Signature Art Prize
The APB Foundation Signature Art Prize is a quality mark of distinction and excellence that recognises the most outstanding contemporary artwork produced in the Asia Pacific.
Launched by the APB Foundation in partnership with the Singapore Art Museum, the competition is open to all forms of visual art and artists from countries in the Asia Pacific region. It seeks to highlight new developments in the visual arts, stimulate lively public discussion and critical debate, and provide a cross-cultural exhibition platform for established practitioners and emergent artists alike.
Given the success of the inaugural prize in 2008, the APB Foundation increased its funding to offer artists from the whole Asia Pacific region the opportunity to be selected for this prestigious prize. Nominations for this 2011 edition now extend beyond the original 12 participating countries and territories to include, amongst others, Australia, Bangladesh, Brunei, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, Taiwan, and other Oceania and Pacific islands. In all, APB Foundation has doubled its pledge from S$2.25 million to S$4.45 million towards the Art Prize which is awarded once in every three years over 15 years from 2008.
Presenting a total of five awards – Grand Prize (SGD 45,000), three Juror’s Choice Awards (SGD 10,000 x 3) and a People’s Choice Award (SGD 10,000), the APB Foundation Signature Art Prize is the premier juried art award in the region.
2014 Signature Art Prize
Awards Ceremony
Finalists’ Artworks
Golden Teardrop by Mr. Arin Rungjang (Thailand). Medium/Material: Sculpture and video installation. Golden Teardrop is based on the true story of a traditional Thai egg-yolk dessert, adapted from a recipe that originated with Portuguese nuns in the 15th century. This delicacy was introduced to the Siamese court in the 17th century by Maria Guyomar de Pinha, the wife of Constantine Phaulkon, the Greek counselor to Siam’s King Narai.
Custos Cavum (Guardian of the hole) by Mr. Choe U-Ram (South Korea). Medium/Material: Metallic material, resin, motor, gear, custom CPU board, LED. Once upon a time, there were two worlds. They were connected to each other through a number of small holes, as if the worlds were breathing through these holes. However, the holes had a tendency to close up, so there were guardians next to each one to keep them open. The guardians were called “Custos Cavum”. They took the form of seals and had large front teeth, which they used to gnaw the holes to prevent them from closing up.
Kahani Eik Shehr Ki (story of a city) by Ms. Farida Batool (Pakistan). Medium/Material: Lenticular print. In Kahani Eik Shehr Ki the artist is narrating a story of her city from different perspectives, as a protagonist, as a storyteller. She walks along different roadsides of Lahore, to tell a story through the brief momentous interaction with people and the visual imagery found around her. The juxtaposition of the images helps to construct a complex and multilayered narrative, framing citizens within significant markers of the city presented through the banality of everyday life.
One places / on "the room” by Mr. Go Watanabe (Japan). Medium/Material: Full HD 3D CG video installation. One places / on "the room"" is a 3DCG video animation consisted of 2 different animations, and , projected on both sides of a flat screen installed in a pitch-dark room. The space in these animations are created based on an existing bedroom, measured it and photographed each textures of interior, then reconstructed into a virtual space by 3DCG software.
PYTHAGORAS by Mr. Ho Tzu Nyen (Singapore). Medium/Material: Installation with 4-channel video HD Projection, 8-channel sound, automated curtains, lights, fans and show control system. The voice is the spirit that animates the very flesh of things. It moves us and it commands us. We can shut our eyes to the lure of images, but there is nothing to prevent a voice from penetrating our innermost depths. And there are voices that are heard only by the prophet and the mad man. There are voices in the dark and voices in the head, voices without bodies - the domain of ghosts and gods.
In Pursuit of Venus by Ms. Lisa Reihana (New Zealand). Medium/Material: 2-stream HD video with stereo sound on continuous loop. In Neoclassical France, entrepreneur Joseph Dufour used the latest printing innovations to produce the sophisticated scenic wallpaper Les Sauvages de la Mer Pacifique (1804). Two hundred years later, Maori artist Lisa Reihana employs twenty-first century digital technologies to animate the wallpaper and re-examine its conceptual framework. The video in In Pursuit of Venus, is a vast panoramic field populated by a myriad of people drawn from across the Pacific and New Zealand.
