Curatorship | Education and Activation [A Selection of Performance Art Relics (from The Artists Company)]

A Selection of Performance Art Relics (from The Artists Company)

This exhibition presents a selection of performance art relics by The Artists Company. The selected relics were part of performances held at Your Mother Gallery from the 1st of May to the 28th of May 2018. The performance art relic is a term used for objects, which are results of the transformation from states of “mere” material to “autonomous” artworks created or used during performance art. The curated display attempts to give the performance art relic an aura beyond the connections with their situational taxonomy, “labour hours” put in and the time taken to make.

Associated Programming for A Selection of Performance Art Relics (from The Artists Company)

The programming for this exhibition consists of:

Education

Artist and Curator Tour
Artists Workshop

Activation

Tour of Performance Art Spaces in Singapore
Artwork Responses

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Education

Artist and Curator Tour

Join a tour of the exhibition with TAC and the curator, and gain an insight into the concepts of the exhibition and processes involved in the creation and curation of Performance Art Relics.

Ticketed Event | Suitable for all ages.

Artist Workshop

How does one respond to Performance Art? What do you write about? How do you describe the experience?

In this workshop led by artist-educator Jennifer Ng, participants are invited to pen down their responses to the physical works and documentation of the performance artworks, where their responses are shared and reshaped through dialogue and re-writing.

Ticketed Event | Suitable for ages 12 to 18. Participants are required to sign up, where consent will be sought from participants on the exhibition and archiving of their written responses.

Activation

A Tour of the atmospheres and environments of the Performance Art spaces of (Chinatown and Little India), Singapore

Explore the urban spaces with TAC in this talk and tour of the locations of performance art spaces in Singapore. Using the environment of Your Mother Gallery as a starting point, learn about the spatial configurations of Performance Art spaces and re-experience the atmosphere that was generated through this guided tour by TAC.

Ticketed Event | Suitable for all ages.

Artwork Response

Explore the themes of the exhibition through a response to the exhibition by two artist-researchers:

Toh Hun Ping (Singapore)

A video artist, film research and writer, Toh has screened his video works at international film festivals and presented video installations in art venues including The Substation and Sculpture Square. Currently, Toh is researching the history of film production in Singapore and will share his archive of videos that contain scenes from Chinatown and Little India.

Koh Nguang How (Singapore)

Singapore artist and art archivist, Koh was a founding member of The Artists Village. He is a pioneering researcher and archivist of Singapore’s contemporary art history and has a focus on documenting performance artworks by The Artists Village and other Singapore artists. Currently, Koh works on his “Singapore Art Archive Project” where he assembles photographs and other forms of documentation in formats of catalogs, newspaper articles, and books in forming a narrative of Singapore art. He will be sharing his experience in documenting performance art in Singapore.

Ticketed Events | Suitable for all ages.

Curatorship | Conservation Policy (A Selection of Performance Art Relics)

A Selection of Performance Art Relics: [No. 203 (2.03 %), 3 Hours and 27 minutes].

This exhibition presents a selection of performance art relics from performances that had taken place in Your Mother Gallery, Singapore. The performance art relic is a term used for objects, which are results of the transformation from states of “mere” material to “autonomous” artworks created or used during performance art. The curated display attempts to give the performance art relic an aura beyond the connections with their situational taxonomy, “labour hours” put in and the time taken to make.

Conservation Proposal

Current Status of Object: Beech Wood Brush, Red Cotton Thread, and Human Hair.

The object was produced as part of a 3 hour and 27-minute performance artwork. The artist had bundled the human hair using red cotton thread and carefully glued them using a combination of white glue and synthetic acrylic glue within ¼ inch diameter holes in the beech wood brush. All components of the object are intact and maintained in its original state as per the performance.

Interventive: The object is currently stored in a controlled environment and does not require any (form of) intervention. There is no further need to manipulate the object.

Documentation: The object is to be labeled with its title, dimensions, material(s) and date/duration of creation. Photographs of the object from multiple angles have been taken to record the selected performance art relic.

