Journey Of A Yellow Man. Selected Materials From The Independent ...

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NTU CCA Singapore is presenting a selection of materials from Singapore’s Independent Archive (IA), a research and resource platform dedicated to time-based media, established by internationally-renowned artist Lee Wen (Singapore) in 2012.

Category Exhibitions TypeIndividual Artist MediumPhotography, Multimedia Installation, Print, Video, Sculpture Theme Place.Labour.Capital. Topics Activism, Archival Practice, Artistic Research, Identity, Performance, Politics Related CountriesSingapore Journey of a Yellow Man. Selected Materials from the Independent Archive 15 September - 25 November 2018

On the occasion of the launch of the Digital Resource Platform, NTU CCA Singapore is presenting a selection of materials from Singapore’s Independent Archive (IA), a research and resource platform dedicated to time-based media, established by internationally-renowned artist Lee Wen (Singapore) in 2012. For the past six years, the IA captured the zeitgeist of performance art in Singapore and larger (South-)East Asia through artistic collaborations. This presentation in The Lab is organised into five chapters —“Condition,” “Body,” “Formation / Gestalt,” “Absence,” and “Memory”—that look at the development of performance art as a new medium as well as its political conditions. Journey of a Yellow Man. takes visitors through the archive with photographs, videos, writings, sketchbooks, while simultaneously, introducing the digital archive. As of today, the Centre has digitalised 20,000 files from the IA. The practice of Lee Wen is motivated by social investigations that use art to interrogate stereotypical perceptions of culture and society. He became famous for his performance series Journey of a Yellow Man (1992—), where he embodied his Chinese descent and its relationship to oppressive systems. The presentation provides insight into a continuously expanding resource platform that highlights ephemeral moments in the history of performance art in Singapore. The project addresses the importance of providing historically significant source material for researchers and the wider public. The digitalised files will be integrated into NTU CCA Singapore’s Public Resource Platform and will be accessible at the Centre, the Independent Archive, and the Asia Art Archive, Hong Kong, a collaborative partner of this project. With IA, a series of public programmes will take place in both The Lab at the NTU CCA Singapore and in the IA. The programme highlights IA as a “living archive” that not only serves as a reference library and archive focusing on time-based and event-specific art, but is also a gathering space that offers dynamic programmes in a vibrant network of artists, musicians, and the public. Journey of a Yellow Man is curated by Sophie Goltz, Deputy Director, Research and Academic Programmes, NTU CCA Singapore, in collaboration with Lee Wen, artist and Founder, Independent Archive, Singapore, Bruce Quek, Research, Independent Archive, and Kamiliah Bahdar, Public Programmes, Independent Archive. Project Assistant: Ho See Wah, Young Professional Trainee, NTU CCA Singapore. Assistant to Lee Wen: Liu Wen Chao, Library, Independent Archive. The NTU CCA Digital Resource Platform was initiated in 2016 by Ute Meta Bauer, Founding Director, NTU CCA Singapore, and Professor, NTU ADM Singapore and Lee Wen, in collaboration with Chương-Đài Võ, Researcher, Asia Art Archive, Hong Kong. Assistant to the project: Bruce Quek with the support of Samantha Leong Min Yu, Executive, Conferences, Workshops & Archive, NTU CCA Singapore (till May 2018), Corine Chan Li Ling, Executive Archive, NTU CCA Singapore (May to July 2018), and Pooja Paras Mehta (2017), Ho See Wah (2018), Young Professional Trainees, NTU CCA Singapore.

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Collateral for Journey of a Yellow Man. Selected Materials from the Independent Archive

Over 12,000 assets documenting our exhibitions, residencies, programmes and research available at the CCA Digital Archive.

• Journey of a Yellow Man. Selected Materials from the Independent Archive Exhibition Guide (PDF, 6MB)

Contributors Lee Wen Artist Singapore

Lee Wenwas awarded the Cultural Medallion of Singapore in 2009. He entered the art scene comparatively late in the ‘80s, but quickly gained attention. His early practice was associated with The Artists Village in Singapore and later forged a more individuated artistic career. Lee Wen has been exploring different strategies of time-based and performance art since 1989. He helped initiate both R.I.T.E.S. (Rooted In The Ephemeral Speak) (2009-) and Future of Imagination (2003-), an international performance art event. Since 2012, he has taken an active interest in the memory of Singapore’s performance art history through the initiation of the Independent Archive. Recent group exhibitions include SUNSHOWER: Contemporary Art from Southeast Asia 1980s to Now, The National Arts Centre and Mori Art Museum, Japan (2017), Secret Archipelago, Palais de Tokyo, France (2015) and a solo show at the Singapore Art Museum (2012). Lee Wen was an NTU CCA Singapore Artist-in-Residence from August 2014 to February 2015.

