Free Jazz III. Sound. Walks.]]> Performance]]> Body]]> Nature]]>

Collaborative and experimental by nature, Free Jazz III builds upon its past iterations by activating and challenging common understandings of exhibition-making and the use of space. Sound walks. Machines listen. We are living through unusual times. 

As the NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore approaches a major transformation away from a permanent exhibition space in early 2021, Free Jazz III continues to explore the possibilities of an international research centre for contemporary art, featuring many artists who have been part of NTU CCA Singapore’s exhibitions, residencies, and programs since 2013, when the Centre presented Free Jazz as its inaugural event. The project began as a form of inquiry and an active tool to generate new possibilities for conceptualizing and programming an art institution. Free Jazz III convenes diverse projects united by themes of adaptation via masterful improvisation, trans-mediatic pivots, and the conscious renegotiation of our relationships to nature, technology, and each other. The disparate components of Free Jazz III explore the elements of dissonance, resistance, and innovation embedded in its musical namesake and the ability for sound and art to transcend physical and social distance. Embracing sound and walking as two powerful ways to overcome distance and bring people together, Free Jazz III comprises projects that can take place in non-gallery spaces, independently, asynchronously, or in purposeful syncopation with the present moment, reflecting on the past and looking forward to the future. 

Admission to all programmes and events is free.

Sound. Walks.
January–March 2021 (On-site and online)

Reflecting on the loss of physicality through increased virtual interactions as well as many histories of sound and walking, artists address common life and communality in times of social distancing. In this series of performative explorations of sound, music, and community building, reflections take the form of soundwalks, sonic wayfinding and other physical and aural experiences, offering multiple ways for the public to actively witness, listen and participate, both remotely and on-site. Soundwalks by Tini Aliman (Singapore), Christa Donner and Andrew S Yang (United States), and Diana Lelonek (Poland) and Denim Szram (Poland/Switzerland) are propelled by sonic outputs of nature. Storytelling, correspondence, and the impossibility of direct communication factor into projects by Cheryl Ong (Singapore), Ana Prvački (Romania/Germany) in collaboration with Joyce Bee Tuan Koh (Singapore) and Galina Mihaleva (Bulgaria/Singapore), and Vivian Wang (Singapore/Switzerland). Sound, history, culture, and space overlap and intertwine in works by Arahmaiani (Indonesia) and Jimmy Ong (Singapore), bani haykal (Singapore) and Lee Weng Choy (Malaysia), Reetu Sattar (Bangladesh), and anGie Seah (Singapore).

Free Jazz III. Sound. Walks. is curated by Magdalena Magiera (Germany/Singapore), NTU CCA Singapore Curator, Education and Outreach, and Dr Karin Oen (United States/Singapore), NTU CCA Singapore Deputy Director, Curatorial Programmes

Under the Skin
1 December 2020 – 31 January 2021 (Online)

World premiere and special performance
1 December 2020, 7pm SGT

This trio of performative works by artists George Chua (Singapore), Nina Djekić (Slovenia/Singapore/Netherlands), and Noor Effendy Ibrahim (Singapore) engages with sound, bodily movements, and performance. These new pieces are cinematically translated into the medium of video by filmmaker Russell Morton (Singapore) and viewed online, acknowledging the curatorial premise that, “the pandemic has pushed us into a space of dramatic convergence—where a deep tech, hyper-connected future collides with social political unrest,” in both the work itself and the medium in which it is presented.

Under the Skin is curated for Free Jazz III by artist Cheong Kah Kit (Singapore) as part of Proposals for Novel Ways of Being, a united response to the changes brought about by COVID-19 hosted by twelve Singapore arts institutions, initiated by the National Gallery Singapore and Singapore Art Museum.

Partner programmes:

Machine Listening, a curriculum
From October 2020 (Online)

Expanded collaborations and explorations of curatorial spaces also took form in support of Machine Listening, a curriculum instigated by Melbourne-based Liquid Architecture. This evolving online resource, comprising existing and newly commissioned writing, interviews, music and artworks is a new investigation and experiment in collective learning around the emergent field of machine listening. It premiered with three online sessions open to all as part of Unsound 2020: Intermission, an experimental sound festival in Krakow, Poland. NTU CCA Singapore and Liquid Architecture will convene another collaborative online session open to the public in early 2021.

Machine Listening, a curriculum is curated by Sean DockrayDr James Parker, and Joel Stern (all Australia).

