It is why the artists of the project (some alongside new collaborators) have been invited to return to the forested areas that they had once dwelled. To engage with the other-than-human domains of the forests through their own practices and predilections be it through foraging, ritual-making or movement. In the process opening up possibilities to …
The pandemic has given forests a new lustre in our newly-confined worlds. The lush green openness a balm to our Corona-weary minds. “When your eyes are tired from the monitor, look out to the big green tree to rest your eye” – a trope, a stereotype revived to reinvigorate us in these pandemic times. As …
In a tropical rainforest, durian trees are often a tell-tale sign of the proximities of bats. Twines and branches point to possible simian superhighways. While holes in the ground suggest the presence of wild boars. Semiotically, if we were to expand upon the notion of selfhood by explaining life as a sign process, then as …
I sit here in front of my laptop with the temptation to begin this text with an assortment of platitudes; about the wondrous nature of forests, what they are, what they mean and what they represent. Platitudes that are like dewdrops condensed from the sheer complexities that forests constitute through their roles in the story …
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zg3A2QHbIRM *For best experience play video with the Youtube app to enable mobile gyroscope In these seemingly eschatological times, where the increasingly irreversible fact of the climate crisis unfolds. The delayed nature between (our) actions and their effects lend itself to a sense of suspension with the elongation of time. More and more so, the …
Consisting of a series of earth drawings and a video in three parts: Whispering Secrets into Trees, The Poetics of Moving Earth and Terra as Palimpsest. Together they offer multiple entry points and traversing pathways through the work. Serving as invitations and invocations to see with skin, hear with our feet, feel our way through …
Waiting for Durian · Waiting for Durian Waiting for Durian is a sixteen-minute audio story inspired by Kray Chen’s very own short film, Durian-picking. A retelling that sonically and spatially transports the audiences into the Singaporean rainforest as they’re brought along on the nocturnal excursion, amidst a looming tropical storm. Durian-picking itself was a short …
00:00 00:00 enter 00:00 perspective dissipating into movement 00:00 listen 00:00 signs 00:00 ground adaptation 00:00 touch-me-not 00:00 memory cultivation 00:00 mycelial 00:00 edible-non-edible 00:00 structurally unsound 00:00 stream 00:00 axis 00:00 wet 00:00 cameocopy 00:00 map 00:00 by Nina Djekić Work comes online 22 January 2021 During this time of the global pandemic, many …
An Invocation to the Earthby Yeo Siew Hua 202016:10 min video Deep in the tropical rainforest of Southeast Asia, a series of incantations invoke the spirits of yore, including those of the nimble, tricksy Kancil (mouse-deer) and the ferocious Buaya (crocodile). The ancient animals enact their folkloric vendetta in a furious dance of dominance, yet …
Whispering Secrets Into Treesby Zarina Muhammad 2020A ‘spirit house’ assemblage composed of repurposed birdcages, soil, salvaged organic materials and plant parts, incense, benzoin resin, snakeskin, clay, yarn, coins alongside 56 ‘memory fragments’ printed on postcards. “Singapore has undergone rapid deforestation since 1819. Secondary vegetation has regrown on these previously disturbed lands. Did you have a …
Curator
Kent Chan
Artists
Kray Chen
Melinda Lauw
Nina Djekić
Zarina Muhammad
Zachary Chan
Yeo Siew Hua