Trace by Mr. Liu Jianhua (China). Medium/Material: Porcelain. The artist’s recent works, produced within the context of China’s rapid socioeconomic development, represent a process of experimentation and accumulated experience. The material I’ve used in Trace is porcelain, which has a long and fascinating history in China. Trace is a work that seeks to place the viewer in a contradictory position, a perplexing space between illusion and reality.
I’m a Ghost in My Own House by Ms. Melati Suryodarmo (Indonesia). Medium/Material: Performance, mixed media installation and single-channel video. I’m a Ghost in My Own House is based on my interest in the philosophy and the physical process of a charcoal. From the tree to wood, from wood to charcoal, from charcoal to ash. For the artist, it is interesting to observe the shifting of the original function of the tree, which has been burned to become another form of energy resource useful to mankind. Charcoal is used here to support production, make new elements, melting other elements as well as to destroy other elements.
Rankin Street, 1953 by Mr. Naeem Mohaiemen (Bangladesh). Medium/Material: Mixed media installation: video, vintage photographs, matching sandstone moulds, blueprints. After a few weeks of interviews, the retired officer warmed up. He insisted, from then on, that the day’s interview always end with lunch together. Your auntie made this. You like fish of course? Not too many bones. Then he would say, sometimes, You are becoming part of the family.
Unsubtitled by Ms. Nguyen Trinh Thi (Vietnam). Medium/Material: Mixed media installation: video projection on 19 wooden cut-out screens. In this series, the artist explores possibilities for combining video installation with performance art, and possibilities of preserving differences of individuals while creating a sense of collective experiences. Thematically, he continues to study the issues and reflect on the history and development of the role and position of the artist in the Vietnamese society.
Infinite Love by Mr. Owen Leong (Australia). Medium/Material: HD video. Infinite Love shows the artist with his mouth kept forcibly open with a dental retractor, as a heart made of frozen milk melts and drips whiteness into his open mouth. Visceral, ambiguous and poetic, the transformation of his body through fictional selves opens up a space for new identities to come into being.
Letters From A Distance by Ms. Peng Wei (China). Medium/Material: Mixed media installation: Handmade linen paper, wooden box, silk ribbon, jade pins and oxbone scrollbars. The scrolls and album leaves of ancient Chinese landscape paintings provide steady inspiration and the structure for Letters From A Distance. They are not landscapes paintings; they are painting installations on scrolls and album leaves. Through paintings and printed materials, the artist shows the ambiguous and intersecting visual relationships between representation and replication.
House of Opaque Water by Mr. Ranbir Kaleka (India). Medium/Material: HD video installation. In a kind of overflow from reality, invented events are enacted in fictive spaces which project the imaginary interiority of the protagonist. Binaries of art and documentary are dissolved to point to another kind of truth which goes beyond the informational. Two wide screen-panels placed far apart on the floor and the third projection in the middle on a wall between them create an immersive ambience with sound.
Mirage – Disused Public Property in Taiwan by Mr. Yao Jui-Chung + Lost Society Document (Taiwan). Medium/Material: Video, 200 photographs. After four years of investigation across the island, Yao Jui-Chung’s students from the fine arts departments at Taipei National University of the Arts and the National Taiwan Normal University identified over 300 "mosquito hall" locations, compiling three books Mirage - Disused Public Property in Taiwan, which outlines an absurd situation in Taiwanese society, embodying the fact that "misguided policy is worse than corruption".
Eskimo wolf trap often quoted in sermons by Mr. Zhao Renhui (Singapore). Medium/Material: Mixed media installation: knife, bicarbonate soda, vinyl text sticker. “Eventually, a wolf will approach the knife and begin to cautiously sniff and lick the frozen blood. After believing it is safe, the wolf will lick more aggressively. Soon, the blade of the knife becomes exposed and it begins to nick the wolf’s tongue. Because its tongue has been numbed by the cold of the frozen blood it now tastes is its own. Excited at the prospect of fresh, warm blood, the wolf will hungrily lick the blade all the more. In a short time, the wolf will grow dizzy and disoriented. In a matter of hours, it will die from blood loss, literally drinking itself to death. As horrible as this picture is, it illustrates an important truth.”
