TriSpace_Issue1

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TriSpace+ICAS: Institute of Contemporary Arts Singapore, LASALLE College of the Arts Issue 01 July 2010

I n s t i t u t e o f C o n t e m p o r a r y

A r t s S i n g a p o r e L A S A L L E C o

l l e g e o f t h e A r t s

T R I S P A C E G A L L E R Y

B 1 - 0 5

4. 8 m

3. 3 m

8. 1 m

6. 3 m

G L A S S D O O R : 1 . 9 5 m x 2 . 4

6 m

H E I G H T : 3 . 6 3 m

G L A S S P A N E

L

G L A S S P A N E L



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Hi Slobodan, let’s talk aboutyour work exhibited at TriSpace in

October last year. Titled A Midsummer

Night’s Dream, it certainly was a complexinstallation with a very clear Shakespearian

narrative that uelled this work. Were thereadditional elements that motivated and inspired you

to create this work?

It is easy to orget how gloomy the year 2009 was, but it was that

gloomy atmosphere ollowing the worst recession since WWII, which

gave me the idea to work on something quite the opposite. I thought a

antasy story would be appropriate – a stage where identities shit and

where nothing is what it seems – would engage people in a dierent

kind o thinking.

At that point I was in Venice. I was planning a show at Ikona Gallery

to be held during t he Biennale. Looking at the people all around me,

walking with their maps and smiles on their aces as they desperately

tried to nd their way through the labyrinthean streets o Venice –

I thought here is the very proo that nothing is what it seems. I elt

Shakespeare behind me, laughing. “This is it,” I thought, “All these

people have put the cake in the oven and orgot about it and went out

or summer dreams.”

It was much later when I saw the gallery in Zattare that everything came

together. The space was right on the water. As soon as you opened

the door a massive amount o sunlight came in ollowed by light, which

refected o the water. Everything sparkled. The sound o waves lled

the last hole. I thought to mysel, “My work is done! I’ll open the door

and the space will reconnect with water, sound, light…” Then my riend

Ziva Kraus, director o Ikona said, “No, no, Mr. Trajkovic. Somebody

already did that.”

Shortly ater, I remembered someone at Yvon Lambert had exhibited

empty space as a work, but this was entirely dierent. You had

light, sound, and two spaces with tons o dierent materials and the

connection o two dierent contexts. Nevertheless, I closed the door.

Shortly ater I took a mirror to bring that light inside the room and the

elusiveness that arrived with it, my work started taking shape.

SLOBODANTRAJKOVIC:A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM

EDITORIAL

An Interview with Slobodan Trajkovic by Milenko Prvacki

By Dr Charles Merewether

Director o the Institute o Contemporary Arts Singapore

About the Institute o ContemporaryArts Singapore

The Institute o Contemporary Arts Singapore (ICAS) is the curatorial

division o LASALLE College o the Arts. It runs the LASALLE Galleries,

comprising some 1,500 square meters o gallery spaces dedicated to

exploring new and experimental art, design and media practices. Its

programme ocuses on showcasing international, Asian, South-east Asian

and local contemporary art with the aim o contributing to the cultural

well-being o students, artists and the Singaporean public. Committed

to the experimental and new, ICAS seeks to support practices which

challenge orthodoxies and establishment. This serves as not only an

important educational tool or students but, oers an alternative to artists

in giving them the opportunit y to explore and venture into unknown,

unrecognised spaces not otherwise available in the Singapore today.

Its outreach programme includes regular publications, seminars and

symposiums, visiting artists talks and contemporary sound/music events.

About TriSpace+

TriSpace+ is a quarterly newsletter dedicated to ICAS’s smallest gallery– TriSpace. This highly unusual, triangular space reminiscent o a window

display is devoted to new and emerging artists who wish to develop

their practice. Besides documenting the past works exhibited at TriSpace,

this newsletter eatures critical essays and upcoming exhibitions and

happenings at ICAS.

Editor Charles Merewether

Co-ordinator Kimberly Shen

Associate Editors Adeline Kueh Milenko Prvacki Ian Woo

Contributors Lawrence Chin Teo Roan

TriSpace+ Team

TriSpace is an ongoing provisional space

– a small triangulated space – that owes its

existence to that o two others: ICA Galleries 1 &

2. It creates a silent bridge between the two, a orm o

crossing that remains undisclosed. For this reason, TriSpace

is elicitous in its origin and or that reason alone, serves as a

promise o things to come.