Visit the evolving open source curriculum and the recorded Unsound sessions:

(Against) the coming world of listening machines
Lessons in How (Not) to be Heard
Listening with the Pandemic

Sollum Swaramum
26 February 2021, 7.30 – 9.00pm
On-Site at Blk 43 Malan Road

Presented in collaboration with The Arts House’s Poetry with Music series, the 4th edition of Sollum Swaramum, brings together musicians Ramesh Krishnan, Mohamed Noor and Munir Alsagoff in exploration of the synergies between music and text, with devised and improvised texts based on the work of Tamil literary stalwarts P Krishnan, Ma Ilangkannnan and Rama Kannabiran. These newly devised texts are written by Harini V, Ashwinii Selvarai and Bharathi Moorthiappan, performed by Sivakumar Palakrishnan, and art direction by Laura Miotto.

Curated by Magdalena Magiera, Curator, Outreach and Education, and Dr. Karin Oen, Deputy Director, Curatorial Programmes, NTU CCA Singapore. 

Free Jazz III. Sound. Walks. presented in partnership with Proposals for Novel Ways of Being, The Arts House, Liquid Architecture, as part of Singapore Art week, supported by National Arts Council.

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Tini Aliman]]> Christa Donner]]> Andrew S Yang]]> Diana Lelonek]]> Denim Szram]]> Cheryl Ong]]> Ana Prvački]]> Joyce Bee Tuan Koh]]> Galina Mihaleva]]> Vivian Wang]]> Arahmaiani]]> Jimmy Ong]]> bani haykal]]> Lee Weng Choy]]> Reetu Sattar]]> anGie Seah]]> Magdalena Magiera]]> Karin Oen]]> George Chua]]> Nina Djekić]]> Russell Morton ]]> Noor Effendy Ibrahim]]> Cheong Kah Kit]]> Liquid Architecture]]> Ramesh Krishnan]]> Laura Miotto]]> Mohamed Noor]]> Harini V]]> Ashwinii Selvarai]]> Bharathi Moorthiappan]]> Sivakumar Palakrishnan]]> Munir Alsagoff]]> Nanthiyni Aravindan]]> Sean Dockray]]> James Parker]]> Joel Stern]]> Southeast Asia]]>
Mythology]]> Body]]> Russell Morton]]> Film]]> Southeast Asia]]> Under the Skin]]> Performance]]> Identity]]> Politics]]> Under the Skin showcases the experimental practices of George Chua, Nina Djekić, and Noor Effendy Ibrahim, three artists who engage with sound, bodily movements, and performance to examine contemporary body and identity politics. Bringing together elements of performance, sound and visual art in response to the theme of Proposals for Novel Ways of Being, the artists have been commissioned to produce new work reflecting their own experiences of the sudden uncertainty and loss of normalcy during the global COVID-19 pandemic: abrupt shifts in social interaction and daily routines, confinement and physical limitations, adjustments, and reorientations to relationships. As we grapple with the uncertainties of the post-pandemic future, this radical moment of instability also calls upon us to reclaim our personal and collective consciousness, to nurture the resilience of our body and soul. How does a body compose itself and develop new vocabularies for articulation? What new sensorial and corporeal sensibilities can we locate and uncover?

While the current conditions of our lives also expose global fragilities and social divisions, this project draws mainly from the spaces, experiences and materialities of everyday life, where the effect of the pandemic is, perhaps, most potent and surreptitious. Attempting to reconcile ideas of tenderness in violence, Noor Effendy Ibrahim continues his on-going performance research to excavate inherent and latent memories within his own body through self-inflicted physical pain. Locating marginalised bodies and their everyday lived experiences via a mythical dance troupe, George Chua meditates on vulnerability and belief, contemplating our existential struggle on what it means to be human. Engaging with translations and memories within an constructed setting, Nina Djekić invites us to consider notions of intimacy via virtual spaces and proxy bodies.

The trio of performative works are cinematically translated into the medium of video by Singapore artist and filmmaker Russell Morton, and their videos presented online.

Under the Skin is curated by artist Cheong Kah Kit for NTU CCA Singapore’s Free Jazz III]]>
George Chua]]> Nina Djekić]]> Nina Djekic]]> Noor Effendy Ibrahim]]> Russell Morton]]> Cheong Kah Kit]]> Southeast Asia]]> Europe]]>
Mythology]]> During the residency, Russell Morton concentrates on developing his first feature film which tackles the perverse dynamics of crime and punishment as well as the ancient wisdom couched in local stories of haunting and other regional lore. Stemming from personal circumstances—due to his father’s employment as commander of the prison tactical unit, the artist grew up in Changi Prison’s quarters —Morton developed a direct, albeit unspoken, intimacy with the tortuous ethical issues and psychological consequences related to the most extreme form of law enforcement. Through researching archival materials, oral histories as well as literature and films from post-independence Singapore, the artist plans to interweave the nightmares and traumas experienced by both the punisher and the punished by steeping the fictional narrative into Malayan myths, folk music, and vernacular architecture.]]> Russell Morton]]> Film]]> Southeast Asia]]> Artistic Research]]> Body]]> Identity]]> Under the Skin showcases the experimental practices of George Chua, Nina Djekić, and Noor Effendy Ibrahim, three artists who engage with sound, bodily movements, and performance to examine contemporary body and identity politics. Bringing together elements of performance, sound and visual art in response to the theme of Proposals for Novel Ways of Being, the artists have been commissioned to produce new work reflecting their own experiences of the sudden uncertainty and loss of normalcy during the global COVID-19 pandemic: abrupt shifts in social interaction and daily routines, confinement and physical limitations, adjustments, and reorientations to relationships. As we grapple with the uncertainties of the post-pandemic future, this radical moment of instability also calls upon us to reclaim our personal and collective consciousness, to nurture the resilience of our body and soul. How does a body compose itself and develop new vocabularies for articulation? What new sensorial and corporeal sensibilities can we locate and uncover?

