THE ARCHIVE OF
Buwan Performance Project
Shift
THUMBNAILS OF WORKS ONLY SHOWN
Live from 31 July 2020 to 26 August 2020
Buwan Performance Project consists of a monthly series of inter/multidisciplinary performances from varying young artists. In regards to the collective name, Buwan means month and moon in Filipino and it symbolises time, energy, change and rhythm. This month's theme is Shift, a slight change in position, direction, or tendency; or a cause to move from one place/space to another. This is the second run of Buwan Performance Project featuring young artists with different backgrounds, not only from Fine Arts but with Art Teaching and Theatre as well. From insanity, movement and dealing with isolation to the lasting and ever-changing connection and re-evaluation of one's identity within themselves and with their relationships. We are excited to show you these new young minds at work.
Tied Knot
by Quek Jia Yi
2020
3 Photographs
Tied Knot is a series of 3 photographs showing the transformation one might encounter through marriage. The works act as mediums to portray women before marriage; during the Chinese Combing Hair Ceremony (上头 shàng tóu): and the uncertainty during marriage life. Tied Knot hopes to look at the story of the Pontianak and the Chinese marriage culture as a starting point for further discourse through the social layers of old practices/ belief as a way to open up a discourse about power and gender in Malaysia, allowing the viewers to imagine, reflect and discuss the social ideology of the roles of women.
The Middle Man
by Shawn Tilakan
2020
9:19 Mins
“Hows the shift from ignorance to knowing?”
Spitting Images
by Kysha Ashreen
Listen to the audio track in a crowded room, or if it’s no different, your own home.
2020
Sound Piece
15:04 min
Without words, without literacy, without audibility, without coherency. There is still sense, there is still soul, there is still poetry.
This soundscape takes a flat audio of a conversation amongst a Malay family and strips it of its defining consonants and syllables. Over time the audio stretches and moulds the intonation of speech to a point of incoherence, whilst still recognisable as a derivation of the Malay language.
It's Awkward
by Kong Liang
2020
Digital photography
This performance work It’s Awkward is a playful metaphorical representation of human reactions when faced with problems. In particular, it is a reaction drawn from the artist’s experiences of living during discomforting times such as now. Especially when faced with such calamity, it is only human for us to be uncertain, lost and even despair. And within that amalgam of emotions encapsulates various inconsistencies of working out solutions, working out the discomforting situations. Thus, the artist posed as a subject in this performance, struggling in multiple attempts to interact and be comfortable with strange and awkward locations of a home setting. Above all, this project seeks to embrace and understand the act of human nature and all its necessarily weird and awkward gestural acts as it attempts to find a solution.
Me Whee: Happy family
by Jasmine Peng
2020
2:56 min
Me Whee: Happy family is a performative series which explores the everchanging phases of human relationship encountered in daily life through studying three Chinese characters – 闷(shut), 门(door), 们(us). The performance was set at the artist grandparents’ house where she captured herself manoeuvring clumsily through the front door with the help of a wheelchair lifter to showcase the hustle in maintaining a relationship in face of maturing, aging, and death.
How to create the future you want
by Hoang-Anh Nguyen
2020
Video documentation of the performance at a condo gym, high- definition digital video on 1 flat screen 16:9 ratio, colour, no sound,
4 minutes 54 seconds of duration
Delving on the image of a treadmill and its mechanism – a universal symbol of the modern lifestyle, this work is a commentary on inequality and privilege. In order to achieve the desirable life with modern comfort and stability one must follow a set of routine activities every day. The sight of a performer slowly increasing the speed of the treadmill, running, keeping up with it to stay balanced, otherwise they would trip and fall. Despite their patience and effort, they would not move anywhere at all. Through this, the work also hints at how an individual’s background and/or social status could impact on their life and their upward mobility.
To Get Her
by Danish Dasuki & Kysha Ashreen
2020
3 min
“Did a full 180, crazy
Thinking 'bout the way I was
Did the heartbreak change me? Maybe
But look at where I ended up”
- Dua Lipa, 2019