Aletheia Tan
Combining touch-sensor-activated pathways of light, large blinking overhead video screens and intricate sculptures and toys, Brian Gothong Tan’s video installation, Signs, Omens and Relics of Faith, is a metaphor about living in urban Singapore.
This visual feast can be enjoyed live at 72-13, an old rice warehouse built in the 1900s and refurbished in 2005 as the new home of the first English language theatre company in Singapore, Theatreworks and a performance space for all kinds of cross-disciplinary art.
Signs, Omens and Relics of Faith, open from 25 Jan to 4 Feb, is set up with a diamond-shaped white walkway and 3 lit, touch-sensor-equipped corners that activate different sections for viewers as they set foot on them.
Reminiscent of the world’s first video installation artist Nam Jun Paik’s work with multi-channel televisions, a small army of television screens at one corner plays footage of a girl dressed in corporate wear climbing public sculptures and Chinese characters “Bai ri meng”, meaning daydream, to a soundtrack of a female breathing and gasping in a rather orgasmic fashion.
At another corner is a bunch of carefully chosen white objects, among them porcelain sculptures of the late Chairman Mao Ze Dong, Merlions, a mini Lego city and an origami Astro Boy look-alike to pique the curiosity of viewers. As you venture to the third elevated corner, setting foot on the touch sensor activates a video of a swiveling 3D city model on the overhead video screens.
“Signs imply an indicator of something in the present, Omens an indicator of something in the future and Relics an indicator of the past,” Brian explained to UrbanWire. The video installation illustrated the patterns in Singaporean city dwelling and “hopefully the enjoyment from the viewers comes from recognising these patterns about how we understand our experience living in Singapore,” he added, not wanting to reveal too much of his intentions, hoping viewers will make their own connections.
He did say, however, that the 1 month’s worth of preparation began around a year ago as he thought about the suggested Asian boom and how a utopian ideal is perhaps within our grasp, or maybe just a sign of Marxist theorist Guy Debord’s Society of the Spectacle, a philosophy that traces the growth of a contemporary society in which, according to Debord, “all that was once directly lived has become mere representation”.
Beautiful Boxer director Ekachai Uekrongtham, who was at the exhibition opening, felt that, “the exhibition has a childlike quality and yet it’s weighty in its attempt to say something important. It makes me think about my own faith and how faith is sometimes defined by what others want you to believe, it’s loaded with a lot of things that quite surprisingly come from such a young person.”
One of the most prolific local multi-media artists, Brian, 26, who graduated from Nanyang Polytechnic after receiving the Young Designers Award in Multimedia and then the Shell-National Youth Council (NAC) scholarship in 2003 to pursue a Degree in Fine Arts in Experimental Animation at the California Institute of Arts, has since been actively involved in the local arts scene.
Some of his accolades include winning the Best Use of Multimedia award at the 2005 Life! Theatre Awards for his eclectic use of multimedia in plays like Godeatgod and Ghost Opera. He was also the youngest local artist in the Singapore Biennale last September with his installation work We Live in a Dangerous World. Brian represented Singapore in the cultural segment of the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne in February last year at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI).
Brian’s exhibition kicks off the year for the Singapore Creative Arts Nucleus (SCAN) programme that nurtures emerging artists using 72-13 as an incubator and platform for their creativity and trans-disciplinary processes. SCAN also sponsors the work of others such as Rizman Putra, music artistes from The Observatory, fFurious and recent additions like filmmaker Tan Pin Pin (Singapore GaGa) and writer Ng Yi Sheng who have a chance to inspire other young adults through their exhibitions and be inspired by exchanges with international Creative-in-Residences like Cat Hope, Lise Nellemann and Muna Tseng.
“We support all sorts of artistic work as long as it is creative. So it could be photography, fashion, architecture or the visual arts, thus, in a sense the space is a lot more inclusive. In today’s context a lot of artists are doing cross-disciplinary work, they’re no longer focussed on just theatre and are looking into new media,” said Mervyn Quek, Project Manager of Theatreworks.
Aspiring artists can apply to exhibit their works for free at 72-13 sans technical charges, with 4 different spacious halls available, and according to Theatreworks Managing Director Tay Tong, “without the pressure of feeling that the work must be the best with no room for less than success”. However, he qualifies that not just anyone can cut it as “it depends on the availability of the space at the time and whether the projects have artistic potential”.