Preventive: The object should be handled with care and not exhibited.

The object is securely stored in an airtight and watertight enclosure.
The object is kept in extremely low light of a value of 50 lux or less.
The object is stored in an acid-free environment (box or otherwise), where the relative Humidity (rH) value is kept at 65.0 % or less.

Formative: The object is an organic material and improved conservation of it may be considered at a later date.

Curatorship | Exhibition Proposal (Distributed Authorship, A Selection of Performance Art Relics)

Listed Below are two proposals for potential exhibition narratives developed from the “fugitive object”.

Distributed Authorship: re-considering labour as (a form of) Art and Time (as a measure) of Currency.

This exhibition presents a series of three contemplative art objects co-authored, co-produced and co-owned by more than one hundred “artists” in a model of art production that distributed authorship over a duration of one month. The curated display is an attempt to piece together statistical representations of the labour hours put in and time taken to produce the art objects, as one reconsiders labour as (a form of) Art and Time (as a measure) of Currency.

A Selection of Performance Art Relics: [No. 203 (2.03 %), 3 Hours and 27 minutes].

Curatorship | A Fugitive Object: Artwork No. 203 (2.03%)

Object Image:

Artwork No. 203 (2.03 %) (2018)
Beech Wood Brush, Red Cotton Thread, and Human Hair.

Object Label:

Artwork No. 203 (2.03%) was an artwork created on the occasion of the exhibition “Got Your Name Or Not?” held on 26th of May 2018. The artwork was created as a performance art piece over a duration of 3 hours and 27 minutes by artist Ethrisha Liaw. The performance was part of the opening/closing exhibition of The Artists Company (TAC)’s participatory art project “Got Your Name Or Not? (GYNON)” held at Your Mother Gallery (YMG), Singapore.

The experimental month-long project was supported by the National Arts Council (NAC) of Singapore in exploring “Time as Currency; Labour as Art” through a “post-autonomous” project space where interaction, participation, and co-authorship took place. TAC transformed the art gallery (YMG) together with collaborators working in fields like design, research, arts management, and education into an “art factory”.

Object Biography:

Artwork No. 203 (2.03%) was created as a part of a performance art piece that spanned 3 hours and 27 minutes. The artwork was later sold on the same day during TAC’s “B.E.A.U.T.Y Auction (May 2018)” by Your Mother Gallery (YMG), Singapore.

Artist(s) Biography:

Ethrisha Liaw (b.1994, Singapore) is an artist who has exhibited locally and regionally. Formally trained in Fashion Design and Textiles, she has collaborated with artists like Amanda Heng and Jennifer Ng and co-runs her fashion label “Will & Well, a design cooperative that focuses on textile therapy for wheelchair users.

The Artists Company (TAC) is the re-imagined vision of a group of artists about precisely what a company made up of artists can and should be. Founded in 2017, TAC was started to undertake the ongoing “Got Your Name Or Not?” project. In this project, TAC aimed to work using co-operative and open-ended methods in conceptualising an art, social and research-based project that enabled “everyone to be an artist”. Working across areas of education, research, and art, TAC embarks on durational or locational projects, both creating things and things happening through their collaborative approach. Currently, TAC is working towards a publication of critical essays, photographic documentation and design interpretations of artworks as part of the “Got Your Name Or Not?” project.

Additional Information:

Artist(s): The Artists Company (TAC), Singapore and Ethrisha Liaw (b.1994, Singapore)

Title: Artwork No. 203 (2.03%)

Structure: Hand-made in singular quantity and re-traded during the exhibition auction.

Date: 26 May 2018, produced after a 3 hours and 27 minutes performance artwork

Material(s): Beech Wood Brush, Red Cotton Thread, and Human Hair

Dimension(s): W 5.0 x H 12.0 cm x D 4.5 cm

Provenance: Your Mother Gallery, Hindoo Road, Singapore

Credit Line: Private Collection of Jennifer Ng Su Yin