ART SG FILM: FABRICATED REALITIES

FABRICATED REALITIES is a compilation of recent film and video artworks made by artists from the Asia-Pacific region. These three programmes address the complexity of our current times, questioning the co-existence of humans, a variety of non-human species and the advanced technology that challenges the perception of our history. These works were born from artists' anxieties, hopes and fears – particularly during the COVID-19 period – and their concerns about our planetary situation and Earth’s future. They touch upon the good, the bad and the ugly of the history of the human relationship with non-humans, nature and technology. Artists traverse back and forth between the past and future, through technology, archival materials and storytelling. Many films deal with the migration history of humans and non-humans, unfolding the tangled relationship of pre-nations or states in this region. Some works address the complex connections between humans, nature and cultures and the changing landscapes from Mongolia to the South China Sea, while others are concerned about the fabricated reality constructed by Artificial Intelligence, games and Virtual Reality.

The videos and films prompt us to reconsider some critical questions: can we trust images and, if so, how? How we can distinguish between the fiction and reality when both are fabricated and constructed by technology and human beings. Facing the reality of now, how should we live and go through these uncertain post-Covid times together and how, in the broadest sense, do we cope with an unprecedented global moment such as this?

Programme 1: Asynchronous Dreams (Running Time – 76min 35sec)

This programme consists of experimental film, video art, animation and VR games. These works are cross-disciplinary, collaborative, text-based works that touch upon themes such as the politics of memories, dreams, myths, the body, uncanny landscapes, as well as digital technology. Their self-reflexive, speculative narratives and fiction-making create a fluid visual aesthetic, shared by the artists, that in turn raises questions about today's asynchronous dreams of trans-generational myth-making and the ability to imagine possible futures.   

Wu Chi Yu
Hominins, 2019
Single channel video with surround sound
16min 4sec
Courtesy of the artist and TKG+
Rated PG

Apichatpong Weerasethakul
async - first light, 2017
Single channel video
11min 3sec, Edition of 3 + 2AP
Music by Ryuichi Sakamoto with a poem by Arseny Tarkovsky, narrated by David Sylvian.
Courtesy of the artist and ShanghART Gallery
Rated PG

Taiki Sakpisit
A Certain Illness Difficult to Name, 2018
Experimental Film
18min
Courtesy of the artist, sound by Worramet Matutamtada
Rated PG

Tun Win Aung & Wah Nu
Two Pieces (of White) –
White Piece #0164: Reading and Writing in 1989, 2013.
Black & white single channel video
14sec (in continuous loop), Edition 1/3
Courtesy of nnncl workshop and Richard Koh Fine Art
&
White Piece #0133: Thakin Pe Than’s Long March, 2012.
Black & White Single Channel Video, No Audio
3 sec (in continuous loop), Edition 2/3
Courtesy of nnncl workshop and Richard Koh Fine Art
1 min 41 secs
Rated G

Yao Cong
Count, 2020
4K video
7min 50sec
Copyright of Yao Cong, courtesy of the artist and Capsule Shanghai
Rated G

Xin Liu
The White Stone, 2021
Single channel digital video, 5.1 sound mix or stereo sound
21min 57sec
Courtesy of the artist and Make Room
Rated PG

Programme 2:  Riding the boundaries (Running Time ­– 53min 50sec)

Using archival materials, animation and documentary film, these artists' films explore the migration of animals crossing boundaries in the Asian region as a consequence of ecological and environmental problems. Almost like archeologists of oral histories, these artists excavate and contextualize the tales of people and animals within the history of China and its relationship to Southeast Asia, through the riverine, marine routes and beyond.

Robert Zhao Renhui
We Watch Them Disappear, 2019
Video
7min 37sec
Courtesy of the Yalu River Art Museum, the artist and ShanghART Gallery

Robert Zhao Renhui
And A Great Sign Appeared, 2021
Video
4min 52sec
Commissioned by the Asian Art Institutum, courtesy of the artist and ShanghART Gallery

Cheng Xinhao
March of the Elephants, 2022
Single channel video, color, sound
41min 21sec, Edition 1/5 + 2AP
Courtesy of the artist and Tabula Rasa Gallery
Rated PG

Programme 3: Is it just human imagination?  (Running Time – 43min 5sec)

It is through language that we share what constitutes human experience, however, the non-human world and vision cannot be understood easily through language. When anthropocenic cognition shifts from humans to animals, AI and robots, can we really understand them and their feelings? Or is this understanding just a result of human imagination? By looking at the world from the perspectives and patterns of behaviours of non-human beings, this programme explores a variety of non-human species that were once considered mute or voiceless. It is an attempt to understand the unknown by fabricating alternate realities, compressing time and space, amalgamating the impossible and making the invisible visible in a virtual realm.  

Fei Yining
The Moonshore I, 2021
4K video, color, sound
11min 53sec
Courtesy of the artist and Hive Center for Contemporary Art
Rated PG

Jo Ngo
5:45 pm, 2021
3D render in Unreal Engine
2min 9sec
Courtesy of the artist and Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery

Yanyun Chen and Alex Scollay
The Truth Lies in Fact, 2019
Single channel animation
5min, Edition 9/10
Courtesy of the artists and Art Porters Gallery

Kara Chin
Awakening Ceremony, 2021
Single channel animation
12min 20sec
Courtesy of the artist and LINSEED

Choy Ka Fai,
Unbearable Darkness Game Demo, 2021
Video, UHD 3840 x 1920
11min 43sec
Courtesy of the artist and Yavuz Gallery
Rated NC16 (Some nudity)

Total Running Time: 173min 30sec

For more information on the individual video works, please visit: https://artsg.com/film/

Image caption: Robert Zhao, And A Great Sign Appeared, 2021, film with sound (still). Image courtesy of Robert Zhao and ShanghART Gallery.