2011 Signature Art Prize
Awards Ceremony
Winners
The APB Foundation Signature Art Prizereturned for the second edition in 2011. A total of 130 artworks were nominated by 31 independent art professionals and curators across 24 countries. The nominated artworks cover a wide range of media such as painting, mixed media, installation, video art, photography and prints, sculpture as well as performance art, with a significant increase in entries for video and moving-image works as well as monumental-sized installations which discuss issues such as environmental concerns, cultural and personal identity. Of these, 15 note-worthy works from 14 countries across Asia Pacific were short listed. Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Australia, New Zealand, Pakistan, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, and Vietnam had one finalist each, while South Korea had two finalists. At the Awards Ceremony, five awards – one Grand Prize, three Juror’s Choice Awards and one People’s Choice Award – were presented to:
GRAND PRIZE WINNER: Baston ni Kabunian, Bilang Pero di Mabilang (Cane of Kabunian, numbered but cannot be counted) by Mr. Rodel Tapaya (Philippines). Medium/Material: Acrylic on canvas. Rodel Tapaya’s work is compelling and of monumental-scale. With its multiple narratives and diverse allegorical references, this stunning mural-sized painting embodies a vibrant strain in contemporary art from the Asia-Pacific region. Tapaya’s work depicts an allegory of greed by employing images from different mythologies about the origin of the mountains, rain flood and other creatures. He used folklore to discuss not only the rich oral cultural heritage but also to insert political commentary about prevailing issues.
JUROR'S CHOICE AWARD WINNER: Static No. 12 (seek stillness in movement) by Mr. Daniel Crooks (Australia). Medium/Material: Single-channel HD video (RED 2 K mastered to Blu-ray). Australian artist Daniel Crooks’ single channel video work, Static No.12 (seek stillness in movement), explores the spatial representation of time and the metaphysical concept behind it. The video manipulates footage of an elderly man practicing taichi, distorting reality and stretching his movements across the frame.
JUROR'S CHOICE AWARD WINNER: The Water Diviner by Ms. Sheba Chhachhi (India). Medium/Material: Installation with video, books, light boxes & sound, light & water. Indian artist Sheba Chhachhi’s large-scale public art installation, The Water Diviner, draws on the symbolism and importance of water in the Indian culture. This beautiful installation is complemented with a video that uses projections of still images and transparencies to create an immersive environment.
JUROR'S CHOICE AWARD WINNER: Ash Color Mountains by Mr. Aida Makoto (Japan). Medium/Material: Acrylic on canvas. Japanese artist Makoto Aida’s complex painting, Ash Color Mountains, appears as a beautiful traditional mountainous landscape painting at first glance. Closer examination reveals that the landscape is made up of bodies of faceless white-collar workers, piled up high over one another. With a remarkable attention to detail, the painting conveys the underlying sense of violence and destruction that often characterises many of Aida’s works.
PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARD WINNER: Second-Hand City by Mr. Michael Lee (Singapore). Medium/Material: Digital Print on archival paper; edition 6 of 10 + AP(Artist Proof); set of 8 episodes. Singaporean artist Michael Lee, with his work Second-Hand City, a suite of 8 digital prints created last year, is among the finalists shortlisted. This thought-provoking series explores contemporary life and art in the city with critical insight and wit, combining urban architecture with science fiction and pop culture.
Finalists’ Artworks
Ash Color Mountains by Mr. Aida Makoto (Japan). Medium/Material: Acrylic on canvas. Japanese artist Makoto Aida’s complex painting, Ash Color Mountains, appears as a beautiful traditional mountainous landscape painting at first glance. Closer examination reveals that the landscape is made up of bodies of faceless white-collar workers, piled up high over one another. With a remarkable attention to detail, the painting conveys the underlying sense of violence and destruction that often characterises many of Aida’s works.
The Past Moved by Mr. Bùi Công Khánh (Vietnam). Medium/Material: Charcoal on paper backdrop and photographs. The Past Moved is an interdisciplinary project in which time, space and history interweave. Bùi Công Khánh recorded a slum in his neighbourhood in Ho Chi Minh City before it slipped into the past. In his studio, the artist reconstructed the facade of a working-class street in his vicinity through drawing and painting, and then invited the residents to stand in front of “their street” in the studio for a photograph. As a result, The Past Moved transfers from an installation into an art performance with the participation of the residents who were not aware of their “making art” and making history.
