SINGAPORE: INSIDE OUT THE ACTORS’ CREATIVES TOUR ALVIN PANG M KINETIC C T.H.E DANCE COMPANY Choreographer Lee Mun Wai L Developed by playwright Joel Tan and director Tan Kheng Hua, in collaboration with actors John Cheah, Sharon Ismail, Kay Kay Nizam, Jo Tan and Jean Toh. A poet, writer, editor and translator, Alvin Pang has appeared in Kinetic is a boutique design and advertising agency known for its unique The Human Expression Dance Company (T.H.E), along with its OVERVIEW numerous major festivals and publications worldwide, and hybrid of visual, interactive design and advertising. Headed by Creative semi-professional training arm, T.H.E Second Company, are leading represented Singapore at Poetry Parnassus – part of the 2012 Director Pann Lim, Kinetic has won over 450 awards locally and names in Singapore’s contemporary dance scene. T.H.E is known for The Actors’ Tour is a piece of walking theatre. Actors take visitors through the collection of works at Singapore: Inside Out London Cultural Olympiad. He is listed in the Oxford Companion and lead them through a series of performance-encounters that provide intimate peeks into the lives, struggles, joys and internationally over the last 16 years. Today, Kinetic continues to push the their unique brand of highly physical and kinetic works that dig deep to Modern Poetry in English (2nd Edition, 2013), and his recent personal stories of the artists and creative practitioners who are showcased at Singapore: Inside Out. The tour also boundaries while seeking that elusive balance between creativity and into the human experience, highlighting the minute details of life that publications include Other Things and Other Poems (Brutal, Croatia: foregrounds some of the bigger questions about working in Singapore’s creative industries today. marketing objectives. often go unnoticed. T.H.E has performed in regional and international 2012) and When The Barbarians Arrive (ArcPublications, UK: 2012). The main feature of the tour is performed encounters with several of the artists and creative practitioners who are part of arts festivals such as the prestigious Les Hivernales Festival (2012) in Singapore: Inside Out. These vignettes are made up of Verbatim Monologues drawn from transcripts of casual interviews Avignon, France. Singapore: Inside Out features Permission to Speak, conducted with the creatives. The five actors leading the tour slip in and out of these personas, telling the story of the artists BRANDON TAY Sir a new commission by choreographer Lee Mun Wai (pictured), one and creative practitioners’ work, careers and relationships with Singapore as a city and home, all in their own words. It’s a NATHAN YONG D N of T.H.E’s founding members and a recipient of Singapore’s National fun, engaging and unusual way to encounter these Singaporean creatives. Media artist Brandon Tay specialises in live visuals, projection Arts Council’s Young Artist Award in 2014. The Actors’ Tour was developed in residence at Centre 42 in Singapore. mapping and digital installation. He has worked with musicians like Furniture designer Nathan Yong’s practice spans industrial design, graphics, Skrillex and Flying Lotus, and has collaborated with industry veterans interior design, branding, strategic planning in product development and This is a daily scheduled performance at 12.30pm on 24 and 28 June and 1.00pm, 3.00pm and 5.00pm from 25 to 27 June. such as MTV Asia, KROZM, PHUNK, Zouk Club Singapore, Hennessy, manufacturing processes. Nathan's work is inspired by simple visuals The Actors’ Tour will begin at the Courtyard. the Emirates Palace Hotel, and artists Ulf Langheinrich and Gina and observations from everyday life, and pared down with the lightness UJIKAJI RECORDS I Czarneki. Within the arts, his interest lies in the crossroads between of restraints. the moving image and digital sculpture. Ujikaji Records is an independent music label and organiser of He currently runs a multi-disciplinary design consultancy practice, and is independent music events. Headed by Elizabeth Lim (pictured) and also the founder of contemporary wooden furniture brand FOLKS Furniture, Mark Wong, Ujikaji Records curates experimental music in rock, jazz, PROGRAMME and forward-thinking lifestyle retail brand GRAFUNKT and its label, electronic and other idioms, with a particular focus on Southeast CHANG YONG TER CHANG Architects L studio GRAFUNKT. NOTES Asian artists and sounds. In addition to releasing CDs and vinyl Architect Chang Yong Ter discovered his passion for architecture HIGHLIGHTS AND EXCERPTS records by Singapore musicians, Ujikaji Records has also organised during his time in university. Since then, he has won over 15 notable The order of these encounters may vary depending on the shows for musicians from Singapore, China, New Zealand, Australia local and international awards. He believes that architectural design is route. We highlight eight of these monologues. PHUNK H and Canada. ‘Ujikaji’ means ‘experiment’ in Malay (Bahasa Melayu). a work from the mind and the heart: while rationality and logic can ROBERT ZHAO RENHUI SPEAK CRYPTIC (FARIZWAN FAJARI) achieve pragmatic efficiencies, an intuitive, poetic approach can Founded in 1994, contemporary art and design collective PHUNK’s approach resonate with the soul, and transcend limitations of rationalities. to art and design reflects a multi-cultural identity, seamlessly blending and The award-winning photographer talks about his fascination Visual artist Speak Cryptic talks about his struggles re-interpreting influences of traditional Chinese craft, philosophy and with nature in his work. In particular, he draws attention to with his autobiography, and how that figures into the his childhood memories of the “sand dunes” of Singapore, self-exposure inherent in his artwork for Singapore: folklore, Japanese manga and otaku subculture. The concept of ‘universality’ VERTICAL SUBMARINE B mounds of stockpiled sand used in the country’s reclamation Inside Out. in the age of modern globalisation is a constant theme in their work. PHUNK Art collective Vertical Submarine is a Singaporean art collective of the coast, pictures of which he has packaged as a fictional HO TZU NYEN G “So I really want this work, Kamar Kamillion to be that, has collaborated with global brands and artists such as leading Japanese famous for injecting a sense of humour into their works. Their “tourist destination” in the make-believe souvenir shop he you know? And I want me to be vulnerable and open to Multi-disciplinary artist Ho Tzu Nyen creates films, video installations pop artist Keiichi Tanaami, Nike, MTV, Herman Miller, Uniqlo, Levi‘s and The has installed as part of Singapore: Inside Out. portfolio includes installations, drawings and paintings that involve anything. And to me this is a big deal, in a way, because and theatrical performances that are related to his interests in Rolling Stones. text and storytelling. They have since exhibited in Spain, Taiwan, “I think… one reason why I kind of am drawn to nature is also I’ve never done this lah. You know? I've done like public philosophy and history. His works have been shown internationally, Hong Kong, Turkey, Korea, The Philippines, Mexico City, Australia and because our island appears to be very green, it appears to be murals and stuff, I've done stuff where, I would draw on including representing Singapore at the 54th Venice Biennale (2011), very natural… But I feel like there’s a lot of things being the wall and people would look. But there was never Germany. Collectively, they have won several awards including the 41st Director’s Fortnight, Cannes International Film Festival (2009), orchestrated, there’s a lot of policies, and there’s a lot of participation. And yeah, and the thing is, I want this to Celeste Prize 2011, the Credit Suisse Artist Residency Award 2009 the 66th Venice International Film Festival (2009), the 42nd Rotterdam decision making involved, and we kind of don't see that. happen, I want it to change me, and I want it — I want ROBERT ZHAO RENHUI E and The President’s Young Talents Award (Singapore, 2009). Film Festival (2013) and the Wiener Festwochen (2014). Tzu Nyen is What is actually natural in Singapore?” the work to change with them lah, with everyone.” currently an artist-in-residence at the DAAD, Berlin. Robert Zhao Renhui works primarily with photography, employing a ALVIN PANG CHANG YONG TER (CHANG ARCHITECTS) & multi-disciplinary approach of presenting images with documents and RANDY CHAN (ZARCH COLLABORATIVES) objects. A self-professed natural history lover, his work addresses man’s A celebrated English-language poet, Alvin Pang is a relentless relationship with nature and related issues of morality and ethics, with an SYNDICATE L advocate of Singapore literature. In this transcript, he These two architects — and old friends — talk about discusses what in his view is the shrinking of the literary Mr. Tang Guan Bee, their former mentor and a major emphasis on how attitudes and opinions shape our assumptions about the JANICE WONG J Syndicate is Singapore’s foremost forward-thinking audio and visual ecosystem in Singapore as a result of the lack of space personality and influence in Singapore's architectural natural world. His works have been awarded The Deutsche Bank Award in collective and independent record label. In their performances, they Arguably Singapore’s most prominent female chef, Janice Wong is around the city. He also raises questions about the struggles history. An architect who approaches his work with the Photography (2011) by the University of the Arts London, The United many Singaporean artists and writers deal with at home. intuition and impulse of an artist, Tang is the enfant chef-cum-owner of dessert restaurant 2am:dessertbar. Janice’s present audio experimentation and visual dares from the bass bins, Overseas Bank Painting of the Year Award (Singapore, 2009) and honourable terrible of his generation of architects.