Artistic Research]]> 26 Jan 2018, Fri 07:00 PM - 11:00 PM
Blocks 37 & 38 Malan Road

Residencies OPEN offers a rare insight into the often introverted sphere of the artist’s studio. Through showcasing discussions, performances, installations, and works-in-progress, Residencies OPEN profiles the diversity of contemporary art practice from around the globe and the divergent ways artists conceive an artwork with the studio as a constant space for experimentation and research.

Featuring Artists-in-Residence Bui Cong Khanh (Vietnam), Carlos Casas (Spain/France), Kent Chan(Singapore), Michael Lee (Singapore), Min Thein Sung (Myanmar), Jacqueline Hoang Nguyen(Canada/Sweden), Robert Zhao Renhui (Singapore).

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Bui Cong Khanh]]> Carlos Casas]]> Kent Chan]]> Michael Lee]]> Min Thein Sung]]> Jacqueline Hoang Nguyen]]> Robert Zhao Renhui]]> Southeast Asia]]> Europe]]> North America]]>
Animals]]> Migration]]> Ecology]]> 2021, HD video, sound, colour, 4 min 52 sec

In ancient times, the observation of birds in flight was used in divinatory practices to decipher the present and foretell the future. And A Great Sign Appeared captures the sudden arrival of thousands of Asian openbill storks in Singapore from northern parts of Southeast Asia on 22 December 2019. The artist followed the birds’ week-long futile and ultimately unsuccessful search for a suitable roosting site in the densely populated city-state. As we become increasingly aware that environmental changes and a drastic reduction of resources in their native lands are altering the behavioural patterns and migration routes of many species, the work invites us to ponder on the possible meanings of this unexpected occurrence and on the uncertain future that awaits the planet.]]>
Robert Zhao Renhui]]> Southeast Asia]]>
Performance]]> Nature]]> Technology]]> From its first iteration in 2013, Free Jazz has pushed boundaries and expanded upon pressing concerns of our times. Free Jazz IV. Geomancers continues this approach, featuring artworks ranging from virtual reality to video, performance, and sound as an exercise in planetary awareness. The exhibition presents significant artistic practices from across the globe that are deeply invested in creating an environmental consciousness and that share an understanding of the world as a vulnerable, yet resilient, mesh of coexistences, correlations, and co-creations. As with geomancy, these artworks can help us to read the signs that our planet is trying to send us and that they can inspire a stronger commitment to create a sustainable future for life on Earth.

Alongside scientists, environmental activists, enlightened policy makers and civil society members, contemporary artists are increasingly concerned with future prospects of ecological collapse and planetary survival. They address these issues through the language of art, creating images, sounds, narratives, and experiences that allow us to establish affective and cognitive connections with the environment and partake in the planetary intelligence of the Earth. Stemming from NTU CCA Singapore’s ongoing engagement with the overarching subject of Climates.Habitats. Environments., Free Jazz IV. Geomancers brings together a selection of creative practitioners who are distinctly alert to these urgencies.

Conceived for Singapore Art Week 2022, this programme consists of a film screening series, a virtual reality installation, a performance and a sound installation. Some of the featured artworks zero in on signs of earthly demise, others indicate pathways of resilience and strategies for regeneration. All the works result from long-term research and extensive fieldwork and, when presented together, they engender a kaleidoscopic overview of the multitudinous forms of ecological entanglements.

Artists: Martha Atienza (Philippines), Ursula Biemann (Switzerland), Carolina Caycedo & David de Rozas (United Kingdom; Spain/United States), Chu Hao Pei (Singapore), Liu Chuang (China), Pedro Neves Marques (Portugal), Katie Paterson (Scotland), Rice Brewing Sisters Club (South Korea), Daniel Steegmann Mangrané (Spain/Brazil), Jana Winderen (Norway), Zarina Muhammad & Zachary Chan (Singapore), and Robert Zhao Renhui (Singapore).

