A Platform for Southeast Asian Art Films

Silke Schmickl and Farah Wardani Curatorial & Resource Centre National Gallery About National Gallery Singapore Resource Centre

The National Gallery Singapore Resource Centre is the repository of the Gallery’s collection of reference materials and historical archives that are mainly used by and art historians in their research. The Resource Centre collection consists of books on art history and theories, artist monographs, exhibition catalogues, digital archives and audio-visual materials, with a particular focus on Southeast Asian modern and contemporary art. The Resource Centre collection development is aligned with the Gallery’s Curatorial Research that is an integral part of our exhibitions and programmes. National Gallery Singapore's Resource Centre has been establishing a physical and digital archive infrastructure since the museum opened in 2015. It is designated to function as a reference library and digital archiving centre of Southeast Asian modern and contemporary art, while working closely with SEA artists, artists’ estates, art and film institutions. The Resource Centre is focusing on digitisation projects and collecting primary archival materials of Singapore and Southeast Asian artists whose works are collected and exhibited in the Gallery, mainly artists who were active before the digital era. Highlights of Resource Centre’s Audio-Visual Archives Collection (Digital Preservation, Oral History Records (Interviews) and Film Library) Records of Artists’ Interviews for Curatorial Research

Video interview of Brunei artist Zakaria Osman Seng Yu Jin in conversation with Rose with curator Shabbir Hussain Mustafa, 2016 Pandanwangi Soedjojono (from artist S. Sudjojono Estate, Indonesia), 2010 Digital preservation: Performance Art Archives

Lee Wen, Untitled (Raffles), performance piece as a part of the Artists Investigating Monuments project, 2000. Video by Russell Milledge and Kai Lam. Exhibited at Artist and Empire, National Gallery Singapore, 2016 S. Chandrasekaran, Salleh Japar, Goh E Choo, S. Chandrasekaran, Yoni, 1995, 8 hour Trimurti, 1988 performance at International Nature Art Symposium, Kwanju, South Korea, edited version 20’48 Navin Rawanchaikul, video documentation of Chiangmai Social Installation, 1993-1995. Digital preservation: Artist’s Personal Documentations

Lee Mayeur, 8 mm film and prints, circa 1950s Kim Lim, 8 mm films and slides, circa 1960s-1970s Latiff Mohidin, footages of working process and exhibitions circa 1970s, converted from Betamax Digital preservation: SEA Artist Documentaries and Educational Films Digital preservation: Artist Films, Experimental Cinema, Video Art

Ho Tzu Nyen, Utama: Every name in history is I, Zai Kuning, Riau, 2003, 29’45 2003, 20’48 (National Collection Singpaore) (National Collection Singpaore) Tan Pin Pin, 9th August, 2006, 7’35 Rajendra Gour, Sunshine Singapore, 1968-72, 6’47 (Not yet part of the collection) (Not part of the collection, on loan from Asian Film Archive) Creating a Platform for Southeast Asian Art Films

In 2017 the Gallery has conceptualised an additional research category that focuses on new media and moving image productions in from the 1950s to the 1990s as well as contemporary works that deal with Southeast Asian culture and history.

Artist films including various genres of avant-garde cinema such as experimental film, creative documentaries, animation, abstract cinema, performance and dance film, underground and home movies constitute the core of this project.

The upcoming exhibitions that will benefit from this research are, for example: Minimalism – Light Space Object in November 2018, and Awakenings: Art in Society in Asia, 1960s to 1990s exhibition planned for the summer 2019. In October 2018, a film seminar co- organised with the Asian Research Institute (NUS) on the topic of Shifting Undergrounds will be held at the Gallery’s Theatrette. Awakenings: Art in Society in Asia, 1960s to 1990s

Film programme featuring artists’ and filmmakers’ socio-critical comments on world politics, including works by Nam June Paik, Roxlee, Chen Chieh-Jen, Haroun Farocki, Nick Deocampo, Cesar Hernando amongst others. Issues addressed

One of our main concerns in providing the resources of art films in SEA is accessibility and visibility issues. Until now, the challenge in curatorial research of art films is the difficulty of accessing these materials as there is no centralised repository and directory of sources of these archives. Furthermore, film archives are different from other visual art works and archives since they cannot be viewed directly without proper equipment and viewing access. The project also aims to help conservators at the Heritage Conservation Centre, in charge of the National Collection, to improve the conservation of acquired media works and define frameworks and policies for future acquisitions. Multimedia installations, video or interactive works need particular instructions to be exhibited according to the artists’ instructions. These instructions include the possibility to upgrade a work if technology changes (Box TV vs. flatscreen, digital projection of film works etc.) A working group with these conservators, curators from the National Gallery and the has been formed. Wong Hoy Cheong, Re:Looking, 2002–2003, National Gallery Singapore, 2016, mixed media. Video in the collection of Singapore Art Museum. unrealised is a digital extension of the Gallery’s exhibitions accessible only via the Gallery Explorer app. Developed in dialogue with artists Heman Chong (Lives (Singapore, 1819–2015), 2017), (Timelines, 2017) and Erika Tan (Apa Jika, The Mis-Placed Comma (I, II, III), 2017), it links and tests the potentials of the digital image pervasive in our post-information age within the physical spaces of the two long-term displays, Siapa Nama Kamu? and Between Declarations and Dreams featured in the DBS Singapore Gallery and UOB Southeast Asia Gallery respectively. Further objectives

By including new media and moving image in our Curatorial Research work and Resource Centre collection, the Gallery encourages knowledge production on an important and critical art form which is often still underrepresented in the institutional context.

It aims to complement the rich collections of various regional film archives and to provide a research platform for film programmers and curators alike.

Driven by a collaborative approach that recognises the diversity and complexity of such moving image productions, the project hopes to uncover, digitalise, restore and preserve films and to enable a wider distribution of these works within a regional and international context.