I am a prolific, interdisciplinary artist working across film, performance-lecture, installation, painting, drawing, tapestry art, ‘laptop cinema’ performances, theatre stage design across >900 international settings including film festivals, museums, art galleries, cinema, theatre and more. People have described me as ‘not only a talented artist but also a great scholar’ (Cinema South Festival) with a ‘sardonic humour but also a sharp intelligence which makes her a self-reflexive, incisive artist of South East Asia’ (Singapore International Festival of Arts Director Keng Sen Ong). Engagements and collaborations include with legendary performance artist Teh-Ching Hsieh (in an interview in my PhD thesis), cult Fluxus artist Takahiko Iimura, Dumb Type Choreographer Takao Kawaguchi & VideoArt Centre Tokyo. Curators I have worked with include Rikrit Tiravanija (NYC/Berlin). Artists I have been billed alongside include Yayoi Kusama and avant garde filmmaker Toshio Matsumoto for MOMA (New York) film programme. Platforms include Documenta, Biennale of Sydney, Tokyo Fashion Week and Medical Research Council Preview Festival. Venues include Southbank Centre, MOMA (New York), ZKM, ICA, Tokyo Metropolitan Photography Museum, South London Gallery and Dom Muzyki (Moscow International Performing Arts Centre). Recognition includes San Francisco International Film Festival Golden Gate Award and Artangle Open 100, while collections include the Museum of London and Fukuoka Art Museum. See below for some of the >14 solo shows & major showcases (including representing Singapore at Biennale of Sydney, Guangzhou Triennale), >100 invited group shows (including a performance at Pompidou), >150 screenings and more at film festivals and other sites (including Transmediale Festival), and three examples in stage design & performances in theatre (leading to nomination for design for Vagina Monologues).
To find out more about my keynote lectures and performance-lectures, see here. For interdisciplinary projects that I have directed, curated and/or produced, see here. For the rest of my CV, click here.
14 SOLO / REPRESENTING SINGAPORE
- 2020: #MagicCarpet. 8-month solo show. Manchester Centre of Craft & Design
- 2018-9: Making Mind Wandering Visible. 5-month solo show. Social, Genetic & Developmental Psychiatry Centre
- 2012: Lens On Twelve. Connaught Brown Gallery. Alongside Marie-Jo Lafontaine. London, UK
- 2012: 20 Ways Running Can Change Your World. Slade Summer Residency. London, UK
- 2010: Featured Artist. Art Singapore: The Contemporary Asian Art Fair. Performance, exhibition
- 2010: Permanent public video installation. Commissioned by Land Transport Authority. Singapore
- 2008: Guangzhou Triennale. Curators and artists include Sarat Maharaj, Werner Herzog. China
- 2006: Biennale of Sydney. Australia. Sydney Morning Herald front page: ‘Singaporean artist Kai Syng Tan [is] known for her eclectic style and cheeky attitude to the art world’ (2006). Catalogue describes my work as having ‘unusual mix of critical engagement, intellectual references and […] a very, very special way of engaging humour’ (2006). Sir Anthony Gormley visited show & took assistants & I to sushi restaurant
- 2003: Open 2003, 6th International Exhibition of Sculpture & Installations. Venice, Italy
- 2005: Kai Syng Tan Special Film Programme. Space NEO. With curator Fujioka Asako. Tokyo, Japan
- 2005: ISLANDHOPPING London Leg. Institute of Contemporary Arts. London
- 2004: ISLANDHOPPING. ASK Gallery. Commissioned by Alpha M Project. Tokyo, Japan
- 2004: Tan Kai Syng Special Programme. Yamagata In Tokyo 2004: Documentary Dream Show. Japan
- 1999: Pardon My French! Screening and installation. Alliance Francaise de Singapour. Singapore
>150 FILM FESTIVALS & MORE
