Archive – Exhibitions & Screenings
Other Highlights From 2020
PROGRESSIVE DISINTEGRATIONS
DEC 2020-FEB 2021
Chapel Gallery
In Progressive Disintegrations, artists Chua Chye Teck, Hilmi Johandi and Wei Leng Tay engage in conversation with Marc Gloede to create an installation of mixed-media works. These artworks, with beginnings in touristic images in Singapore from the late 1980s-90s, a family archive of photographic slides from the early 70s, and fluorescences of mould and wetness on wood, open up ways of re-looking at and thinking about what and who we live with, and how photographs inscribe ways of being.
Through photography, painting and installation, the exhibition addresses what is perceived through an image. It also asks how a photograph — as document, object and artefact — can be re-examined through a series of transformations, fragmentation and remaking.
OBJECTIFS FILM CLUB: EXORCIZE ME BY SOOKOON ANG
NOV 2020
Online
Exorcize Me is a photography, videography and live performance project addressing coming-of-age anxiety and teenage alienation. The title speaks of unease within one’s own skin and the yearning to get rid of new-fangled fears and unfamiliar emotions. Artist Sookoon Ang spoke to curator Silke Schmickl about the process of making Exorcize Me, sharing her motivation and experience working with theatre students, and how it takes a village to make a short film.
Exorcise Me, as well as other short films by Sookoon Ang are available for rent via Objectifs Film Library.
SHOOTING HOME YOUTH AWARDS CLASS OF 2019 EXHIBITION
OCT-NOV 2020
Lower Gallery & Courtyard
Featuring works by the 11 photographers from Objectifs’ young photographers developmental programme. Includes Arielmegan Tan, Beverly Chew Xiu Qi, Toa Li Ting (Ines), Wong Cai Jie, J, Lee Jia Ying, Siew Png Sim, Suhani Gupta, Li Wanjie, Goh Lin Yuan, Nur Hadziqah and Kiat Tan Wei Jie. Mentored by Grace Baey, Joseph Nair, Juliana Tan and Nurul Huda Rashid.
OBJECTIFS FILM CLUB: DAVY CHOU & PIMPAKA TOWIRA
SEP 2020
Online
Held in conjunction with Objectifs’ inaugural Short Film Incubator, mentors for the programme Davy Chou (France/Cambodia) and Pimpaka Towira (Thailand) discuss their respective early works, Davy Chou’s First Film and Mae Nak. They talk about their beginnings and journeys as filmmakers, their process and the meanings behind their experimental films.
Short films by Davy Chou and Pimpaka Towira are available to rent on the Objectifs Film Library.
OBJECTIFS FILM CLUB: JODILERKS DELA CRUZ, EMPLOYEE OF THE MONTH BY CARLO FRANCISCO MANATAD
AUG 2020
Online
Jodilerks Dela Cruz, Employee of the Month by Carlo Francisco Manatad (Philippines) follows the titular protagonist on her last day of duty as a gas station attendant. Filmmaker Carlo Francisco Manatad in conversation with producer and screenwriter Jeremy Chua (Singapore) discuss the process of making this short film, a “punk, explosive [short] film full of despair about the social situation in his country”.
Jodilerks Dela Cruz, Employee of the Month, as well as other short films by Carlo Francisco Manatad are available for rent on the Objectifs Film Library.
AN EDIFICE W/O
AUG-OCT 2020
Lower Gallery
an edifice w/o spotlights two young artists — Dylan Chan and Rifqi Amirul Rosli, featuring all-new works in the mediums of photography, print and sculpture, curated by Kamiliah Bahdar. The exhibition title is taken from the preface of House of Incest by Anais Nin, which reads: All that I know is contained in this book written without witness, an edifice without dimension, a city hanging in the sky. The phrase captures something of the in-between — of things there yet formless, physical yet elusive, with edges soft and penetrable, real and imagined — that both artists contemplate in their works.
OBJECTIFS FILM CLUB: STILL IS TIME BY GLADYS NG
JUL 2020
Online
In Still is Time, time seems to have come to a standstill on a particular Sunday. On the day of his daughter’s wedding, a father finds himself consumed with his own emotions and amidst the joyous celebration, he undergoes a curious episode with profound metaphysical ramifications. Filmmaker Gladys Ng and artist Ng Hui Hsien discussed how intuition, play, spirituality, ambiguity, observation and contemplation figure into the practices.