In the coming months, TriSpace will eature exhibits o new and recent

emergent artists. These artists have expressed an interest t hrough the

process o responding to an open call. Each artist chosen has developed

a proposal according to it being in TriSpace. The exhibition will be held

or three weeks, so each month a new artist has the opportunity to behosted to make an exhibition. They have been selected or the quality o

their work in regards to experimentation and innovation – cornerstones

rom which to build and invigorate their practice over time. For LASALLE,

TriSpace oers a crucial link and passage between inside and out to

both the students and to public. As in the origin o the space itsel, the

programme or TriSpace is dedicated to serving as a bridge to the larger

world o Singapore and beyond. To recall Yves Klein’s amous remark, it

is a leap into the void, a risk and yet too a commitment to the practice o

art as a proession.

In this rst issue o TriSpace+, we are presenting the three most recent

exhibitions held at TriSpace, with a critical overview o both their project

and practice along with a visual documentation o the exhibition. Yet,

documentation alone is not enough. As we see it, t he value o the

publication is to provide a space that serves as both recognition o their

practice but also a critical orum o discussion. On some occasions, we

will host interviews with the artists and raise critical questions in order

to provoke a stronger explication o their practice, i not, processes

o production. This opportunity is critical to supporting and nurturing

practice through engagement. Issue One also provides a special visual

documentation o the launch o t he LASALLE annual exhibition. The nal

section o Trispace+ oers a glimpse o orthcoming exhibitions at the

Institute o Contemporary Arts Singapore and calendar o events.

TriSpace+ is a quarterly magazine representing on each occasion the

three most recent exhibits at TriSpace and the or thcoming calendar.We hope in this manner that t he publication can provide a critical or um

that can critically engage with and respect with contemporary art. The

role and signicance o this engagement is t o heighten awareness, to

raise issues and challenges, and to nd i not build a common language

or discussion. Hence this allows or the real possibility o creating a

dialogue and community that shares in the belie o contemporary art

and its intrinsic and essential value to a community.

We are delighted to present or you the rst i ssue in what we hope is an

ongoing and successul venture. We hope it will be received positively

and we welcome comments, critical engagement and contributions.

Welcome.

16 October - 14 November 2009

Institute of Contemporary Arts Singapore

LASALLE College of the Arts

1 McNally Street Singapore 187940

Tel: +65 6436 5070 Email: [email protected]

Website: http://www.lasalle.edu.sg/index.php/galleries

Facebook: http://www.tiny.cc/icasingapore



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How did you choose to develop the story o dreams?

I thought an installation would be an appropriate orm to develop the

idea with. By nature, installation has the ability to expose layers o

content. It allows you to literally walk through t he work itsel and see

it rom totally unexpected angles. It is like peeling an onion. I thought

a conglomerate o materials and shapes would create a eeling o

gathering, a street sort o situation, where a variety o people populate

the space at critical spots. My idea was to isolate these hot spots and

work on them.

The narrative started to unold. Cr itical spots became a metaphor orthe seven stages o Jesus on the way to Golgotha. I decided to conront

the elusiveness o the mirror with slabs o the white wax. Both create a

eeling o uncertainty because the mirror is unable to sustain the image

o itsel nor could the wax hold the imposed shape. At that point I was

very pleased with the endless dialogue they were creating. Changing

the angle o the mirror that was placed on the foor gave it a lit and

brought energy to the setting so that all could go upwards. I took elastics

to urther enhance the eeling with the movement towards the ceiling to

create a triangle, a geometrical orm in space. By holding strings at the

top and letting it go, it fourished into colours o abrics and sotness

o orms.

The antasy story you have realised at TriSpace is denitelyan extension o your Venice project. How do you develop

your dreams in dierent geographical situations and how

was it refected in your work at ICAS?

