Sunday, November 17, 2002
Like? by Chng Nai Wee, as featured on the cover of the Esplanade catalog, will be on show from December 2002 until January 2002 at the Esplanade atria.
activated C
exhibition of charcoal drawings
by Tang Ling Nah
8 - 20 Nov 2002
Société Générale Gallery
Alliance Francaise
Fairly large close up charcoal drawings of urban architectural effigies in Singapore
Artist Feature
Tan Kai Syng and Amanda Heng
The woman in a tree on the hill
Theatre multi-disciplinary collaborative project
synopsis courtesy of press release
By weaving the three tales of Mr and Mrs Noah, Nu Wa (Chinese Goddess of Creation and Marriage), and Singapore heartlanders Nora and Norman, Ovidia Yu's The Woman in a Tree on the Hill explores love, oppression, violence and freedom. It explodes the myths and archetypes surrounding Man and Woman, subverts preconceived notions of the age-old battle of the sexes and makes a compelling case for reclaiming an individual perspective. All this, set against the backdrop of global environmental holocaust.
Ovidia Yu's play proposes that there is "something that happens when a woman climbs a tree". Nora climbs to avoid the physical abuse of her husband Norman; Mrs Noah climbs to prevent Mr Noah from cutting down the first tree on the first hill as the Great Flood recedes; and Nu Wa descends from the heavens to battle Gong Gong the Water God. Cultural and mythical resonances abound as The Woman in a Tree on the Hill's drama plays out opposing forces of Man and Woman trying and failing to find peace with each other.
Conceived and directed by Ivan Heng, this is a first-time collaboration between W!LD RICE, Gong Myong (Korea's funkiest and most inspired drumming collective), performers Claire Wong and Foo May Lyn, and visual artists Amanda Heng and Tan Kai Syng. The production features live music, live video, a mountain of household appliances and a deluge of 3,000 recycled mineral water bottles, all woven into a challenging performance text. Told with humour and irony, it is guaranteed to touch and tickle lumberjacks and audiences the world over.
RUNNING TIME
90 minutes without interval
TOURING SIZE
8 on stage; 11 on the road
By Ovidia Yu
Directed by Ivan Heng
Starring Claire Wong, Foo May Lyn, Amanda Heng, Tan Kai Syng and Korean drumming collective Gong Myong
Artist Feature
Tan Kai Syng
Experimental video artist
BA in Fine Arts (4 years) Slade School of Fine Arts, University of London, UK
Kai Syng was named The Most Promising Young Artist at the age of 17 at the UOB Painting of the Year Award. In 1994, armed with the Shell-NAC Arts Scholarship, she pursued her studies at the Slade School of Fine Arts and graduated with first class honours.
Having started off with painting and sculpture, she now experiments with audio-visual forms and writing. Her works have been showcased at the Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival, OuterLimits in New York City, USC's Art in Motion Festival, transmediale 0.1 in Berlin, Video Take in Brussels, the British Short Film Festival, Singapore Art Museum, Jubilee Hall, Alliance Francaise, Goethe Institute and Earl Lu Gallery.
One of her works won the 3rd prize (Certificate of Merit) in the New Visions category at the 42nd San Francisco International Film Festival's Golden Gate Awards in 1999. 5 of her video works were bought and collected by the Fukuoka Asian Art Museum in Japan in 2000.
Wrinkled like a sun-dried tomato
The Selected Experimental Films for the International Competition Section
Tehran Short Film Festival 2002
Category: Experimental/ Documentary
Format: DV Cam
Time: 4'
Year: 2000
Country: Singapore
Script: Tan Kai Syng
Photography: Tan Kai Syng
Editor: Tan Kai Syng
Sound: Tan Kai Syng
Music: Philip Tan
Producer: Tan Kai Syng
Synopsis: A personal view about the mass media and cultural activities.
Chlorine Addiction
USC Annenberg Auditorium
Comprising ten video essays, the disparate pool of aural and visual data that makes up Chlorine Addiction is unified by the central metaphor of a fictitious protagonist who swims compulsively.