Ute Meta Bauer Curator, Founding Director Singapore

Ute Meta Bauer is a Professor at the School of Art, Design and Media, Nanyang Technological University Singapore (NTU). She is currently the Acting Director and Principal Research Fellow at the NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore (NTU CCA Singapore); and is the Chair of the Masters in Museum Studies and Curatorial Practices (MA MSCP) programme. Having served as the Founding Director of NTU CCA Singapore for over a decade, her work as educator and curator over the past years has focused on Climates. Habitats. Environments. At the Centre, she curated and co-curated The Oceanic (2017/2018), Trees of Life. Knowledge in Material (2018), and The Posthuman City (2020). In 2022, she served as curator for the Singapore Pavilion at the 59th Biennale di Venezia, featuring artist Shubigi Rao. Her recent large scale projects include the 17th Istanbul Biennial (2022), co-curated alongside David Teh and Amar Kanwar, and the artistic direction of the Diriyah Contemporary Art Biennale 2024. She is a Trustee of the Art Foundation TBA21 and a member of the Governing Council of n.b.k. Berlin. Bauer was recently conferred an Honorary Doctorate of Art and Design by Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture, Helsinki, Finland.

Sophie Goltz Curator, Staff Germany, Singapore

Sophie Goltz was Deputy Director, Research & Academic Programmes at NTU CCA Singapore, and Assistant Professor at the NTU School of Art, Design and Media. Goltz was the Artistic Director of Stadtkuratorin Hamburg (City curator) from 2013 to 2016, and has worked as Senior Curator and Head of Communication and Public Programmes at Neuer Berliner Kunstverein between 2008 and 2013, becoming Associate Curator in 2014. Goltz worked as a freelance curator, as well as an art educator for various international exhibitions, including Documenta11 and documenta 12 (2002 and 2007), 3rd berlin biennale for contemporary art (2004), and Project Migration (2004-06).

Asia Art Archive Institutional Partner Hong Kong

Asia Art Archive is an independent non-profit organisation co-founded by Claire Hsu and Johnson Chang in 2000 in response to the urgent need to document and make accessible the multiple recent histories of art in the region. A team of over thirty-five individuals led by Hsu are responsible for AAA’s Collection, research activities, programming, and operations. AAA’s Board of Directors, co-chaired by Benjamin Cha and Jane DeBevoise, comprises appointed members drawn from the art and business sectors within Hong Kong and beyond. The Board jointly supports the Executive Director and oversees the strategic direction and financial status of the organisation. AAA is financially supported through diverse channels to include individuals, corporate, foundations, and government. AAA’s Advisory Board comprises thirty-eight noted curators and critics from around the world. Advisors provide guidance in developing the potential and possibility of our collection, and assist in promoting the growing research interest in art from Asia. Asia Art Archive in America and Asia Art Archive in India are set up as independent entities with separate Boards of Directors.

Bruce Quek Collaborator Singapore

Bruce Quek is a young artist who works with whatever seems appropriate at the time, often producing things that don’t seem to mean anything. This tendency might be traced to his training in sculpture at LASALLE, which often saw him scrounging for serendipitous pieces of scrap metal. His projects tend to take the distribution and dissemination of information as starting points for various conceptual investigations, critiques of artistic infrastructure, and other wanderings. He takes an interest in many things, but maintains an unhealthy fascination with emergent behaviour, pathological transference, and puns. All of his endeavours are frequently threatened by the seductive allure of reading random things online, out of a vague belief in the value of consuming as much information as possible. In addition to practicing as an artist, he is involved with the art world on a number of other levels, from writing criticism and assisting the Independent Archive, to plain old gallery sitting. His recent and upcoming projects have included participating in the traveling show Time of others, as well as an upcoming group exhibition, PPC | 珍珠坊: A Public Living Room. In 2016’s first edition of the Monday Moot, he’ll be speaking about his recent work and practice in the various roles he plays, including in-depth discussion of his recent and upcoming works. Bruce was manager to the Independent Archive (IA), founded by the late Lee Wen in 2012.

Chương-Đài Võ Collaborator Hong Kong

Chương-Đài Võ is a Researcher at Asia Art Archive, where she is supervising the acquisition of three archival collections: Lee Wen, Green Papaya Art Projects, and Manila Artist-Run Spaces. Her research and curatorial work focuses on collective platforms, ephemeral practices, social movements, and marginalised genealogies.

Samantha Leong Staff Singapore

Samantha Leong is Executive, Conference, Workshops & Archive at NTU CCA Singapore from 2016-2018.

Liu Wen Chao Collaborator Singapore

Liu Wen Chao is born in 1992, China. Wen Chao graduated from Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts in 2014. Moving from China to Singapore has been an experience of discovery and wandering to him. Wen Chao is interested in exploring the fundamental question of what art is by experimenting with different methods of interpretation, such as performance art, painting and video. Liu was assistant to the late Lee Wen and helped with the Independent Archive (IA).

Corine Chan Li Ling Staff Singapore

Corine Chan Li Ling Executive Archive, NTU CCA Singapore from May to July 2018. She was Young Professional Trainee, Residencies in 2016.

Ho See Wah Staff Singapore

Ho See Wah is Young Professional Trainee at NTU CCA Singapore in 2018.

Pooja Paras Mehta Staff Singapore

Pooja Paras Mehta is Young Professional Trainee at NTU CCA Singapore in 2017.

Kamiliah Bahdar Collaborator Singapore

Kamiliah Bahdar is in charge of public programmes at Independent Archive in 2018.

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