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]]>
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]]> Russell Morton]]> Anna Lovecchio]]> Kristine Tan]]> Arabelle Zhuang]]> Transcript]]> 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]]> Supernatural]]> Mythology]]> Ritual]]> History]]>
On the occasion of the exhibition Ghost and Spectres – Shadows of History curated by Professor Ute Meta Bauer and Khim Ong, and the 4th anniversary of NTU CCA Singapore

10.00 – 10.10am Welcome address by Ute Meta Bauer, Founding Director, NTU CCA Singapore and Professor, School of Art, Design and Media (ADM)

10.10 – 11.10am Keynote Lecture: “The Art of Uncertainty” Dr May Adadol Ingawanij, curator and moving image theorist, University of Westminster, London

Focusing on artists' cinema and moving image installations in Southeast Asia, the keynote lecture addresses the relationship between contemporary moving image aesthetics, historical invocation, and the politics of enunciation. Dr Ingawanij will expamnd on how weveryday life, conflicts, violence, and historical erasures specific to places in Southeast Asia are sources of inspiration and motivation for many artists.]]>
May Adadol Ingawanij]]> Ute Meta Bauer]]> Video]]> Asia]]>
Supernatural]]> Mythology]]> History]]> Identity]]>
On the occasion of the exhibition Ghost and Spectres – Shadows of History curated by Professor Ute Meta Bauer and Khim Ong, and the 4th anniversary of NTU CCA Singapore

SESSION II: GHOSTS AND SPECTRES 2.30 – 4.30pm
In Conversation: Dr David Teh with Hyunjin Kim, Park Chan-kyong, and Dr Clare Veal

Alluding to the works of Park Chan-kyong and Apichatpong Weerasethaku, this session deals with notiios of ghosts and spectres as allegories of historicalmoments and dreamlike realities. Embedded in myths and folklore, what roles do they play in constructing and understanding of the past and in reflecting socio-political circumstances? How do cinematic works engage their medium specificity in a play of historical phantoms and repressed collective memories, to create a language for portraying trauma, loss, dreams, and nightmares?]]>
Hyunjin Kim]]> Park Chan-kyong]]> Clare Veal]]> Video]]> Asia]]> Southeast Asia]]>
History]]> Modernity]]> Mythology]]> Supernatural]]>
On the occasion of the exhibition Ghost and Spectres – Shadows of History curated by Professor Ute Meta Bauer and Khim Ong, and the 4th anniversary of NTU CCA Singapore

SESSION II: GHOSTS AND SPECTRES 2.30 – 4.30pm
Chaired by researcher and curator Dr David Teh
Lecture: “Contested Modernity and the Image of History in East Asia” Hyunjin Kim, curator, writer, and researcher

The lecture addresses Asia as a region in-between becoming and unravelling. Referencing images of resistance and spirituality, Hyunjin Kim will discuss works that observe and excavate unarticulated modern and contemporary realities that pervade the (East) Asian region today. Part of the lecture proposes ways to rethink the radicality of tradition as an "ungovernable" apparatus, in contrast to the brutal adaptation of Western modernisation and to the rise of nationalism. The following examination looks at the discourse of "Asianism," engaging with Sun Ge's idea of "homecoming" and Takeuchi Yoshimi's notion of zengzha. Understanding the region as a space of anomalous events, the speaker will demonstrate how the complicated historical relations and hegemonic struggles endemic to the region can accelerate the production of the discourse.]]>
David Teh]]> Hyunjin Kim]]> Magdelena Magiera]]> Video]]> Asia]]>
Mythology]]> Supernatural]]> Ritual]]> History]]>
On the occasion of the exhibition Ghost and Spectres – Shadows of History curated by Professor Ute Meta Bauer and Khim Ong, and the 4th anniversary of NTU CCA Singapore

SESSION II: GHOSTS AND SPECTRES 4.30 – 5.30pm Closing Keynote Lecture by Professor Kenneth Dean, Head, Department of Chinese Studies, NUS

Professor Dean will reflect on the day's discussions from the perspective of local historical research, and expand on them through referencing folkloric and vernancular practices.]]>
Kenneth Dean]]> Ute Meta Bauer]]> Video]]> Southeast Asia]]>
Mythology]]> Supernatural]]> History]]>
On the occasion of the exhibition Ghost and Spectres – Shadows of History curated by Professor Ute Meta Bauer and Khim Ong, and the 4th anniversary of NTU CCA Singapore

SESSION II: GHOSTS AND SPECTRES 2.30 – 4.30pm Presentation: “Colonial Unheimlich” Artist Park Chan-kyong


"...if a critique of Orientalism avoids the object of its criticism it is also unsound. Criticising Orientalism is fine, but a more flexible approach within the structure of Orientalism itself should be entailed in the criticism. Criticism of Orientalism should be better than Orientalism itself or contain certain surpassing elements within it. The criticism and the exceeder may conflict with each other. Even the critical reflection of 'what is not Orientalism' my be derived from the outer, especially Western perspectives. This is imperative: what we can do in between escaping the Orientalist structure and demystifying it may even include intentional use of Orientalism..." (From The Phantom of "Minjok Art"  by Park Chan-kyong)]]>
Park Chan-kyong]]> Video]]> Asia]]>
Mythology]]> Supernatural]]> History]]> Identity]]>
On the occasion of the exhibition Ghost and Spectres – Shadows of History curated by Professor Ute Meta Bauer and Khim Ong, and the 4th anniversary of NTU CCA Singapore

SESSION II: GHOSTS AND SPECTRES 2.30 – 4.30pm
Chaired by researcher and curator Dr David Teh
Presentation: “The Spectre of Photography in the works of Apichatpong Weerasethakul” Dr Clare Veal, art historian, Lecturer, MA Asian Art Histories, LASALLE College of the Arts, Singapore

The histories of photography and film in Thailand intersect in multiple ways. Yet the revelatory, iconic nature of photography in this context has meant that it has often been considered separate from filmic practice in which the "real" lacks weight. The trans-disciplinary nature of Apichatpong Weerasethakul's practice, described by Dr May Adadol Ingawanij and Dr David Teh's as "permeable," complicates these distinctions. Despite Apichatpong's preference for cinema and video, the photographic is implied through the slow, rhythmic pace of his time-based works, as well as their reconstitution as stills. By aligning these references with the implications of different media forms in the Thai context, this presentation considers the role of the photographic and the filmic to reveal and conceal, and how medium specificity is implicated in the visualisation of traumatic pasts that resist representation.]]>
Clare Veal]]> Video]]> Southeast Asia]]>