The World is Flat by Mr. Chang Yoong Chia (Malaysia). Medium/Material: Postage stamps and adhesive. The World is Flat is layered with thousands of pieces of postage stamps that the artist had collected over the years. Every shade of colour, shape and image in this brilliant composition was made purely from just postage stamps and adhesive. Everywhere you look in the work; there is an interesting story that is being told.
Empire’s Borders by Mr. Chen Chieh-jen (Taiwan). Medium/Material: 35mm transferred to DVD, colour and black and white, sound, single-channel video, continuous loop. Chen’s single-channel video Empire’s Borders was inspired by his personal experience of being accused of wanting to immigrate to the United States illegally when applying for a travel visa, and explores how empires monitor and discipline citizens of weaker nations with their border control policies.
The Water Diviner by Ms. Sheba Chhachhi (India). Medium/Material: Installation with video, books, light boxes & sound, light & water. Indian artist Sheba Chhachhi’s large-scale public art installation, The Water Diviner, draws on the symbolism and importance of water in the Indian culture. This beautiful installation is complemented with a video that uses projections of still images and transparencies to create an immersive environment.
Lama Sabakhtani #01 by Ms. Ay Tjoe Christine (Indonesia). Medium/Material: Wood, metal, wire, brass balls. Ms Ay Tjoe Christine’s work is a replica of the guillotine in its actual size, following the model of a real guillotine. The structure of the object that generates the sound is created by installing three knives, with the movements controlled through two series of gears and two dynamos. Christine’s work shows very subtle visual ideas of violence and sadism, something that is usually portrayed in a more explicit way. Her work also reinterprets the idea of crucifixion, highlighted this almost forgotten issue in Indonesia’s contemporary art practice.
Static No. 12 (seek stillness in movement) by Mr. Daniel Crooks (Australia). Medium/Material: Single-channel HD video (RED 2 K mastered to Blu-ray). Australian artist Daniel Crooks’ single channel video work, Static No.12 (seek stillness in movement), explores the spatial representation of time and the metaphysical concept behind it. The video manipulates footage of an elderly man practicing taichi, distorting reality and stretching his movements across the frame.
Needling Whisper, Needle Country/Embroidery Project | Needling Whisper, Needle Country: 자수 프로젝트 by Ms. Kyungah Ham (South Korea). Medium/Material: North Korean hand embroidery on silk, various dimensions; total 9 pieces. Ms Kyungah Ham’s body of the works is an attempt at forbidden communication to an unreachable place, across the ideological and physical distance between South and North Korea. Embroidery has often been understood and used under feminist contexts; however, Ham develops the skills to social contexts, which bears witness to her artistic flair. Her work shows the painstaking and time-consuming labour of embroidery, and unfolds the stories behind the work.
Mobile Landscape by Mr. Kim Jongku (South Korea). Medium/Material: Steel powder, CC camera, LED projector, screen, paper roll. Jongku Kim’s work begins with the arduous and meditative task of grinding solid steel poles and collecting the ground steel particles. With the steel powder, the artist writes calligraphy or quotes from foreign poetry, which is either adhered onto a canvas or loosely positioned for floor installations. The tiresome preparatory work is an indispensable step to the mental and metaphysical creativity of traditional painting and writing in which much attention and appreciation is given to the process itself.
Second-Hand City by Mr. Michael Lee (Singapore). Medium/Material: Digital Print on archival paper; edition 6 of 10 + AP(Artist Proof); set of 8 episodes. Singaporean artist Michael Lee, with his work Second-Hand City, a suite of 8 digital prints created last year, is among the finalists shortlisted. This thought-provoking series explores contemporary life and art in the city with critical insight and wit, combining urban architecture with science fiction and pop culture.
