Upon returning home after 3 years in Japan, Kai began appearing in her own work. It was in response to a place that she felt was increasingly resembling a Theme Park. Instead of merely watching and commenting from a safe distance, she positioned herself as someone in cahoots with the Grand Plan. Hence, she pops up amidst the mise-en-scene and performs, as if a prop, mascot or performing monkey – as the city, too, performs. There were a few major commissions over this period of time. This was also while she was teaching full time as a Pathway Leader and Lecturer in video art in an art college. The works made during that period include:

• 3 new installations at the Biennale of Sydney 2006, Guangzhou Triennale 2008 and Asian Art Biennale 2008.
• A new permanent, public work, commissioned by the Land Transport Authority (LTA).
• A multimedia design for Ivan Heng’s theatrical production which showcased in the Moscow International House of Music to top bureaucrats from Singapore and Russia.
• A new work at the inaugural show at a new contemporary art space 8Q, and a ‘video tour’ for the Singapore Art Show.
• Invitation to take part in the Nanjing Triennale. However, it seemed that the work was not exhibited. It might have something to do with the fact that tThe Japanese curator who invited Kai wanted to show ISLANDHOPPING – specifically the parts that talk about the Pacific War?
  

Kai underwent 4 artist-in-residencies during this time, including

• Helsinki (Theatreworks-NIFCA)
• Sydney, Perth and Canberra in Australia (Biennale of Sydney)
• the Philippines (National Arts Council of Singapore)
• Beppu (Japan Foundation) in Japan.

All the music for my works created in these 4 years were beautifully-composed by Philip Tan. With Philip Tan, Kai appeared in a couple of TV programmes – and they both were nominated and subsequently awarded the Young Artist Award from the Singapore President in 2007.

[ppmaccordion][ppmtoggle title=”Installation for the Guangzhou Triennale 2008″]

This work was entitled MAKING A LIVING OF SORTS IN (Y) OUR THEME PARK: HERE/THERE/WHERE. Kai played a person suspended in a liminal space that resembled a fish tank. Was she sinking or floating, immobilised, or free? The video was shot underwater with an underwater camera. Theme of the Triennale: Farewell to Post-Colonialism. Kai was categorised under ‘Free Radicals’. Research curator: Sopawan Boonnimitra. Curators: Gao Shiming, Sarat Maharaj, Chang Tsong-zung. Other artists and curators at the Triennale include Werner Herzog, Trinh T. Ming-ha, Feng Mengbo, Chen Chieh-jen (LIKE!!), Roger Macdonald, Jun Nguyen-Hatsushiba and Ade Darmawan.[/ppmtoggle][ppmtoggle title=”Permanent, public video installation”]

Commissioned by the Land Transport Authority of Singapore, this installation was entitled The Amazing Never-Ending Underwater Adventures!. Kai played ‘Desyphus’, which is a neologism of ‘Sisyphus’, ‘Decipher’ and ‘Deceit’, a perpetual rider of the Circle Line of Singapore, which has 29 stations, in a series of 29 video cycles that comes on each evening at 19:29hrs (when sun sets in Singapore), at a total run time of 29 minutes, with 29 riddles for commuters to solve as they descend 35 metres underwater into the station. The work is a permanent video installation, and it is the only new media work commissioned by the LTA. It is sited at Bras Basah Mass Rapid Transit station, which is a subway station located at the Civic and Arts and Heritage district of Singapore. The work was voted by arts journalist Mayo Martin as his favourite of the artworks that run on the Circle Line. Have a look at this and that video for a summary of the work. Additionally, Kai has talked extensively about the work here, here, here and here.[/ppmtoggle][ppmtoggle title=”Singapore Art Show commission”]

Entitled The Rather Terrible Slaughter Of The Tour Guide, this work consists of 2 video tours filmed in the same location. The audience could select which tour to go on, both located in the main shopping district of Singapore. Kai changed the name of sites, for instance from City Hall to ‘City Gall’, and City Link to ‘City Sink’ in my artwork. Along the way, you ran into urban denizens such as the ‘Flaneur’ and ‘Godzilla’ (renamed ‘Godsiliao’, or ‘god has died’, in local dialect). The two tours are identical, save for name changes such as someone called ‘Local’ in one, who is called ‘Global’ in another. This was an attempt to question the validity of these terms which are thrown about easily in a city that likes identifying itself as ‘globalised’ (terribly cool!). At the end of the tours, the tour guide/artist dies. Curator: Joselina Cruz.[/ppmtoggle][ppmtoggle title=”8Q Contemporary Art Museum commission”]

The full title of the installation is A FOOL ON A STOOL IN SCHOOL DRAWING MARGINS TO EXERCISE HER COMMON SENSE. In this 2-room, multi-screen installation, Kai ran about as if the star/victim of a theme park, albeit one of a disused school, to be converted to a white cube of a contemporary art museum, in which the same video was to be exhibited. This work dealt with the binary-feature of destruction/renewal, which characterises land-scarce Singapore. Kai shot and performed this work wearing a hard hat when the building was being renovated. The work was commissioned for the inaugural show of the museum. The audience experiencing the work also re-lived the history of the room and building where they stood. Curator: Kwok Kian Chow.[/ppmtoggle][/ppmaccordion]