Geography is very interesting. I love to ponder upon how t hings are

placed in a space. The substance, the character, the mind, the spirit and

adding language as another spice…earth is an exciting place – with

people, nature and space…

In the past 20 years or so,

I have lived apart rom my

native land and I speak

languages other than

my native tongue. Being

somewhere else doesnot mean that you are no

longer a genuine person

– it means that you are a

normal human being with

no political pretext. I am a

Serbian and I carry that with

me wherever I go. That is an

unortunate act. That is the

DNA o my soul. Apart rom

that, I am always trying to

stay normal and make sense

o my lie. An additional set

o tools is always needed to

communicate with a oreign

culture but that is always

a good start to seeing

onesel and the world rom a

dierent perspective.

Dreams remain an area o

human behavior that ew

understand. I believe that

they are part o our soul and

part o our mindset. They are

constantly unolding. But you

see, I wasn’t on the Freudian view o dreams as subconscious wishes norinterpretations o Shakespeare’s play. I used the story as a pretext or my

agenda and with that, I built the structure o the piece.

The installation at TriSpace was more developed than the one in Venice.

I wanted to urther develop a visual vocabulary I had been working on.

I brought new orms and materials and used the space between stations

to create a continuation o the set – almost like a harmonica in its span.

With applications such as photography and computer manipulated

images o the head and ear and skin, these are attempts to exempliy the

human condition.

I still elt that I was missing something in that work and I always came to

the same conclusion that pure orm is ultimately an abstract work and

abstraction doesn’t have something that our culture is particularly looking

or, which I suppose is the sociological and moral aspect o lie.

A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM

I absolutely agree with you about creating a visual

vocabulary as well as ollowing your artistic agenda.Unortunately, technology and general development

(social, political and, o course, monetary) are not patientand collaborative partners to the “human condition” and

utopian (or identity proled) ideas. How do you manage

existing disproportion o global interests?

My agenda is connected to the work I do. Issues come up in the process

o developing a vocabulary to present that idea. In general I treat every

idea in the same way, which is to nd a way to make the strongest

possible statement and create a means with which to represent it.

That disproportion o interest in art and other aspects o lie has always

been there. Imbalance is present all the time. We need to bridge that

gap. Many things don’t mix well: art, politics, economy – and that is

how it has been or centuries. Antagonism is part o our character and as

such is a big orce in lie. General development is based on the idea o

prot and expansion, and technology ollows that idea by being a major

contributor in creating new tools or people to use so that the idea o

progress is achievable.

Should art ollow that pattern o speed and the mentality o

prot? Right now there are many artists and art institutionswhich believe in that idea o speed and the urge orprogress. The work o art o a living artist has become a

commodity worth more than $1,000,000.

So, the central question is, as always, what should the artist do?

Art is not a necessity or most people. In many ways art today serves as

a means o connecting people so they can exchange ideas on how to

see things dierently. To me, this occasionally looks like a new orm o

cultural tourism and consumption o art.

Art in its essence has a spiritual breath. Art has a transcendental orm in

our lie. It operates on the level o creating something that wasn’t visible

a moment ago. Art has an essential understanding o lie and physical

knowledge o giving birth to new arteacts. It is that newly born work

which holds the understanding o our reality as a transcendental being.

In all the daily negativism towards popular media, I see television as

the uture art orm. Simply because it is an instantaneous occurrence. It

produces a miracle as soon as it is turned on anywhere on the planet.

That moment o surprise and participation is one o the ew most valid

aspects o art.

And what is the next engagement ater The Midsummer

Night’s Dream and how will you develop your ideas anddreams?

I would like to bring my work to a dierent level, where you can seerefections o aspects o the human condition regardless o historical time

or political agenda.

Somehow I always like things that I don’t understand and I wish my

work goes that way, in a direction o wonder – wit h the big question o

“What is it?”. I would like a person to stop moving and think about the

universal—something closer to the point o where it all began.



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Being in a specic category is to assume a properly constituted

designation – a proper name. By being properly identied, it can

be reerred to time and again without undue conusion or ambiguity

– resting upon a comorting assumption that things can only be one

and not another at the same time. Identication then becomes an

aid in unravelling the complexities o the world around, i n seeking

understanding o the larger chaotic scheme o lie.

