FUSE#1

Element# 1.2 Power of softness
Post-Colonial Tactics
by Chloe C. Chotrani
Chloe’s notes.
On a collective level, I invited three movement artists based in Singapore; Eng Kai
Er (SG), Ted Nudgent Tac-An (PH) and Tang Sook Kuan (ML) to explore softness
on a horizontal plane in the studio with me.
Horizontal, meaning to say, without a specific goal, and
without a single leader. We all had the tasks of collectively
making decisions that would attempt to satisfy us all. We
spent every Tuesday evening from March – April 2018.
Within these sessions, we surprisingly devised a working
performative method, which we will continue to explore
after this residency entitled w.r.i.s.t.
w.r.i.s.t. stands for: witness, repeater, interpreter, source, and
transformation. We can think of this as a performative game.
Each movement artist is assigned a role and a task that is
movement, text and performance based. The chosen source
responds to a question that confronts softness, the repeater
repeats the information, the interpreter performs what was not
being said, and it culminates in a collective transformation where
everyone improvises based on the shared information. Each
phase is two minutes, the transformation is eight minutes.
It is a practice that teaches one to be empathetic by sharpening our listening skills
and pushing boundaries of communication.
w.r.i.s.t. is an ongoing process that tackles a soft horizontal structure of
listening and perceiving each other. In w.r.i.s.t., we confront the ambiguity
of truth, and how ideas are repeated, interpreted or transformed.
In my research, I have given attention towards idea’s surrounding the relationship
between the urban and the indigenous or the urban-indio. Which have brought me
to question the body in relationship to the land. What is your relationship to the land
you are on? What is your relationship to land?
45 46