pm, Free Admission, Tel: 332 3222
Susie Lingham will use images to explore the boundaries between physical fact
and idealised nostalgic fiction. She will also investigate how artistic works
blur the boundaries between private and public space.
B.E.A.U.T.Y.
Participating Artists
1. Chng Seok Tin
2. Lina Adam
3. Lee Sze-Chin
4. Ho Tzu-Nyen
5. George Chua
6. Benjamin Puah
7. Leo Ong
8. Zulkifle Mahmod
9. Ahmad Abdul Bakar
10. Juliana Yasin
11. Wilkie Tan
12. Claire Lim
13. Susie Lingham
14. Jason Lim
15. Khairrudin Hori
16. Lee Wen
17. Milenko Prvacki
18. Lim Kok Boon
19. Agnes Yit
20. Kai Lam
It is organized by Amanda Heng, Shirley Soh, Luanne Tay and Felicia Low
Thus, saith the serpent: eight flesholds on a descent into
word
Author Lingham, Susie
Institution University of Western Sydney
Date 1998
Abstract This is a fictitious and interdisciplinary speculation on the
signification of engendered subjectivities, engaging with concepts from art
history, critical theory, philosophy, religious philosophy and iconography,
science, visual art, fiction and poetry. The ‘actions’ in the work are mental
processes involving durational perception in time. Narrative, if it appears at
all, does not arrive, derive or result – rather it accumulates as consciousness.
Operating as a zootrope, the work revolves around eight ‘openings’ in the body,
chosen for their visceral, metaphysical and ideological permeabilities, which
act as ‘Doors’ into each chapter: cleavage, the tiniest mappable distance in
cell division; hymen, controversial site of female ‘virginity’; larynx, cleft
‘lips’ vulnerable to colonization and ‘possession’; ear, the uncloseable organ,
always open to suggestion; blindspot, the gap in vision that allows vision to be
processed; synapse, the tiny impulse-sensitive interval between neurons in the
brain; navel, the point of absolute memory or uroboric continuity with the
mother, a vampire’s memory, blood-permeable; cloaca, non-function specific
passage, viscerally absent in humans, but ‘fissured’ into existence through
desire. Each opening is ‘cloacal’, functioning simultaneously as both entry and
exit point of/for experience. Linking the intervals of the ‘zootrope’ are
passages of ‘Descent’ interspersed between openings. The descent into word is a
continuum: a fall into hermaphroditic being. There is no arrival because word,
being always flesh-held, is always only ever beginning.
Crop Circles
Crop Circles doesn't have a
universal meaning, nor is it intended to. Each audience member will take away a
different experience and interpretation.
The project came into being when three writers, Catriona McKenzie, Ross Gibson
and Susie Lingham, were invited “to write performance texts about memory --
personal, family and cultural -- beginning with the crop circles and spiralling
out”.
Any Similarities Are Purely Coincidental
by Susie Lingham, Adam Collis and Francis Ng
This work engages with the idea of 'eavesdropping', the covert invasion of
privacy, the sometimes overly 'dramatic' aural experience in cinemas, and text
that performs as 'disclaimers' as seen during credits at the end of a film. The
work also deals with the notion of intervention in existing
structural/architectural and aural features of a site.
This collaborative work between Susie Lingham, Adam Collins and Francis Ng
involves the use of 'binoaural' (or sensurround) sound effects, text translated
into recorded voice, and sculptural installation. Pairs of structures
constructed from dismantled and restructured headphones will protrude from the
walls for audience interaction. Each installation will be a private 'hearing
station' with headphone structures located individually at seemingly random
areas of the atrium. Individuals will be able to interact with these private
'hearing stations' and eavesdrop on the pre-recorded spoken text played through
these structures. The recorded disclaimer text will be heard via
speakers/headphones embedded in the wall structures. The effect will trigger the
auditory senses creating a 'binoaural' experience.
Susie Lingham is a writer and artist who engages in interdisciplinary projects
involving writing, visual arts, sound and performance. Returning from Sydney
with an MA (Honours) in Writing, she currently lectures at LASALLE-SIA College
of the Arts. Susie was co-founder of the artist-initiative 5th Passage and has
worked with Urban Theatre Projects in Sydney, Theatreworks, The Necessary Stage,
and The Substation. Her writings have also been published in various
publications.
