Residencies OPEN x SAW

Residencies OPEN x SAW

Residencies OPEN showcases the diversity of contemporary art practices and reveals how the space of the studio constitutes a springboard for artistic research and experimentation. This session of Residencies OPEN as part of Singapore Art Week 2023 offers a unique opportunity for the public to meet Artists-in-Residence Zachary Chan, Min-Wei Ting, and Wang Ruobing (all Singapore)! Come visit the NTU CCA Singapore Residencies Studios for a special insight into their works-in-progress and to explore the processes and research interests developed during their residencies.

The 9^th Cycle of the Residencies Programme by NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore is supported by National Arts Council Singapore. This cycle hosts six Singapore Artists-in-Residence: Fazleen Karlan, Hilmi Johandi, Priyageetha Dia, Zachary Chan, Min-Wei Ting and Wang Ruobing.

Zachary Chan

Saturday, 14 January – Sunday, 15 January 2023
1:00 – 7:00pm
Block 37 Malan Road, #01-01

Second Heaven Revelations (working title)
in collaboration with Nai Iyn Huii
installation, mixed materials

During his five-month residency, Zachary Chan has researched Pentecostal Christianity—the religion that defined the artist’s own upbringing—and the practice of spiritual mapping in the context of Singapore. Interweaving personal narratives, historical anecdotes, religious texts, and environmental demonology, Zachary’ s installation explores the heterogenous manifestations of malevolent forces in this religious doctrine.

Configured as a chapel, the colourful installation features a tapestry as altar piece. The tapestry is surrounded by soft sculptures that emanate the joyful naivety of children’s toys. However, these innocent, everyday objects may resonate with different meanings for those who subscribe to specific belief systems. Amidst a jocose iconography loom figures that refer to complex theological concepts such as the trichotomy of body/soul/mind as well as Christological symbols and various embodiments of malevolent entities. Recurring throughout the installation is the motif of the snake, the biblical symbol of temptation and sin while the floor piece consists of a long-tongued turtle resting on the outline of Singapore. In several Asian cosmologies, marine creatures play a significant role and a giant turtle, known as the Cosmic Turtle, is believed to bear the world on its shell. Following the Old Testament, some Christian denominations stigmatise the marine kingdom as the realm of chaos and demons. For some believers, marine demons have to be tamed in order to ensure the “revival” of coastal societies.

Through the playful transfiguration of demonological concepts, Zachary’s work hints to the porous divide between the everyday and the spiritual and it prompts viewers to reflect upon the manifold implications of religious worldviews.

Min-Wei Ting

Saturday, 14 January – Sunday, 15 January 2023
1:00 – 7:00pm
Block 37 Malan Road, #01-02

work-in-progress
double-channel projection, colour, sound, approx. 10 min

As a continuation of his growing interest in the state’s response to climate change and rising sea levels, Min-Wei Ting has spent his residency looking at infrastructural projects that are being developed in Singapore to mitigate climate crisis. Employing the camera as a means to probe, capture, and ponder, the artist is documenting the labour and processes involved in these projects. The presentation for Residencies OPEN conveys the artist’s work-in-progress through a double-channel projection. A close-up scrutiny of an old flood level gauge gives way to rising water in a monsoon drain. A wide-angle meditation encompasses the journey of sand delivered on slow-moving barges from the sea—sand is the material most used to alter the island country’s morphology—while sand mountains loom quietly in the distance. In the flux of these engrossing visual sequences, the lines that connect Singapore’s meticulous management of water, the influx of material and human resources from her neighbouring countries, and the constant restructuring of the landscape become increasingly entangled.

Wang Ruobing

Saturday, 14 January – Sunday, 15 January 2023
1:00 – 7:00pm
Block 37 Malan Road, #01-03

Expanding her enquiry into the symbiotic relationship between environmental knowledge and the visual arts, Wang Ruobing has started a collaboration with the Earth Observatory of Singapore (NTU) to research the themes of sustainability and interconnectivity from a multidisciplinary perspective. For Residencies OPEN, visitors can explore the multiplicity of techniques and materials Ruobing has been experimenting with throughout the artist’s residency. Drawing from Donna J. Haraway’s theories of ‘sympoiesis’ (making-with), Ruobing’s research-in-progress, tentatively titled Living with the Trouble, makes use of found marine debris and suspended mud sediments generously donated from scientists and volunteer deep-sea divers. Honing in on Singapore’s marine coastline ecosystem as a field of enquiry, Ruobing’s research reflects on the waste produced by our lifestyles, the life-cycle of man-made products, and the global impact of ocean pollution. The studio presentation includes the vast array of materials the artist has been sourcing and working with in the past few months as well as the prototype of a kinetic installation wherein marine debris float in a cloud made of mud powder within a globe-shaped dome.

As an extension of her open studio presentation, Ruobing will be in discussion with her collaborator, Dr Kyle Morgan from the NTU’s Earth Observatory of Singapore. In this session of Residencies INSIGHTS, the two will tell the story of how a scientist and an artist are willing to turn trash into treasure and of how mud collected during scientific experiments can be used to make a work of art.

Titled Bridging art and science to raise awareness on environmental issues, the talk will take place on Saturday 14 January, 3.00 -4.30pm, Block 37 Malan Road, #01-04. More information can be found here.

14 - 15 January 2023

Featuring the rich diversity of contemporary artistic practices in Singapore, Residencies OPEN provides a rare insight into the creative processes that unfold inside the artists’ studios.

General

Onsite (CCA)

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