Rent Still is Time by Gladys Ng on the Objectifs Film Library.
OBJECTIFS FILM CLUB: DEATH OF THE SOUND MAN BY SORAYOS PRAPAPAN
JUN 2020
Online
Death of the Sound Man depicts two sound recordists working hard on the sound mix of a film. With his signature deadpan humour, Sorayos Prapapan (Thailand) draws parallels between audiences not caring about sound in film, and how people’s voices are often neglected, offering subtle commentary on Thai society and politics. During this session, Sorayos (Yossy) and sound designer, re-recording mixer and foley artist Tingli Lim (Singapore), discussed artifice in sound design and foley work, how cultural context impacts their work, Yossy’s experience, and what it takes to be good at their job, and more.
Click here to rent Death of the Sound Man by Sorayos Prapapan and here to rent other short films by Sorayos Prapapan on the Objectifs Film Library.
OBJECTIFS FILM CLUB: THE GREAT ESCAPE BY TAN WEI KEONG
MAY 2020
Online
Created using hand-drawn animation, pixilation and photographs, The Great Escape (2015) by Tan Wei Keong is a short film inspired by Alfian Sa’at’s poem of the same title. During this discussion, Wei Keong shares his process adapting Alfian’s poem into a short film. They also discuss their respective practices in film and literature and drama, as well as the exploration of identity and social issues in their works.
Rent The Great Escape by Tan Wei Keong and his other short films on the Objectifs Film Library.
OBJECTIFS FILM CLUB: COME BY KIRSTEN TAN
APR 2020
Online
Singaporean filmmaker Kirsten Tan discusses her early short film, Come (2007), a sex comedy set in South Korea, with actress Oon Shu An, whose credits include Rubbers (2014). The conversation focuses on Kirsten’s experiences in South Korea, the making of Come, and her journey and philosophy as a filmmaker and their discussion of Come in relation to Shu An’s role in sex comedy Rubbers,
LONGING AND BELONGING
FEB-MAR 2020
Lower Gallery
To know Singapore is to know how its natural environment, precincts and iconic structures change before its people are ready to bid them goodbye. It is to recognise that change is the only constant in a tiny and ambitious nation. It is to feel a semblance of pride when gazing upon the latest attraction in town, while also feeling a pang of nostalgia for what was there before.
Singaporean photographer Wee Teck Hian has explored many corners of the island in more than two decades as a photographer specialising in panoramic black-and-white photography. He has documented many slices of Singapore’s history while working at a newspaper, and through his passion projects. Longing and Belonging presents his photographs documenting the transformation of various spaces in Singapore, including Marina Bay, the former Keretapi Tanah Melayu (KTM) railway tracks, and the Central Catchment Nature Reserve. The images explore what it means to belong to a community and country that is ever changing, and will resonate with anyone who has ever pondered the loss of something familiar.
Press coverage:
Business Times – Snapshots of Yesteryear
Singapore Art Gallery Guide – Longing and Belonging
DANCING ALONE (DON'T LEAVE ME)
JAN-FEB 2020
Chapel Gallery
Dancing Alone (Don’t Leave Me) by artist Susie Wong is an immersive video installation of solitary women dancing freely, evoking imagery of dance halls in the 1950s and 60s.
Referencing a line from the film The King and I — “No woman would dance alone while a man is looking at her.” — the exhibition alludes to the consumed representations of women in media that are re-enacted in the everyday. The dancers in Wong’s videos evoke both the desire to be freed from these tropes and at the same time to themselves consume by reinforcing them through the culturally infusive practices of a modern society. Through dance, she is both empowered and subjugated.
Includes panel discussion with curator Kimberly Shen and playwright Faith Ng, and Joget Malam: A Night of Dance and Spoken Word with Zai Tang’s music playlist mixed by Mr. Has (Telok Ayer Arts Club) and performances by Sharda Harrison and Sabrina Sng. Part of Singapore Art Week 2020.