You who are my love and my life’s enemy too by Mr. Imran Qureshi (Pakistan). Medium/Material: Gouache on wasli paper. Imran Qureshi’s meticulous approach to the painterly mark is initiated by his training as a Miniature painter. Yet his response to the turbulence of our times is poignant, deeply felt and horrifyingly immediate, while never forgoing beauty as a humanizing force. There is a great use of gestural abstraction and movement to depict the violence in this work. The splatter patterns reveal a tension between the wanton placement of the drops of blood and the representation revealed in the exquisite foliate patterns.
Bomb Ponds by Mr. Vandy Rattana (Cambodia). Medium/Material: Photographs and video. Vandy Rattana’s Bomb Ponds is a series of nine quiet, mysteriously serene landscape photographs and a confronting one-channel documentary film in which villagers describe their memories of the bombings as well as their relationship to the ponds today. The Bomb Ponds invite audiences to connect with both the fragility and the resilience of the people and the land, and to reconsider the historical thread of America's actions during the Vietnam War and subsequently, similar acts of violence worldwide.
The Last Cannibal Supper by Mr. Greg Semu (New Zealand). Medium/Material: HD Photography and light boxes, total 9 images. Greg’s work provocatively explores issues surrounding the religious colonisation of indigenous peoples in the Pacific. The impact of this on Pacific people was as profound and long-lasting as its political counterpart. Working with Kanakpeople as actors, Greg emulated Leonardo Da Vinci’s famed image ‘The Last Supper’. This work, redolent with mimicry and irony, resonated with contemporary Kanaks as part of their historical and cultural experience.
Baston ni Kabunian, Bilang Pero di Mabilang (Cane of Kabunian, numbered but cannot be counted) by Mr. Rodel Tapaya (Philippines). Medium/Material: Acrylic on canvas. Rodel Tapaya’s work is compelling and of monumental-scale. With its multiple narratives and diverse allegorical references, this stunning mural-sized painting embodies a vibrant strain in contemporary art from the Asia-Pacific region. Tapaya’s work depicts an allegory of greed by employing images from different mythologies about the origin of the mountains, rain flood and other creatures. He used folklore to discuss not only the rich oral cultural heritage but also to insert political commentary about prevailing issues.
Thin | 瘦 by Mr. Yang Xinguang (China). Medium/Material: Wood. Chinese artist Yang Xinguang’s wooden sculptures depict a state of invasion and attack. In a single attempt, Yang axed and inflicted cuts on these pieces of wood in cruelty, presenting them like thin human bones.
2008 Signature Art Prize
Press Conference and Gala Dinner
Winners
2008 marked the first year the APB Foundation Signature Art Prize was presented. A total of 34 artworks were nominated by respected art nominators across 12 countries. The pieces encompassed diverse themes and mediums such as painting, sculpture, mixed media, site-specific installation, video, photography, performance art, new media and interactive work, showcasing the richness of visual contemporary art in the region today. Of these, 10 entries were short listed and they comprise creations from Cambodia, China, India, Malaysia, Mongolia, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam.
During the inaugural event, five awards – one Grand Prize, three Juror’s Choice Awards and one People’s Choice Award – were presented to:
GRAND PRIZE WINNER Name: Mr Yeo Chee Kiong (Singapore) Title: A Day without a Tree Medium: Mixed Media Description: A Day Without A Tree is a mixed media installation that transformed the brick and plaster columns of the National Museum’s rotunda into a “living body” experiencing the devastating effects of environmental change. In a world without trees, global warming has melted the solid forms of the building into a white fluid. Yet the slippery white fluid is also a visual pun and tongue-in-cheek reference to the notion of “spilt milk”, particularly within the confines of a building which houses and protects artefacts and works of art.
JUROR'S CHOICE AWARD WINNERS Name: Mr G.R. Iranna (India) Title: Wounded Tools Medium: Fiber glass, artificial fur, iron, wood, acrylic coloring, cloth Description: Wounded Tools symbolically represents the changing value structures of our society through a donkey mutely carrying a saddle filled with tools. The sharpened edges of the tools are bandaged and show blood stains. Through a deliberate reversal and subversion, the tools (which could inflict wounds) become the actual victims of civilizational violence. The depiction of agrarian tools and the deliberate avoidance of tools of aggression tell the story of the transition of societies from their primal innocence to more contrived and calculative existence.