Exhibition Information

Katie Paterson
To Burn, Forest, Fire, 2021, performance
Performance schedule: 14, 15, 18, 22, and 23 January, 6.30 – 7.00pm
Block 37 Malan Road, #01-04, Gillman Barracks
Entrance is on a first-come first-served basis up to the capacity allowed by the
prevailing social distancing measures. Audience to arrive at least 15 minutes
before the performance starts. Please note that the performance entails the
burning of incense inside an indoor space.
Please see our Facebook event for the latest updates.

Daniel Steegmann Mangrané
Phantom (kingdom of all the animals and all the beasts is my name)
2014–2015, VR installation
Tuesday to Sunday, 12.00 – 7.00pm
Fridays, 12.00 – 9.00pm
Block 38 Malan Road, #01-07, Gillman Barracks
Please see our Facebook event for the latest updates.

Jana Winderen
Listening through the Dead Zones, 2021, sound installation, 20 min, on loop.
Monday to Thursday: 8.00am to 9.00pm (last entry 8.00pm)
Fridays to Sundays: 8.00am to 10.00pm (last entry 9.00pm)
Please see our Facebook event for the latest updates.

Green Roof, Marina Barrage, 8 Marina Gardens Drive, Singapore 018951
The sound installation is located on the Green Roof at Marina Barrage, above the
Sustainable Singapore Gallery, accessible either via the walking ramp or the elevator.
Once on the rooftop, visitors will find the work in the proximity of the glass house, on
the southern edge of the rooftop. Visitors are encouraged to take the time to pause and
experience Listening to the Dead Zones while facing the open sea.

Screening Programme

Friday, 14 and 21 January 2022, 12.00 – 9.00pm
Session I: 12.00 – 2.50pm
Session II: 3.00 – 5.50pm
Session III: 6.00 – 8.50pm

Tuesday to Sunday, 15 – 23 January 2022, 12.00 – 7.00pm
Session I: 12.00 – 3.20pm (intermission: 1.30 – 2.00pm)
Session II: 3.30 – 6.50pm (intermission: 5.00 – 5.30pm)

Block 38 Malan Road, #01-06, Gillman Barracks
Films will be screened in the order as below during each session.
Please see our Facebook event for the latest updates.

Martha Atienza
Panangatan 11°09’53.3”N 123°42’40.5”E
2019-10-24, 9min

Zarina Muhammad & Zachary Chan
earth, land, sky and sea as palimpsest, 17 min 37 sec

Rice Brewing Sisters Club
Mountain Storytellers, Storytelling Mountains: A Tale Theatre, 15 min 37 sec

Carolina Caycedo & David de Rozas
The Teaching of the Hands, 47 min

Pedro Neves Marques
Semente Exterminadora [Exterminator Seed], 28 min

Ursula Biemann
Acoustic Ocean, 18 min

Liu Chuang
Can Sound be Currency?, 19 min 43 sec

Chu Hao Pei
Inventing Miracle: The Rice to Power, 9 min 59 sec

Robert Zhao Renhui
And A Great Sign Appeared, 4 min 52 sec

Free Jazz IV. Geomancers is supported by National Arts Council Singapore and Nicoletta Fiorucci Russo De Li Galli. NTU CCA Singapore also wishes to thank our collaborators IHME Helsinki, and PUB Singapore’s National Water Agency at Marina Barrage.

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Martha Atienza]]> Ursula Biemann]]> Carolina Caycedo]]> Zachary Chan]]> Chu Hao Pei]]> Liu Chuang]]> Pedro Neves Marques]]> Katie Paterson]]> Rice Brewing Sisters Club]]> David de Rozas]]> Daniel Steegmann Mangrané]]> Jana Winderen]]> Zarina Muhammad]]> Robert Zhao Renhui]]> Anna Lovecchio]]> Magdalena Magiera]]> Southeast Asia]]> Asia]]> South America]]> Europe]]>
Nature]]> Fiction]]> 22 Aug 2020, Sat 02:00 PM - 05:00 PM
The Seminar Room, Blk 43 Malan Road, Singapore 109443

