KVT – Biennaling @ SAM at 8Q

DAY TWO with KVT in Singapore wondering about what if the world changed

On the way from SAM to SAM AT 8Q (8Q= the annex to the Singapore Art Museum) I had to go past the huge vinyl street banner by a Malaysian artist that is a collage of all sorts of Chinese Propaganda Posters. I showed it in my Biennale post yesterday but failed to indicate that the hordes of proletariat advancing on the bucolic scene in the foreground are all waving the latest in ‘I Phones’. Now I guess this could indicate that they are all intent on spreading the government’s latest ideological ideas and good news….or could it mean that they are all intent on getting the scene put onto their personal Facebook pages, or perhaps to take selfies amidst the good fun?….or perhaps it means that they are involved in a new revolution and are rejoicing in technology that allows them to spread the message immediately world wide….totally enjoyable!

When I entered the fore court of the Gallery I was immediately sucked in by an Indonesian Artist’s reconstruction of an old fashioned provision shop, Toko Keperluan, in Jakarta and wanted to purchase some finger puppets, amongst other impulsive stuff. The signs gave the game away.

Out of the 17 works at SAM AT 8Q the two most amazing installations, were two video pieces.

Number one was by the Le Brothers, identical twins from Hue. I was lucky to preview three of their video installations at a private showing in Hue around about this time last year and was completely blown away. The brother’s work is often deal with Vietnam’s reunification issues and the twins metaphorically take on different sides of the country politically forced apart at certain times in Vietnam’s history. They’ve done an amazing work featuring a reunification on the bridge over the river that marked the 17th parallel up to 1975. They’ve done two engaging works on borders that separate people s of the same countries, including one on the divide between North and South Korea.

I can, I’m sure, confidently predict that one day a major gallery will host most of their video art simultaneously at one venue. And what an event it will be!

Most Le Brother’s video work is long (21 minutes in Singapore) but they are all hypnotic. Perhaps this is due to the scenery of water and sand and sky but definitely to their use of sound that pulls you into a meditative space. INTO THE SEA, their work in Singapore has all the required ingredients including a hauntingly beautiful violin solo by Tang Thanh Nam.

One of the border pieces has music by Tri Minh that refuses to let you go.

INTO THE SEA is on three huge screens and when I was there viewers who crept into the darkened gallery were tempted and stayed for long periods.

The second amazing work was a projected onto a scrim curtain behind which were chairs taken from a famous, now demolished Singaporean theater, The Capitol , the first moments seen here in a vimeo video clip and a You Tube clip with artist included

Now I know that I’m a contemporary dance freak and perhaps that swayed my judgment but I’d love to see more of Tan’s work which is attempting to document Singapore’s disappearing places…..a bit like Vuong Van Thao is doing in Hanoi with his modern fossils.

Hanoian Nguyen Huy An had his 2009 GREAT PUDDLE on exhibit. It’s another work that grabs you straight away….including one young boy whom was so engrossed that he stepped right into the stamp pad of fresh indian ink that makes up the interior of the work.

Which if seen from the other direction, provides the optical illusion of a real desk and the smell of indian ink in the air is heavy enough to give you a head spin (which could account for the kid’s action and the frantic efforts of his mother to clean his footprints from the wooden surround,

An’s powerful work bespeaks of power and corruption and deep secrets that lurk in bureaucratic corners and which are tried to be concealed under opaque or glossy deceptive surfaces.

Three works concerned themselves with issues of gender. A Malaysian had a medical clinic waiting room set up for transgender patients who were awaiting realignment surgery

A Singaporean used a four screen installation to show the emotional unease that female adolescents feel with their self image. The title, EXORCISE ME, speaks volumes and the clip is extra good.

Vietnamese, Nguyen Thi Hoai Tho, used sculptures of women’s breasts (women lactating, or past middle age) and hung them like loofah fruit on a live vine spread over a trellis. From afar and up close it’s an arresting statement about way the way in which women’s bodies are objectified in a derogatory way by masculine culture in Vietnam (where such breasts are called loofahs). It is a protest statement has universal appeal for women, feminist or not so. Only the nomenclature changes, not the female disgust

Another user of four large screens in a video presentation was a Cambodian protesting about the selling of public wet lands by officials to developers so that the wetlands can be filled in and sold for housing or commercial development (The disappearance of wetlands that provide habitat for numerous animal species and livelihoods for rural people is a scenario in too many countries- both rich and poor, developed and undeveloped …the wetlands that once stretched from Song Hong to the present city outskirts spring to mind)
The artist stands in water at 4 disappearing places and continuously pours a bucket of soil over his head.

Ten Filipino, ethnic Talaandig artists from Mindanao use soil in another way as a medium to show how traditional lands and traditional mythologies are being destroyed by large, international agricultural corporations. The artists are asserting the people’s right to self determination over the uses their land is put to

Lam Hieu Thuan had a really effective slide documentation (on a large screen in shades of unsettling blue) about THE AESTHETICS OF DISAPPEARING as he looks at the final few years of lives of occupants in a communal apartment block in Tran Hung Dao in Ho Chi Minh City. It is soon to be demolished and its residents await an uncertain future. The viewer is drawn into the shady, dim lit corridors and balconies and into the interconnected stories that made them into a viable and vibrant community

Of the rest a Japanese blow up mangrove tree grabbed me

As did a spooky black and white video of a deserted island just off Singapore that used to be a penal and a leper colony…..but finally I fell in love with a set of 3 old fashioned lamp posts outside the National Library that a clever Thai had turned into aquariums for teeny fish….titled LIGHT OF NATURE ….and I want one for my garden!