JUROR'S CHOICE AWARD WINNERS Name: Ahman Fuad B. Osman (Malaysia) Title: Recollections of Long Lost Memories Medium: Slide projection, Edition 2/3 Description: In Recollections of Long Lost Memories, Fuad uses digital technology and computer manipulation to introduce an imaginary character into old photographs from various periods and moments in Malaysian history. The artist combines a fondness for the iconic and an instinctive knowledge of national histories to present a romantic and nostalgic selection of historical images that span the last 50 years.
JUROR'S CHOICE AWARD WINNERS Name: Mr Zheng Bo (China) Title: Karibu Islands Medium: Digital video and text Description: Karibu Islands is a digital video with text in which time travels backward in a phantasmagorical atmosphere inspired by a famous poem by Tang Dynasty poet Li Po. With deep reflection on the experiences of modernity, Karibu Islands shows the possibility of “alternative time” and cultural “backwardness”.
PEOPLE'S CHOICE AWARD WINNER Name: Mr Davaa Dorjderem (Mongolia) Title: Voice in the Space Medium: Mixed media – bone, leather, wood, paper Description: Voice In The Space is a three-piece mixed media work using bone, leather, wood and paper. The work is about the life of the foetus in the womb from conception to the moment of birth and reflects the artist’s belief that man’s life in the womb, the pre-birth life, is the freest, most tranquil existence man can ever achieve.
Golden Teardrop by Mr. Arin Rungjang (Thailand). Medium/Material: Sculpture and video installation. Golden Teardrop is based on the true story of a traditional Thai egg-yolk dessert, adapted from a recipe that originated with Portuguese nuns in the 15th century. This delicacy was introduced to the Siamese court in the 17th century by Maria Guyomar de Pinha, the wife of Constantine Phaulkon, the Greek counselor to Siam’s King Narai.
Custos Cavum (Guardian of the hole) by Mr. Choe U-Ram (South Korea). Medium/Material: Metallic material, resin, motor, gear, custom CPU board, LED. Once upon a time, there were two worlds. They were connected to each other through a number of small holes, as if the worlds were breathing through these holes. However, the holes had a tendency to close up, so there were guardians next to each one to keep them open. The guardians were called “Custos Cavum”. They took the form of seals and had large front teeth, which they used to gnaw the holes to prevent them from closing up.
Kahani Eik Shehr Ki (story of a city) by Ms. Farida Batool (Pakistan). Medium/Material: Lenticular print. In Kahani Eik Shehr Ki the artist is narrating a story of her city from different perspectives, as a protagonist, as a storyteller. She walks along different roadsides of Lahore, to tell a story through the brief momentous interaction with people and the visual imagery found around her. The juxtaposition of the images helps to construct a complex and multilayered narrative, framing citizens within significant markers of the city presented through the banality of everyday life.
One places / on "the room” by Mr. Go Watanabe (Japan). Medium/Material: Full HD 3D CG video installation. One places / on "the room"" is a 3DCG video animation consisted of 2 different animations, and , projected on both sides of a flat screen installed in a pitch-dark room. The space in these animations are created based on an existing bedroom, measured it and photographed each textures of interior, then reconstructed into a virtual space by 3DCG software.
PYTHAGORAS by Mr. Ho Tzu Nyen (Singapore). Medium/Material: Installation with 4-channel video HD Projection, 8-channel sound, automated curtains, lights, fans and show control system. The voice is the spirit that animates the very flesh of things. It moves us and it commands us. We can shut our eyes to the lure of images, but there is nothing to prevent a voice from penetrating our innermost depths. And there are voices that are heard only by the prophet and the mad man. There are voices in the dark and voices in the head, voices without bodies - the domain of ghosts and gods.
In Pursuit of Venus by Ms. Lisa Reihana (New Zealand). Medium/Material: 2-stream HD video with stereo sound on continuous loop. In Neoclassical France, entrepreneur Joseph Dufour used the latest printing innovations to produce the sophisticated scenic wallpaper Les Sauvages de la Mer Pacifique (1804). Two hundred years later, Maori artist Lisa Reihana employs twenty-first century digital technologies to animate the wallpaper and re-examine its conceptual framework. The video in In Pursuit of Venus, is a vast panoramic field populated by a myriad of people drawn from across the Pacific and New Zealand.