- Juror, Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival New Asian Currents + Juror’s showcase: Screening of How to Thrive in 2050 (2021) and Chlorine Addiction (2000)
- 2022: International Short Film Festival Oberhausen Video Library, Clermont-Ferrand Film Market
- 2021: BBC iPlayer, Attenborough Arts Centre, Castlefield Gallery & more
- 2019: Official Selection, Arts & Humanities Research Council Film Award. Judges: staff from C4, RSC, Financial Times
- 2016: As Producer: Official competition (216 from 2680 entries). Annecy International Animated Film Festival, France
- 2016: As Producer: Official Selection. Bucheon and Ottawa International Animation Festivals. Korea, Canada
- 2013: Museum of London commission & permanent collection
- 2006-ongoing: Resist/Desist at 130 art spaces in 43 countries via Femlink (collective of 149 women video-artists from 64 countries), including:
- Women’s Museum (Colombia);
- French Institut (Prague, Czech Republic)
- Nod Art-Centre (Argentina)
- Museo de la Mujer, Center for Contemporary Art (Latvia);
- Essex Art Center (USA);
- Kaunas Art Festival (Lithuania);
- XVA Gallery (UAE);
- Museum of Occupations (Estonia);
- Shams Center (Lebanon);
- Project Room de Arte Actual (Ecuador);
- University of Nicosi (Cyprus);
- Manila Film Institute (Philippines);
- International FilmFest, Multicultural Center (Hungary);
- Art Institute of Boston (USA);
- Directors Lounge, 58th Berlin International Festival (Germany);
- European Biennial of Contemporary Art (Scotland & Poland);
- Foundation of Contemporary Art (Uruguay)
- Biennale Européenne d’Art Contemporain (France)
- 2004: Japanese Experimental Cinema. New York Film Anthology, MOMA, USA. Alongside Toshio Matsumoto
- 2002: By invitation, Parthenon Tama Asian Documentary Festival, Tokyo
- 2002: Video Programme. Copenhagen
- 2002: Yamagata in Tokyo Festival POST-FICTION! Box Higashi Nakano cinema.
- 2001: Official Selection. Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival. ‘New Currents’. Japan
- 2001: Outer Limits: Video Lounge. New York, USA
- 2000: Transmediale. Germany
- 2000: Fukuoka Art Museum. Japan
- 1999: Official Selection. 42nd San Francisco International Film Festival. Golden Gate Award. USA
>100 GROUP SHOWS
- 2023: ‘Have a Speed-Date With Kai – Let’s Re-Imagine Our (Collective) Future Together’. Participatory installation, performance, podcast and film as part of Ordinary Things curated by Louise Siddons, The Winchester Gallery.
- 2021: Attenborough Arts Centre. With Bob and Roberta Smith and others
- 2020: Breathing In Art face mask design commission. Fermynwoods Contemporary Art
- 2020: French radio Gongle on art and sports
- 2019, 2012: Sovereign Art Prize Nomination. the largest and most established art prize in Asia Pacific
- 2019: Archiv Galerie: Southeast Asia Performance Collection. Haus De Kunst, Germany
- 2019: Residencies Open, Art after Dark (09/2019), Singapore
- 2019: The Nomenclature of Colours Exhibition curated by Jo Volley. Slade Research Centre.
- 2019: Residencies Open, Art After Dark (01/2019), Singapore Arts Week, Singapore
- 2018: Innovation Showcase. Nesta’s People Powered Future Health, for 500 health policy audience
- 2018: Performance with Lois Bentley. MA Art and Science seminar, Central Saint Martins
- 2018: Exhibition. Birkbeck Institute Annual conference ‘Distraction’
- 2018: Arts in Mind Festival. Exhibition at Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience. Workshop with children from Lyndhurst Primary School. Speed-dating at South London Gallery
- 2018: Third Museums for Health and Wellbeing Conference. Thinktank, Birmingham
- 2018: King’s Undergraduate Medical Education in the Community Teacher Development workshop. KCL
- 2017: Art of Things: Singapore Open Media Art Festival. Total Museum of Contemporary Art, Seoul
- 2017: Monologue/Dialogues exhibition, performance. Curated by Professor Andrew Stahl. London.
