THE ARCHIVE OF
Buwan Performance Project
tension
THUMBNAILS OF WORKS ONLY SHOWN
Live from 29 August 2020 to 23 September 2020
Buwan Performance Project consists of a monthly series of multidisciplinary performance-based artworks 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 time we are showcasing Fine Art Alumni from Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts: Charmaine Li, Choo Jen Quinn, Kim Hyesu, Huynh Hong Quyen, Thanchanog Ho Mai Chin, Ting Jing Yi. These young artists have responded to the theme Tension in their own way, reflecting individual thoughts regarding pains and tensions from within, and perhaps, in each of us. These works walk along beautiful, poignant thin lines between living, dying and sufferings. You are invited to experience and learn more about artwork from each artist in this online exhibition.
Breathe
by Charmaine Li
2020
Video and Tanks
3 x (12cm x 15cm)
“Breath is the manifestation of speech”
Do you ever feel the need to explode but yet feel restrained?
The fear of exposing the vulnerable self to the people around me causes me to conceal and suppress the pain, struggles and guilt. With that tendency to find a distraction to occupy my mind, I formulate a way of escape to prevent myself from dealing with the trauma and the impact it brings.
From experiencing a form of departure – a loss of my best friend due to a water-related accident, I often find myself diving back into the memory, submerged and struggling to find relief through not facing the reality. Breathe is a video documentation of my reflection where I am able to alter time with the exaggerated use of slow-motion to show the possibility of slowing down the fast-paced life – the conflicted need to let it be erased through time, but yet wanting to revisit and indulge the memory.
Time is possibly the only variable to shift feelings
2020
Video
3 Min 21 Sec
An ode to E. Dickinson’s mediation of the nature of human suffering, ’I measure every Grief I meet’ explores the tender disposition of the delicate relation between one and another. Entwined and enigmatic, a catechism of eager euphoria; how are we to burrow in the embrace of disquiet desire, tension and disappointment? Like a magnetic yearning, each affair follows the next in a cyclic redemption of past laments and unfulfilled intentions. In the emptied bedroom of her childhood home, a series of interactions with a balloon enact the extension of the artist’s breath through the object of hope and anticipation.
Numb
by Kim Hyesu
2020
Performance video;
6 mins and 56 secs
Tension is unlike a noise. It is a phenomenon of avoidance and numbing in the encounter of problem, which blocks the problem only seeing a chance that neither comes nor suggests any resolution. Tension continues hours and days. It is tenser and more catastrophe than a noisy encounter. A silence. A quiet moment with resentments. An avoidance. An act of numbing.
One blows a balloon, until the extent it can’t be stretched any more. One obsesses oneself with the act of blowing the balloons and tests its limits. The balloon is not a problem. A balloon is merely an object for one to vent one’s anger on. Balloon is blameless. What can be the problem, then? The problem might be simple, but always invisible.
One stuffs the full-blown balloons inside the shirt which sleeves and hemlines are stitched. One keeps stuffing the shirt with balloons. An act of stuffing and binging are always repetitive and test ones up to their limits. Numbing is comfortable. It is calm and makes one feel in control. It is an easy way out. But soon, one feels fear, in silence, fear for the consequences of numbing and avoiding—a tension.
Anaesthesia
by Le Huynh Hong Quyen
2020
3 mins
In our daily life, we often try to fit into the fabric of society while yearningly preserving our ground. Being stuck in the middle and being balanced - there is a distinct difference. The latter offers us peace and authenticity in the midst of the vicious daily grind. It is not a state of stillness or unproductivity, but a steady progressiveness towards liberation. Sadly, most of us find ourselves in the former situation.
We are vulnerable to errors of common-sense - public opinion. It is sensible and reasonable in countless areas that every well-cultured person seems to follow, and so do we. Public opinions are enormous, but often full of absurdity and flaw. We are constantly being pushed and pulled between the two choices of honesty and acceptability, unable to free ourselves due to this unresolved tension. If we keep letting it define who we are and what choices we should make, would we be loved and respected more? And how long would our achievements linger in people’s minds before they are, ultimately, erased with time?
Suburbia
by Thanchanog Ho Mai Chin,
2020
Video
20 Min
Traversing the influences of memory, biography and culture, "Suburbia" explores the artist's temporal displacement and the tension between the suburban and the urban identity. Based on her recent citizenship renunciation and migration history, she seeks to recreate a familiar ambience that chimed with the idea of homecoming while the city is chasing time.
This figurative representation is inspired by Southern Thailand's traditional folk shadow puppetry, "Nang Talung". Both the traditional and the modern methods are fused to mirror the simultaneity of the on-going urbanisation that gradually succeeds the rural culture with a generic identity.
Therefore, the recurring imagery expresses the artist's "personal nostalgia" and perpetual loss for her ever-evolving hometown identity.
The entanglement of the unknown
by Ting Jing Yi
2020
Sound Art
3 Min 29 Sec
“The entanglement of the unknown” is a short audio clip containing a series of sounds accompanied by a photograph with text to pose confusion into tension. Tension is fear formed between the known and the unknown. When experiencing the work, one may find it difficult to connect the elements together. What is felt only happens in your mind, in the moment, all of it is unknowingly known.