Catalysing Change through Artful Agitation by DrKai Syng Tan UK since April 2020 CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0
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Since 2020: Neurodiversity In/& Creative Research Network activities incl keynote lectures and workshops by members, incl dyspraxic ‘dysco’ by Aby Watson that went on to tour Southbank Centre. Plus haiku contest with award, a redirection of personal fee from Craft and Design Centre.
2019: Psychoanalysis and the Creative Process. Dr Patricia Townsend’s exhibition, book launch and chat. Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Centre, King’s College London.
2019: Co-curator. Mental Health Activism and Clinical Practice Workshops. With Wellcome ISSF Research Fellow in philosophy and psychiatry Dr Mohammed Abouelleil Rashed. Birkbeck, University of London. Participants: Reader in Forensic Psychiatry, University of London, Prof Annie Bartlett, Dragon Café, and Dr Norman Poole, Consultant Neuropsychiatrist & BJPsych Editor Bulletin.
2019: Art After Dark. Co-curator. Feat. Amanda Heng and others. NTU Centre for Contemporary Art.
2018: RUN! RUN! RUN! Biennale 2018 #r3fest. Exhibition, discussion, reading, performance-lecture. Paris School of Arts and Culture, University of Kent. Co-curator: author Dr Vybarr Cregan-Reid.
2018: #MagicCarpet: The Art of ADHD programme and #MagicCarpet exhibition. 5th EUNETHYDIS International European Network for Hyperkinetic Disorders Conference. Edinburgh.
2018: Art & Mobilities Network Inaugural Symposium. Discussions-Exhibition-Workshop with 30 UK and international artists and researchers). Co-curated with Dr Jen Southern. Peter Scott Gallery, with Lancaster Institute of Contemporary Art and Centre for Mobilities Research, Lancaster University.
2018: #MagicCarpet: Brisk / Risks open mic. King’s Artists: New Thinking, New Making. Bush House.
2018: #MagicCarpet: Exhibition Making Mind Wandering Visible and discussion The Creative Researcher? Social, Genetic & Developmental Psychiatry Centre, KCL.
2018: #MagicCarpet: Innovation Showcase, Nesta’s People Powered Future Health, 500 health policy audience.
2018: #MagicCarpet: Art-science ‘speed-dating’ event and film screening, South London Gallery.
2018: #MagicCarpet: Exhibition and discussion on ‘neurodiverse art’, Art Workers’ Guild.
2017: #MagicCarpet: Open Studio and discussion. SGDP, KCL.
2017: ROAM! ROAM! ROAM! Movement II. Exhibition, live art, interventions. Leeds Arts University. UK.
2016: As Producer: Official Selection. Bucheon and Ottawa International Animation Festivals. Korea, Canada.
2016: As Producer: Official competition (216 from 2680 entries). Annecy International Animated Film Festival.
2016: RUN! RUN! RUN! Biennale 2016 #r3fest. With 2 regional coordinators. In partnership with Leeds Arts University, University College London, Cardiff Metropolitan University.
2015: Visual Director and Communications Director (Creative Director: Philip Tan). ASEAN Para Games. Opening & Closing Ceremonies. Commissioned by Sport Singapore.
2015: RUN! RUN! RUN! LEEDS. In partnership with Leeds Art Gallery. Leeds, UK.
2014: RUN! RUN! RUN! An International Festival of Running 1.0. Slade Research Centre. London, UK. With Professor of Geography Alan Latham.
2013: South East Asian Games Closing Performance. Myanmar. Commissioned by Sport Singapore.
2012: Invited Curator. Delhi International Film Festival, India.
2008: Invited Curator. Points of View from South East Asia. 5-film programme. Cinema South Festival, Israel.
2005: Video Art programme. SIGHT Media Festival. Tokyo, Japan.
2004: Performances. With musician Christophe Charles, dancer Takao Kawaguchi. Tokyo Wonder Site.
2004: Invited Curator. Opening event for exhibition Twilight Tomorrow. Singapore Art Museum. Singapore.
12 Solo Exhibitions + Representing Singapore as Artist and Artistic-Researcher
2020: March-November exhibition of #MagicCarpet tapestry. Manchester Centre of Craft and Design.
2018-9: Making Mind Wandering Visible. 5-month solo show, SGDP Centre, KCL, UK.
2012: Lens On Twelve. Connaught Brown Gallery. With Marie-Jo Lafontaine. London, UK.
2012: 20 Ways Running Can Change Your World. Slade Summer Residency. London, UK.
2008: Guangzhou Triennale. Curators and artists include Sarat Maharaj, Werner Herzog. China.
2006: Biennale of Sydney. Australia. Curated by Dr Charles Merewether.
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, UK.
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.
>100 shows As Invited Artist and Artistic-Researcher: Group Exhibitions, Masterclasses and other Artistic Interventions (Selection from since 1998)
2022: Workshop, Castlefield Gallery, Manchester.
2022: Speed-date, Attenborough Arts Centre Instagram @attenboroughac
2021: Artist’s Talk, Attenborough Arts Centre.
