Videologue: Encoded Expositions

– a working compilation on Singapore video art Artists:

Chen Sai Hua Kuan, Chun Kai Qun, Marcel Gaspar, Joo Choon Lin, Liao Jiekai, Lim Shengen, Paul Lincoln, Sherman Ong, Teow Yue Han

Curated by Urich Lau

The title Videologue, is from my ongoing curatorial projects beginning from 2011. A neologised word from video and dialogue, Videologue is about traveling, dialogues and video art.Videologue began as an exhibition-exchange idea that tries to displace artists and challenge them to work in unfamiliar territories and circumstances, and use video art as a mediating tool and art form to interpret their experiences and experimentations. The past exhibitions had presented works by artists from Singapore, China and Japan in art spaces and institutions that included the Sunshine International Art Museum in Beijing, Gaodi Gallery in Shenyang and Institute of Contemporary Arts Singapore.

This time, Videologue: Encoded Expositions will take a reflective note with a group of invited Singaporean artists, I began by asking them about their positions as artists now and having to work overseas and unfamiliar contexts. It is about artists’ dialogues that address the social, domestic, political, or ideological issues using the video medium in the complexities of languages, spaces and memories.

With each contributed video works by the artists, the compilation aims to explore notions of geographical identities of places that the artists travelled to, the influences they got, the ideas they visualised – all that they deemed essential in a work. Talking to the artists was my first step into such collaboration, or the reason to choose and collect the videos. We talked about ideas, methods, achievements and disappointments, likes and dislikes. Each conversation with the artists is documented in video, and another video piece from there is being planned. With conversation, I aim to enquire and empathise the mannerism and methodology of each artist’s preoccupation.

Videologue: Encoded Expositions is curated for Singapore Open Media Art Festival (in conjunction with Art After Dark)

Singapore Open Media Art Festival (SOMAF) is a 3-day video art event held at various locations within Gillman Barracks, and marks the 40th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Singapore and South Korea. With the support of the Ministry of Culture and Sports in Korea, Arts Council Korea, National Arts Council Singapore and corporate sponsors, 6 curators from South Korea and Singapore and 40 international artists will put together this public project.

Videologue: Encoded Expositions will be on Screen 1, near Fost Gallery.