Describing Chlorine Addiction as "a work-in-regress" Kai Syng's self reflexive critique of media and cultural practices questions "Several Serious Issues" - including gender, time, geography, evaporation, insatiability, obsession and objectivity. Original music created by Phillip Tan. Length: 45 minutes
The thoughts of Kai Syng Tan about the profanities of life and the significance of art; like swimming strokes, the thoughts are floating in atmospheric images. 3 minutes
Tan Kai Syng, has been officially invited to showcase her film, CHLORINE ADDICTION, and compete in the New Asian Currents category at the Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival from 3 to 9 October 2001.
The film has been exhibited, either in its entirety or in part, at the Singapore Art Museum, 2000; Transmediale 0.1 in Berlin, Germany 2001; Video Take in Brussels, Belgium 2000; OuterLimits in New York City, USA, 2001; Art In Motion of University of Southern California School Of Fine Art, USA, in conjunction with the Santa Monica Museum of Art, 2001; Asian Art Festival in Fukuoka Asian Art Museum, Japan, 2000, Discount Cinema at The Empty Bottle in Chicago, 2001; Alliance Francaise de Singapour’s The Société Générale Gallery, July to August 2000; Earl Lu Gallery, LaSalle-SIA College of the Arts, 2001.
Early versions of two chapters of CHLORINE ADDICTION have also been bought and collected by the Fukuoka Asian Art Museum.
A note on Philip Tan, a constant collaborater with Kay Syng - Philip is active in the local music scene, having performed as a solo pianist and percussionist and has composed numerous works for dance, drama, films, multimedia, percussion ensemble, gamelan orchestra, choral, bands, wind symphony and many other ensembles. His versatile improvisational skill has been greatly sought after by local and overseas dance and drama groups.
How Far From the Truths and Still Life Every Now & Then & Again
Singapore Art Museum
in conjunction with Sixties Now show
The notions of home, nationhood and self are interrogated through the artworks of installation artists, Sherman Ong and Tan Kai Syng. Sherman's work is based on his case study of Toa Payoh (one of the oldest HDB flats in Singapore). Whilst Kai Syng's works include two video installations (titled "How Far From the Truths" and "Still Life Every Now & Then & Again") and a wall collage of junk mail comprising leaflets and advertisements from real estate agencies, gathered by the artist over time. It examines issues of home ownership, home as a commodity and forces of the free market economy.
Dense: Chlorine Addiction; Pale Testament
Tan Kai Syng & Heman Chong
Two young Singaporean artistes, recipients of a grant from The National Arts Council of Singapore, put together an exhibition, on which this slim collection is based, in what can probably be best described as "experimental forms." This is how one of the authors describes Strokes & Overlaps: "It can be described as a sort of a user-unfriendly 'swimsuit-spread', or a 'book' that resists reading. Kai Syng's appearance in various uninspiring poses serves to bind the layers and layers of texts and other images together---rather incoherently, however. Strokes of genius of my writing talent is revealed from the half-baked essays, thesis, anecdotes, jokes, notes, sketches, fictional prose, questions & aphorisms that choke every page. These strokes are also attacks that are sudden & may kill (angry words!), but also perhaps tender & gentle as caresses as well (sentimental words!). There are many overlapping concepts across the pages as the (mis-)author refuses to tie things up into neat, linear narratives or offer perfect closures...
Price: US$6.86 (S$12.00*)
Region: Singapore
Format: Paperback, 54 pages
Published: 2000, Singapore, 1st Edition
ISBN: 9810429150
SB#: 030668
Yamagata Doc’s Kingdom
The Yamagata Doc’s Kingdom seminar was conducted under the auspices of the 2001 Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival. The symposium occupied a full day, and was divided into morning and afternoon sessions. Yamagata Doc’s Kingdom would give young Asian directors whose works are not well known in Europe and North America the chance to speak in front of an audience.
Directors Sekine Hiroyuki (Maya, U.O. 5), Tan Kai Syng (Chlorine Addiction), Kawaguchi Hajime (Variant Phases; all but U.O. 5 screened in New Asian Currents ’01) and Jon Jost (6 Easy Pieces, screened in International Competition ’01) were invited to participate in the morning session.
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