2021: Discussion, Crisis in Higher Education: A Conversation with Artists in ‘The World Is a Work in Progress’, with Leicester UCU branch and Other Guests, sacked University of staff.
2021: Workshop, Postgraduate Research, Kingston School of Art, Kingston University.
2021: Group exhibition, Attenborough Arts Centre. With Bob and Roberta Smith and others.
2020: Bunker Talks (on being ‘artful’ for a post-pandemic world), and MMU Summer Art School show.
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: Invited Artist to Plymouth College of Art. Keynote + workshop for staff on neurodiversity.
2019: The Nomenclature of Colours Exhibition curated by Jo Volley. Slade Research Centre.
2019: 4th National Conference SOS Dyslexia in San Marino. Invitation by Professor Antonella Gagliano of Messina University, Professor Giacomo Stella, Director of Scientific Committee of the Conference.
2019: Invited Speaker, Hai Sing Catholic School, Singapore.
2019: Residencies Open, Art After Dark (01/2019), Singapore Arts Week, Singapore
2019:Reading University. At the invitation of Professor of Social Pharmacy Kath Ryan.
2018-9: King’s Artists: New thinking, New Making. Bush House Arcade, King’s College London.
2018: Unlimited Festival, Southbank Centre. Exhibition, performance-lecture, discussion panel.
2018: 5th EUNETHYDIS International European Network for Hyperkinetic Disorders Conference. Edinburgh.
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, KCL. 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. UK.
2017: Performance and 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).
2010: Featured Artist. Art Singapore: The Contemporary Asian Art Fair. Performance, exhibition.
2010: Permanent public video installation. Commissioned by Land Transport Authority. Singapore.
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. With 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.
2003-4: ‘Live’ performance. With Christophe Charles. Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography. Tokyo Designers’ Week. Outlounge and 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. With Song Dong and Zhang Peili. Singapore.
>150 Film Festivals and platforms As Filmmaker /Film Director
2021: BBC Culture in Quarantine commission and world premiere on BBC iPlayer.
2018-9: #MagicCarpet film. Finalist. Arts & Humanities Research Council Film Award. Judges: staff from C4, RSC, Financial Times. South London Gallery, Birkbeck Institute, Bush House, 5th EUNETHYDIS International European Network for Hyperkinetic Disorders Conference. Edinburgh.
2013: Museum of London commission + collection. London, UK.
2007: Showcase of Singapore Film and Video (1967-2007). Asian Film Archive. Candida Arts Trust. UK.
2006: Resist/Desist at 130 art spaces in 43 countries as part of Femlink (International Collective of 149 women video-artists from 64 countries), incl. Women’s Museum for the International Museum Day (Colombia), VIS A VIS Muestra Internacional de Videoarte; Mauritius – French Institut; (Czech Republic, Prague, Nod Art-Centre. Argentina, Museo de la Mujer, Exhibition “Emotions”; Center for Contemporary Art (Latvia); Essex Art Center (USA); Kaunas Art Festival (Lithuania); XVA Gallery (United Arab Emirates); Museum of Occupations (Estonia); Shams Center (Lebanon); Project Room de Arte Actual (Ecuador); University of Nicosi (Cyprus); Manila Film Institute (Philippines); International FilmFest, Hungarian Multicultural Center (Hungary); Art Institute of Boston (USA); Directors Lounge, the 58th Berlin International Festival (Germany); European Biennial of Contemporary Art (Scotland); European Biennial of Contemporary Art (Poland); Foundation of Contemporary Art (Uruguay). Biennale Européenne d’Art Contemporain (France).
2004: Japanese Experimental Cinema. New York Film Anthology, MOMA, USA. With Toshio Matsumoto.
2002: Parthenon Tama Asian Documentary Festival. Tokyo. 2002: Video Programme. Copenhagen.
2002: Yamagata in Tokyo Festival POST-FICTION! Box Higashi Nakano cinema. Tokyo, Japan.
2001: Official Selection. Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival. ‘New Currents’. Japan.
2001: Outer Limits: A showcase of International Film and Video Art. Video Lounge. New York, USA.
2000: Official Selection. Transmediale. Germany.
2000: Fukuoka Art Museum. Film screening, Japan.
1999: Official selection. 42nd San Francisco International Film Festival. Golden Gate Award. USA.
1997: Official selection. British Short Film Festival. Empire Leicester Square. London, UK.
1994: Official selection. 8th Panasonic Video Awards with stop-motion animation. Singapore.
3 Interventions in Theatre
2008: Vagina Monologues. Drama Centre. Singapore. Led to nomination for Straits Times Life! Theatre Award.
2008: Spotlight Singapore in Moscow. Moscow International Performance Arts Centre Dom Muzyki. Created large-scale installations and performed as a character.
2001: Woman on A Tree, which opened Singapore Arts Festival. Jubilee Hall. Singapore. With pioneer Singapore feminist artist Amanda Heng and Korean band Gong Myong.