Adam Collis is a British-born composer specializing in electronics and computer
music. He has a degree in Music and Physics and studied composition with Rajmil
Fiscman to complete an MA in Digital Music Technology. His compositions were
performed in England, New Zealand and Singapore and his music featured in 'The
Mix', a major British music technology magazine. Among his Singapore projects
are 'Camera Obscura' with Angela Liong's Fission dance company, 'No Face' with
Robert Catsteels and 'The Architecture of Escape' with Susie Lingham. He has
worked as a DJ, software engineer and currently lectures at LASALLE-SIA College
of the Arts.
Francis Ng is an artist whose work deals with existing spaces and the idea that
spaces are reconstructed. His installations, performances, and photography often
intervene with the architectural features of a space. He was the recipient of
the National Arts Council - Georgette Chen Scholarship and the Ericsson Arts
Scholarship. He is currently completing his BA in Fine Arts with the Royal
Melbourne Institute of Technology.
Text and subtext: contemporary
art and Asian women
Huangfu, Binghui (cur.)
Produced for an exhibition of the same name at the Earl Lu Gallery, Singapore,
2000 and including a collection of essays on the same theme. Contributors
include: Marian Pastor -Roces; Flaudette May V. Datuin; Katy Deepwell; Kim Hong
Hee; En Young Ahn; Huang Zhuan; Jiang Mei; Elsa Chen; Melissa Chiu; Andrea Jane
Ash; Reiko Kukatsu; Megumi Kitahara; Chaitanya Sambrani; M. Dwi Marianto; Nguyen
Quan; Binghui Huawnfu; Susie Lingham; Irina Aristarkhova. Essays on the
Phillipines, England, Korea, China, Taiwan, Australia, Japan, India, Indonesia,
Vietnam, Singapore. Artists include: Suzann Victor; Ye Shufang; Joyce Lim;
Varsha Nair; Nalini Malani; Judy Freya Sibayan ; My Le Thi; Nguyen Thi Chau
Giang; ium; Ham Kyung Ah; Sora Kim; Tari Ito; Wu Mali; Yin Xiuzhen; Zhang Xin;
Hunbg Liu; Qin Yufen; Mee Ping Leung; Hening Purnamawati; Arahmaini; Hiroko
Inoue; Chila Kumari Burman.
>Except from a review of [names changed to protect the
innocent]: sex valve durmientes by the necessary stage
>written by matthew lyon
>date: 12 jul 2001
Sounds and Furry
In such semi-improvised affairs as Susie Lingham's HOW TO CONSTRUCT A VALVE ON
INTENSITY?, intention and result are often not the best of friends. The stated
aim was to create "a 'listening space' [where] 'visuals' will be kept to a
minimum." Quite apart from the 'superfluous' inverted 'commas', this was not how
the piece turned out, though that wasn't entirely to its detriment. Rizman Putra
Ahmad Ali proved to possess a bizarre magnetism as he danced - I use the word
loosely - to the vibes Lingham and Aaron Kao were knocking out on the piano and
drums respectively. It was impossible not to engage with him as he gurned*,
pranced and juddered in the mother of all afro wigs, and he certainly seemed to
like and command the limelight - so much so that for those of us who are
synaesthetically challenged, his performance detracted from the sounds. Indeed,
the only time I felt I could fully appreciate the "soundscape" Lingham had
intended was when he left the auditorium and went, bug mike still receiving, to
the toilet.
More of a problem was that the respective aural ingredients hadn't been balanced
correctly. And whereas it didn't matter so much that the piano got buried under
the drums (indeed, in the feedback session, at least one person said he liked
the effect) it mattered quite considerably that the vocals were often inaudible.
Apart from a pseudo refrain about karma, for which all three voices were
singing, Lingham's words got pretty much lost in the melee, with only the
occasional poetic-sounding syllable breaking through - and for a piece
supposedly "constructed around 'text'" that can't be a good thing.
Nonetheless, the performance managed to retain a sense of focus and, while one
might argue that repetition was used more than was strictly necessary, it
refused to be boring and plainly knew where it was going.
Which, at some points, was more than I did. An arresting facet of Lingham's work
is how it perches disconcertingly on the fence between earnestness and bathos,
so that you can't be wholly sure whether it's supposed to funny and you're
afraid to laugh in case it's not. This is an interesting line to tread and one
which all three performers explored proficiently. And with a little tweaking of
the amps and a bit more jamming practice, they should get even better.