While the current conditions of our lives also expose global fragilities and social divisions, this project draws mainly from the spaces, experiences and materialities of everyday life, where the effect of the pandemic is, perhaps, most potent and surreptitious. Attempting to reconcile ideas of tenderness in violence, Noor Effendy Ibrahim continues his on-going performance research to excavate inherent and latent memories within his own body through self-inflicted physical pain. Locating marginalised bodies and their everyday lived experiences via a mythical dance troupe, George Chua meditates on vulnerability and belief, contemplating our existential struggle on what it means to be human. Engaging with translations and memories within an constructed setting, Nina Djekić invites us to consider notions of intimacy via virtual spaces and proxy bodies.

The trio of performative works are cinematically translated into the medium of video by Singapore artist and filmmaker Russell Morton, and their videos presented online. 

Under the Skin is curated by artist Cheong Kah Kit for NTU CCA Singapore’s Free Jazz III.



]]>
Cheong Kah Kit]]> Nina Djekić]]> Noor Effendy Ibrahim]]> George Chua]]> Russell Morton]]> Video]]> Southeast Asia]]>
Identity]]> Mythology]]> Ritual]]> Mystic and Momok - in collaboration with fellow artist Bani Haykal - a short film about artist, healer, and mystic Mohammad Din Mohammed. Morton also delved into historical research about the Pulau Senang riots of 1963 that are inspiring the development of his first feature film.]]> Russell Morton]]> Video]]> Southeast Asia]]> History]]> Mythology]]> Diaspora]]> Russell Morton]]> Anna Lovecchio]]> Kristine Tan]]> Arabelle Zhuang]]> Transcript]]> Southeast Asia]]> History]]> Mythology]]> Diaspora]]>
Contributor: Russell Morton
Conducted by: Anna Lovecchio
Programme Manager: Kristine Tan
Sound Engineer: Rudi Osman
Intro & Outro Music: Tini Aliman
Cover Image & Design: Arabelle Zhuang, Kristine Tan

Credits:
11:53: Audio excerpt from Island of Hope, National Archives Website, Record date 1960s,
https://www.nas.gov.sg/archivesonline/audiovisual_records/record-details/46b4445e-1164-11e3-83d5-0050568939ad
21:35: Recording from Russell Morton’s site visit to a kelong in Singapore. Courtesy the artist.
25:48: Audio excerpt from Russell Morton’s Saudade, 2020. Music by Syafii Ghazali. Courtesy the artist
35:20: Audio excerpt from Tani Yutaka, Marai no Tora, 1943 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2lTigyqta_k
36:58: Audio excerpt from “Siapa Dia” by Zainab Majid, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gDHPP6K-mA]]>
Russell Morton]]> Anna Lovecchio]]> Kristine Tan]]> Arabelle Zhuang]]> Podcast]]> https://www.buzzsprout.com/1845756/9510188-aircast-2-russell-morton]]> Southeast Asia]]>
History]]> Mythology]]> Diaspora]]>
Residencies OPEN showcases the diversity of contemporary art practices and the divergent ways in which artists conceive of an artwork with the studio as a constant space for experimentation and research. For the past six months, Russell Morton has dived deep into gathering research materials and audiovisual references for the script of his first feature film. Inspired by a not well-known historical event—a prison riot which took place in Pulau Senang before Singapore’s independence—, the film interweaves the horrific events of the bloody riot with regional folklore. This open studio session presents a generous selection of archival materials, oral histories, and sound recordings relevant to the development of the script as well as the documentation (shot on Super 8mm film) of the artist’ site visits to a kelong, a type of vernacular architecture on the verge of disappearing that will feature prominently in the film.]]>
Russell Morton]]> Southeast Asia]]>
History]]> Mythology]]> Diaspora]]>
In this artist-led studio tour, Russell Morton will talk about his references and unpack some of the research materials that will be woven into the structure of his first feature film: a dark narrative of drifting away from crime and floating in punishment inspired by a grim historical episode which happened in Singapore in the early 1960s.]]>
Russell Morton]]> Southeast Asia]]>