Detailing Dierences

The unity o any category belies t he immense dierences that must exist

between individual members. Round buttons could be thick or thin or

ever so slightly coloured dierently – but it does not matter in the specic

category o “round”. I nuances are to be sought, then renement o the

taxonomic system could be made in terms o creating new categorical

terms: “round and thick”; “round and red”; and so on …

There will come a point when language ails and categories become

nite. Such a situation will then result in a world that is described andperceived through such categories. We then see the world in a highly

mediated manner – and being able to perceive a thing only i it could be

identied or named. This will also mean that we will be blind to all that

cannot be identied beorehand.

It is in overcoming such blindness

that the celebration o overlooked

details can begin to set one

individual member apart rom

another. Such attention to

(tangible and intangible) details

will also bring to light specic

contexts (or stories), which in turn

are crucial in understanding and

recognising that identity is better

constituted through dierences

rather than by designation.

This returns us to that rst recognition

that a button is unctional and

ornamental – depending on context.

It is also being able t o appreciate a button as round and red amongst

other qualities at the same time. It also then ollows that meaningul

identication is constituted not by designation, but by being dierent.

Understanding is to be sought not by reerring to established categories

but by articulating nuances; not by language, but by its intrinsic ailure.

Buttons – or, anything else, or that matter – are buttons yet dierent at

the individual level (because o context). The context becomes crucial,

not as a determinant o what-it-is but as a bridge outside o the thing-in-

itsel. Context becomes a tool or individuation and identity. As such, the

hole which holds a button must also dene what that button is. Perhaps, itis the (w)hole which makes the button, ater all.

The immense attraction o buttons must surely be a projection o our

intense scrutiny o lie’s possibilities – the myriad voices, echoes,

metaphors. They act as silent and sentinel reminders o ourselves, as

complex, curious and highly dierentiated beings.

“We don’t see things as they are. We see them as we are.” – Anaïs Nin

Lawrence Chin is an occasional writer who also occupies himsel with

conserving artworks in his ull-time work and part-time teaching at

LASALLE College o the Arts.

THE BUTTON PROJECT

HOTZUNYEN:ZARATHUSTRA –

A FILM FOR EVERYONE

AND NO ONEAn interview with Ho Tzu Nyenby Teo Roan

Hi Tzu Nyen, thanks or doing this inter view with us! I’d liketo discuss the project Zarathustra – A flm or everyoneand no one, your most recent commissioned project at the6th Asia Pacic Triennal which was held in Brisbane. Thiswork took shape at our campus and was subsequentlypresented in TriSpace.

I nd this collaboration at Zarathustra – A flm or everyoneand no one reminiscent o The Bohemian Rhapsody Project

in 2006, which casts students in the production o the lm.How do you think incorporating them in your lmic works

t your thematic concepts o your projects? How does it

relate it to your practice as a r esearcher, writer and artist?What were the challenges you aced with this

experimental approach?

The Bohemian

Rhapsody Project

was an actually

organised as a ‘live’

audition in the ormer Supreme

Court o Singapore at the City

Hall. 21 young men – some, but not all

o them students were asked to turn up to

audition or the role o a “young deendant”.

Upon arrival, they were made up, dressed in

jumpsuits, handcued and made to recite the lines to

the rock band Queen’s ‘The Bohemian Rhapsody’. There

were about 20 other actors. Six o t hem were playing cops

and another six were ‘angels o mercy’. We had a judge, as well

as prosecuting and deending lawyers. These were all actors that

had been thoroughly rehearsed with the crew o more t han 12, just

recording the event simultaneously with three cameras. All the young

men auditioning or The Bohemian Rhapsody Project were entirely

unprepared. They were told only to memorise the lyrics o

‘The Bohemian Rhapsody’.

On the other hand, the ocus o The Zarathustra Project was the school.

Not just the school as a setting, or with students as collaborators, but

the school as a kind o uniying theme that structures the entire process

o the project. The artwork in question – the lm, Zarathustra – A flm

or everyone and no one, is simply a product, or the remainder o what

actually happened.

