Programme and Abstracts 4 Oct 2011 - WKWSCI Home - Nanyang ...

Conference on Film and Cinema in Singapore (6‐7 October 2011)
Jointly organised by Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information, Nanyang Technological University and
Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore
TOWARD AN EXPANDED FRAME: IMMERSION, HYBRIDISATION AND
APPROPRIATION IN FILM INSTALLATIONS OF HO TZU NYEN AND MING WONG
PHYLLIS TEO
University of Queensland, Australia
phyllisteo@gmail.com
While the development of local film culture has received considerable popular and scholarly attention in
recent years, to date, studies of the relationship between film and visual arts in Singapore have only been
sporadic. The emphasis on experimentation amongst contemporary Singaporean artists has seen an
increasing number of them incorporating multimedia and time‐based elements into their practices, among
which film and video are prevalent forms of representation. This tendency provides an occasion for a more
multifaceted study of filmic representations here. Drawing upon the film and video installations of artists
Ho Tzu Nyen and Ming Wong, this paper aims to make a critical inquiry into methodological and theoretical
intersections between the moving image and contemporary art in the context of Singapore. The two artists
are recognised for their wide‐ranging and innovative artistic practices, blending disparate genres of film,
video, painting and performance into interdisciplinary installations. In their moving image installations, Ho
Tzu Nyen and Ming Wong have developed various visual strategies that explore the dynamic relation
between filmic space and time. Proposing a more fluid approach in the understanding of spectatorial
positions, both artists have produced a visual and experiential language that enable the audience to
develop a new consciousness about their environment and themselves. Frequently drawing from cultural
particularities of Singapore, there are dimensions in these artists’ works that are relevant for the discussion
of an imaginative identification with local histories. Contested issues relating to representation, identity,
roots, intertextuality, performativity and history are engaged and negotiated in and through their artistic
interventions. By engaging the aural‐visual, conceptual and physical aspects of the artists’ works, the
analysis of the moving image as a series of assertions made within the fields of contemporary art and film
seeks to explore new possibilities about what is meant by the “cinematic” in Singapore.
Phyllis Teo received her PhD in Culture and Art History from the University of Queensland, Australia. Her
research focuses on Asian visual culture and art history. She has published in refereed journals such as New
Zealand Journal of Asian Studies, YISHU: Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art, and Asian Culture and
History.