THE ARCHIVE OF
Buwan Performance Project
Mundanity
THUMBNAILS OF WORKS ONLY SHOWN
Live from 10 October 2020 to 7 November 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 month we present to you a collaboration with Headspaced an art and design collective that explores the different notions behind human relation and connection. The artists in Headspaced are Bel, Felicia Ting, Lee Yi Xuan, Nurul Amilia and Ong Kong Liang. These five have looked within and at their lives and routines in the present to appreciate the beauty and art of the everyday. They are all trained in art and design in the same class which allows their skills and talents to merge and churn out a collective vision as well. These video art pieces give us a look into the mundane.
Running is life, life is running
by Ong Kong Liang
2020
Video Performance
Interested in the notion of running as an act of contemplation about life, Running is life, life is running is an exploration of ‘running’ as a catalyst for self-exploration. It is a play on the title and inspiration rooted in the novel “What I talk about when I talk about running” by Haruki Murakami. This video performance utilises clips of the artist running, sliced and spliced together to emphasise forms of ‘running’ and its state of mind underlining the idea that the process and journey of ‘running’ is like ‘life’. It makes a personal connection to the artist’s everyday life experiences which illustrates a series of notions from giving up, slowing down, testing limits, keeping to a persistent rhythm, etc.
Regressive Progression
by Nurul Amilia
2020
Three Video Art
18 secs, 12 secs, 17 secs
This work aims to narrate the idea of how our thoughts would sometimes jump from one point to another, without much consistency. In times of struggle and in times of stress, we overload our minds with thoughts from different aspects of our lives and at some point, they collide and clash in an amalgamation that we ourselves are not able to decipher.
These thoughts would manifest themselves in a random sequence, sometimes repeating themselves over and over. They seem incomplete, untouched and imperfect. In an attempt to untangle our thoughts and find meaning and understanding behind them, we find ourselves burdened by it.
With the constant jumps from one thought to another, it could be difficult to understand the structure behind it. The cohesion behind these thoughts are destroyed, but it begs the question, should it be cohesive? Our mundane, everyday thoughts could appear out of nowhere and disappear before we even notice. Some of these thoughts remain as our focal point, whilst some would fade into oblivion. Perhaps the mundanity of it all, the disorderly fashion in which they wreak havoc upon our minds is a way for us to reconstruct and recentre ourselves. Through the messiness in which these thoughts appear, they could perhaps be our way to salvation.
2020
Video Art
3mins 02 secs
“The normal state of mind is a chaos.” Expressing what cannot be expressed through words, these scribbles represent my “mind vomit.” To me, scribbling is the process of embracing my inner child. It allows me to draw freely and express the chaos in my head without the need to explain. In this scribbling process, while holding my camera with my other hand, it makes me reflect on how I am so comfortable with being restricted to the point that I willingly put myself in a “frame.”
Mundanity can be seen as a form of contradiction, wherein the pursuit for freedom we still trap ourselves in a “box”. I came to realise how comfortable I have gotten with mundanity. Mundanity makes me feel safe and comfortable, but will there be an end to it?
In this performance piece, I want to showcase the bipolar inner thoughts of freedom and being trapped in a literal manner. Personally, the action of scribbling can be seen as spontaneous and free, therefore, putting forward the idea of restriction in freedom to show the contradiction within mundanity.
Less Than Mundane
by Felicia Ting
2020
Video Art
Less Than Mundane is an end product of my attempt at observing mundanity from another perspective. Mundanity was never something I loathed as I found the predictability of life somewhat comforting. And as I embarked on this project to think deeper into the mundane moments of my everyday life, I found myself sitting at the MRT platform in tranquillity on the last day of an extremely hectic week. However mundane the action of sitting while waiting for a friend may have been, it was the permission of time that allowed me to breathe and think for myself which made this action less than mundane, and a little more special.
The Start
by Bel
2020
Video & Photography
How long does it take for something to become mundane? Although this year was filled with many changes and uncertainty, mundanity is still nevertheless present. In this fast-paced world where we complain about the mundanity of our lifestyle, it has in fact provided comfort and ease for me.
The main bulk of our daily activities is constant and repetitive, but the uncertainty of what the day will bring the moment we step out of our house will always remain.