How can physical traces of the past help us visualise new narratives? This workshop begins with a nature trail by artist Robert Zhao Renhui through the secondary forest surrounding Gillman Barracks. Unearth the history of the Queen’s Own Hill from a plantation to military barracks, and to its current status as a visual arts precinct. Be inspired to create visual narratives about the area under the guidance of filmmaker Andre Quek. Learn basic principles of film language and visual storytelling, composition, and production design, and bring home your very own beatboard.]]>
Robert Zhao Renhui]]> Robert Zhao]]> Andre Quek]]> South America]]> Asia]]> Africa]]>
Speak Cryptic and Robert Zhao]]> Public Art]]> Public Sphere]]>
26 Oct 2019, Sat 03:30 PM - 05:30 PM
The Single Screen, Block 43 Malan Road

Guided tour at The Lab: Art, Urban Change, and the Public Sphere
3.30pm – 4.00pm

Conversation with Speak Cryptic (artist, Singapore) and Robert Zhao (artist, Singapore)
4.00pm – 5.00pm

Guided tour: Public Art Trail at Mapletree Business City II
5.00pm – 5.30pm


With Speak Cryptic (artist, Singapore) and Robert Zhao (artist, Singapore), moderated by Sophie Goltz (Deputy Director, Research, NTU CCA Singapore and Assistant Professor, School of Art, Design and Media, Nanyang Technological University)

The discussion will take the newly commissioned large scale, temporary public art works for the Singapore Bicentennial as a point of departure. The two commissioned artists, Robert Zhao and Speak Cryptic will reflect on their proposals, their artistic positions in the landscape of public art, their material choices as well as their experience of working with art in the public space.]]>
Speak Cryptic]]> Robert Zhao Renhui]]> Robert Zhao]]> Speak Cryptic]]> Sophie Goltz]]> Southeast Asia]]>
Ecosystems]]> 2 Mar 2018, Fri 07:30 PM - 09:00 PM
Block 43 Malan Road

For the launch of Final Report of the Christmas Island Expert Working Group in The Lab, Robert Zhao Renhui, founder of The Institute of Critical Zoologists, discusses the scope of his two-year long investigation as well as the research process and methodological approach developed as he ventured into the fractured ecosystem of Christmas Island. Merging scientific observation and artistic speculation, Zhao frames the absurdity of the real and weaves multiple narratives that address the uneasy relationship between humans and the natural environment.

A public programme of The Oceanic.]]>
Zhao Renhui]]> Robert Zhao Renhui]]> Robert Zhao]]> Asia]]> Oceania]]>
Animals]]> Nature]]> The Museum of Disappearance, sets out to unravel the dormant narratives embedded in the photographs in order to shed a different light onto the complex history of our relationship with nature. Further expanding on his interest in the interaction between humans and the natural environment, he plans to conduct extensive fieldwork in the backwoods behind his studio, a patch of secondary forest stretching from Malan Road to Henderson Road, documenting its trees and natural habitat.]]> Robert Zhao Renhui]]> Robert Zhao]]> Zhao Renhui]]> Object]]> Photography]]> Southeast Asia]]> Nature]]> Animals]]> Robert Zhao Renhui]]> Robert Zhao]]> Southeast Asia]]> The Institute of Critical Zoologists by Robert Zhao Renhui]]> Ecosystems]]> Biodiversity]]> Geopolitics]]> Mythology]]> Nature]]> Postcolonialism]]>
In the past two years, The Institute of Critical Zoologists has been researching the escalating chain of events brought about by the human presence on Christmas Island gathering a varied collection of research materials that merge factual and fictional elements. By surveying the impact of human beings on an endemic habitat, Final Report of the Christmas Island Expert Working Group maps out lines of invasion and retreat, it investigates dynamics of connectedness and isolation triggering reflections on states of vulnerability and conditions of survival in the age of globalisation.

Curated by Anna Lovecchio, Curator, Residencies]]>
Robert Zhao Renhui]]> Robert Zhao]]> Anna Lovecchio]]> Photography]]> Asia]]>