- 2017: Performance & exhibition. UK Adult ADHD Network (UKAAN) 7th Congress. Mermaid Conference and Events Centre, for 400 world-leading clinicians and researchers in ADHD
- 2017: Exhibition. MRC Festival Preview Event, Social, Genetic & Developmental Psychiatry, KCL. Annual Medical Research Council Festival of Medical Research (England, Scotland, Wales, online, Africa).
- 2016: Wellcome Trust Library. Conceptual image on ADHD
- 2016: Fete de Tuiles. Grenoble, France. Commission: participatory art performance
- 2015: Exparte. Singapore Tourism Board. Brick Lane Art Gallery. London
- 2014: Artangel Open100. UK
- 2014: Running and Creativity Workshop. Commissioned by UCL Art Museum
- 2014: RUN! RUN! RUN! Stratford. In AHRC and Arts Council-funded Pop Up Pop Up. London, UK
- 2013: Move on Asia. ZKM, Center, Germany. Beijing Commune in China; Alternative Space Loop in Korea
- 2012: Documenta 13 EARN conference. Kassel, Germany
- 2012 Lens On Twelve. Connaught Brown Gallery. London, UK
- 2012: 20 Ways Running Can Change Your World. Slade Summer Residency. London, UK
- 2012: Making Space. Slade Research Centre. Keynote speakers: Grayson Perry, Martin Creed
- 2011: Leonardo New Media Exhibition. Curators: Lanfranco Aceti, Christiane Paul. Alongside Teri Reub, Mez
- 2008: 8Qrate. 8Q Singapore Art Museum Contemporary Art Space. Singapore
- 2007: Curating Lab. Singapore Art Show. Singapore
- 2007: Soft Power. Zendai Museum of Modern Art. Curated by Shen Qibin. Shanghai, China
- 2007: Asia-Europe Mediations. Poznan National Museum & Kunsthalle Faust, Germany. With Song Dong
- 2006: Out of The Internet. Multimedia Art Asia Pacific MAAP. State Library of Queensland. Australia
- 2006: Goteborg Open Lab. Curated by Ong Keng Sen. Goteborg, Sweden.
- 2005: Contemporary Art from South East Asia. House of World Cultures. Curator: Rikrit Tiravanija. Germany
- 2005: Digital Paradise: Media Art from Singapore. Daejeon Museum of Art. Korea
- 2005: 3rd Women’s Arts Festival Fantastic Asia. Feminist Artists’ Network. Alongside Yayoi Kusama. Sung Kok Art Museum, Korea
- 2004: Singapore Season. Performance, exhibition, screening. Institute of Contemporary Arts. UK
- 2004: ‘Live’ performance. Nippon International Performance Art Festival. Die Pratze. Tokyo, Japan
- 2004: ‘Live’ performance. Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography
- 2004: Tokyo Designers’ Week Tokyo, Japan
- 2004: Outlounge Tokyo, Japan
- 2004: Pola Annex Museum. Tokyo, Japan
- 2003: President’s Young Talents Exhibition. Singapore Art Museum. Singapore
- 2002: Sonic Process: European-Asian collaborative exhibition. Centre Georges Pompidou. France
- 2001: Shot in The Face. Earl Lu Gallery. Alongside Song Dong and Zhang Peili. Singapore
3 THEATRE PERFORMANCES & PROJECTIONS
- 2008: Vagina Monologues (Dir: Dr Loretta Chen). Drama Centre. Singapore. Led to nomination for Straits Times Life! Theatre Award
- 2008: Spotlight Singapore in Moscow. Moscow International Performance Arts Centre Dom Muzyki, with Singapore Prime Minister
- 2001: Woman on A Tree (Play by feminist author Ovidia Yu), which opened Singapore Arts Festival. Jubilee Hall. Singapore. With pioneer Singapore feminist artist Amanda Heng and Korean band Gong Myong