Trace by Mr. Liu Jianhua (China). Medium/Material: Porcelain. The artist’s recent works, produced within the context of China’s rapid socioeconomic development, represent a process of experimentation and accumulated experience. The material I’ve used in Trace is porcelain, which has a long and fascinating history in China. Trace is a work that seeks to place the viewer in a contradictory position, a perplexing space between illusion and reality.
I’m a Ghost in My Own House by Ms. Melati Suryodarmo (Indonesia). Medium/Material: Performance, mixed media installation and single-channel video. I’m a Ghost in My Own House is based on my interest in the philosophy and the physical process of a charcoal. From the tree to wood, from wood to charcoal, from charcoal to ash. For the artist, it is interesting to observe the shifting of the original function of the tree, which has been burned to become another form of energy resource useful to mankind. Charcoal is used here to support production, make new elements, melting other elements as well as to destroy other elements.
Rankin Street, 1953 by Mr. Naeem Mohaiemen (Bangladesh). Medium/Material: Mixed media installation: video, vintage photographs, matching sandstone moulds, blueprints. After a few weeks of interviews, the retired officer warmed up. He insisted, from then on, that the day’s interview always end with lunch together. Your auntie made this. You like fish of course? Not too many bones. Then he would say, sometimes, You are becoming part of the family.
Unsubtitled by Ms. Nguyen Trinh Thi (Vietnam). Medium/Material: Mixed media installation: video projection on 19 wooden cut-out screens. In this series, the artist explores possibilities for combining video installation with performance art, and possibilities of preserving differences of individuals while creating a sense of collective experiences. Thematically, he continues to study the issues and reflect on the history and development of the role and position of the artist in the Vietnamese society.
Infinite Love by Mr. Owen Leong (Australia). Medium/Material: HD video. Infinite Love shows the artist with his mouth kept forcibly open with a dental retractor, as a heart made of frozen milk melts and drips whiteness into his open mouth. Visceral, ambiguous and poetic, the transformation of his body through fictional selves opens up a space for new identities to come into being.
Letters From A Distance by Ms. Peng Wei (China). Medium/Material: Mixed media installation: Handmade linen paper, wooden box, silk ribbon, jade pins and oxbone scrollbars. The scrolls and album leaves of ancient Chinese landscape paintings provide steady inspiration and the structure for Letters From A Distance. They are not landscapes paintings; they are painting installations on scrolls and album leaves. Through paintings and printed materials, the artist shows the ambiguous and intersecting visual relationships between representation and replication.
House of Opaque Water by Mr. Ranbir Kaleka (India). Medium/Material: HD video installation. In a kind of overflow from reality, invented events are enacted in fictive spaces which project the imaginary interiority of the protagonist. Binaries of art and documentary are dissolved to point to another kind of truth which goes beyond the informational. Two wide screen-panels placed far apart on the floor and the third projection in the middle on a wall between them create an immersive ambience with sound.
Mirage – Disused Public Property in Taiwan by Mr. Yao Jui-Chung + Lost Society Document (Taiwan). Medium/Material: Video, 200 photographs. After four years of investigation across the island, Yao Jui-Chung’s students from the fine arts departments at Taipei National University of the Arts and the National Taiwan Normal University identified over 300 "mosquito hall" locations, compiling three books Mirage - Disused Public Property in Taiwan, which outlines an absurd situation in Taiwanese society, embodying the fact that "misguided policy is worse than corruption".
Eskimo wolf trap often quoted in sermons by Mr. Zhao Renhui (Singapore). Medium/Material: Mixed media installation: knife, bicarbonate soda, vinyl text sticker. “Eventually, a wolf will approach the knife and begin to cautiously sniff and lick the frozen blood. After believing it is safe, the wolf will lick more aggressively. Soon, the blade of the knife becomes exposed and it begins to nick the wolf’s tongue. Because its tongue has been numbed by the cold of the frozen blood it now tastes is its own. Excited at the prospect of fresh, warm blood, the wolf will hungrily lick the blade all the more. In a short time, the wolf will grow dizzy and disoriented. In a matter of hours, it will die from blood loss, literally drinking itself to death. As horrible as this picture is, it illustrates an important truth.”