So what happens is that Zarathustra was oered to the students rom

the Film, Music, Fine Arts, Acting and Musical Theatre departments as

a ‘course’ rather than an ar twork. We tried our best to secure a month

o theoretical lessons on the sources or the lm, and another month o

practical lessons, whereby working proessionals were invited to do

workshops with the students. Finally, everything culminated in the lm

shoot o Zarathustra – A flm or everyone and no one. This project was

itsel a kind o ‘return’ to school or many o the working proessionals

who took part. The lm shoot is seen as a kind o ritualistic end to

this process.

Thus it was organised as a highly complex ‘single-take’ lm, in order that

every participant in the event remain ully at every moment o the shoot

– a orm o ‘being together’ in time, which is rarer and more precious

than sharing the same space.

10 March - 11 April 2010



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ZARATHUSTRA – A FILM FOR EVERYONE

AND NO ONEThe lm is based on a German novel titled, Thus Spoke

Zarathustra: A Book or Everyone and No One by Friederich

Nietzsche, which was written in the 19th century. It isset in a theatre space at LASALLE, refects an apocalyptic

environment with an androgynous character donning ablack hood, being revered and eared at the same time.

It opens with Also Sprach Zarathustra by Strauss andcontinues with a pastiche o other sonic pieces. Together, the

integration o these elements in the setting, location, music

and casting seem to elude historicising the work. Could youexplain the setting and sonic choices or the work?

Nietzsche’s text is a strange animal with a unique physiology.

It is a work o philosophical insight and spiritual strength, coupled

with the most oul o bile and the lamest slapstick. But above all, it is a

great work o art. It is a book that communicates directly to the nervous

system. It has a rhythm to it, which can be described as long passageso wandering amongst the cities, occasionally giving way to the most

glorious bursts o sunshine on mountaintops. It has a rhythm, and

an atmosphere.

So our lm too, is a mixture o the high and low. I guess t his is how the

idea o doing a doom/drone metal opera o Zarathustra came about.

But I must say that the usage o doom and drone metal is much more

important or me in a dierent way – as a kind o weight which

can permeate the entire lm – one which is noxious, breathless and

oppressive; with a ew moments o release.

Why did you choose to make a lm project on Thus Spoke

Zarathustra: A Book or Everyone and No One?

It has always been one o my avourite books. And almost all the projects

that I have made are about things that I love.

But as I mentioned beore, the book is already a work o art in itsel. Thus

spoke Zarathustra: A book or everyone and no one can be understood

as a book about orces – t he struggle between active, creative orces

and re-active, nihilistic orces. So the book is permeated with metaphors

o orces. It seems to lend itsel easily to my current interests in making

lms which are purely visual and sonic expressions o orces, in which

ideas can be compressed.

In the article published in Broadsheet , curator June Yapstated the underlying theme o this work is Nietzsche’s

message that ‘Zarathustra learned to love ate’ which

corresponds with ‘Amor ati’, a line constantly written bythe protagonist in your lm HERE. Could you tell us

more about this concept, in particular its relationship toyour work?

Let me just answer by quoting Nietzsche: “What i a demon were to

creep ater you one night, in your loneliest loneliness, and say, ‘This lie

which you live must be lived by you once again and innumerable times

more; and every pain and joy and thought and sigh must come again

to you, all in the same sequence. The eternal hourglass will again and

again be turned and you with it, dust o t he dust!’ Would you throw

yoursel down and gnash your teeth and curse t hat demon? Or would

you answer, ‘Never have I heard anything more divine’?”

I your answer to the demon is t hat you have never heard anything

more divine – a total armation o your ate, you would understand the

concept o ‘Amor ati’.

I am interested in the concept o ‘total art’, which is termed

by German composer, Wagner – to imply a synthesis omusic, visual arts, multi-media and perormances – as the

lmic approach in this project. How does this link withZarathustra conceptually and philosophically?

I consider the works that I do as just expressions o my own nervous

system with what is outside mysel. I can’t lay any other claims to them.

I tend to believe that all great art is multi-disciplinary to begin with.

In act, Nietzsche probably wrote Thus Spoke Zarathustra: A Book

or Everyone and No One as his version o a Wagnerian opera. An

interesting work o art always already contains a multitude o linkages to

things outside o itsel.

A prolic artist like yoursel has created projects that cross

rom directing lms such as Here (2009) and 4 x 4 episodes (2005), to appropriation o two-dimensional works seen inUtama – Every Name in History is I (2003), and to theatre

works o which include The King Lear Project (2008). Couldyou tell us about the works you are currently working

on now?

I’m currently working on Endless Day , my second eature lm ater HERE.

Like so many o my other works, it is about love. Love o ate.



SHOW2

010

L A S A L L E

The LASALLE SHOW 2010 was a dazzling display

o light, a myriad o colours and an electriying

experience o sound. An annual showcase o

exhibitions, perormances and display, it was also

a culmination o hard work and years o creative

education and artistic dedication.

Ranging rom the disciplines o Design, Fine Art s,

Film, Fashion, Music and Theatre, students and visitors

revelled in the various galleries on campus, which

housed works o 971 graduates.



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Sim LimSquare

B e n c o o l e n

S t r e e t

P r i n s e p S

t r e e t

S h o r t S t r e e t

Middle Road

BurlingtonSquare

SunshinePlaza

Rochor Canal Road

Institute ofContemporary Arts

Singapore

S e

l e g i e R o a d

ICAS EXHIBITIONS

Homeland(Heimat)

Artists: Basma Al Sharif,Brenda Croft, Qiu Anxiong,

Siamak Fallah and HayatiMokhtar

Guest Curator: Alan

Cruickshank

Heimat (German or "home/

homeland") articulates a

perception by which people

are bound by their birth,

childhood, language and

earliest experiences. It can be

perceived as a reaction to the onset o modernity, a loss o individuality

and intimate community—eectively one’s ‘identity’, the totality o the

circumstances in which a person grows up. Removed by whatever

orce rom home or homeland and this utopian sense o place, one

would experience a sense o alienation and separation, displacement

and dispossession. The works o these artists are connected by their

experiences o displacement and social change.

Venue: ICA Galleries 1 & 2

Date: 9 July – 10 August 2010

The Future o Exhibition: It Feels LikeI’ve Been Here Beore

Artists: Roslisham Ismail aka Ise (Malaysia), Vincent Leong

(Malaysia), Eva McGovern (Malaysia), Jason Wee (Singapore)

and June Yap (Singapore).Guest Curators: June Yap & Eva McGovern

We’re not sure i we have been anxious enough, i we have the right

number o artworks or the correct distribution o artists or national

representation. Has the opening has been timed right, and did we

get the appropriate VIP? Have we said enough... or too much? Did we

already ail?

"The Future o Exhibition" presents, art and work perormed in a space.

Through exploring the exhibition-making process, it reveals what happens

when co-conspirators get together to experiment and play in a gallery.

Through humour, sel refection, and organised chaos what emerges are

observations on creation and control in the art world.

Venue: Earl Lu Gallery

Date: 12 July – 14 August 2010

ICON deMartellCordonBleu

Dedicated

to inspiring

creativity,

independence

and the pursuit

o excellence,

Martell Cordon

Bleu presents"ICON de

Martell Cordon Bleu". A premier photography prize, this exhibition is

aimed at honouring photographers who have cultivated an original

vision in combination with thought-provoking ideas. This local plat orm

honours artists who have greatly contributed to the advancement o

photography in Singapore and seeks to provide nationwide recognition

o photographers whose vision and tenacity stand out.

From a eld o 13 artist nominations, the Jury has selected three

photographers: Sherman Ong, Francis Ng and Jing Quek to be in the

nal stage o the award, with Sherman Ong nally announced as

the winner.

Venue: Praxis Space, Project Space & Brother

Joseph McNally Gallery

Date: 18 June – 17 July 2010

Eccentricity City – Rise and Fall

Artists: Keiichi

Taanami & PhunkStudio

"Eccentricity: Rise and

Fall", shows emerging

and allen structures

o the cities that are

build upon symbols o

dreams and memories

o Japanese artist,

Keiichi Taanami and

artist and design

collective, Phunk Studio.

The exhibition eatures

an interdisciplinary

collaboration in

graphic design,animation, architecture

and installation. By

combining the creative

abilities o accomplished local designers including Theseus Chan rom

Werk and the support o Graphic students at LASALLE, expect a riot o

colours and an electriying experience.

Venue: ICA Gallery 1

Date: 18 August – 19 September 2010


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