The NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore has awarded Kai a residency with the Centre’s Residencies Programme for 2018-2019. This residency marks the beginning of a new project Ill-Disciplined which is Phase II of her current Arts Council England funded commission #MagicCarpet. In Singapore, she will undertake new primary research working in collaboration with another partner institution Philbeat, a creative company directed by Philip Tan. With Philip and colleagues from the Nanyang Technological University’s School of Computer Science and Engineering, they used EEG devices to unpack what ‘happiness’ could mean in the contexts of today and the paradisal island of Singapore.
Kai’s work will challenge how we understand bodies and minds that are different to ours and it opens up ways for conversations and collisions to take place. She will learn about Electroencephalogram (EEG) devices and create “brain drawing” through them. In collaboration with Philip Tan, she will explore place-motion-emotion by weaving running and drawing with technology. A running performance will take place at Pulau Brani (‘Island for the Brave’ or ‘Home of the Warrior’) where she will track her emotions while running with a mobile EEG device. A selection of drawings will be published in Picturing Mind Wandering (working title), an illustrated book co-authored with her mentor Philip Asherson, Professor of Psychiatry at King’s College London. During the residency Kai will run public discussions with Singapore pioneer feminist artist Amanda Heng and Professor CJ Wee Wan-Ling, School of Humanities, College of Humanities, Arts, & Social Sciences, NTU.
ABOUT NTU CCA
NTU CCA Singapore is a national research centre of Nanyang Technological University (ranked 11th globally and the world’s top young university), developed with the support of the Economic Development Board, Singapore. Located in Gillman Barracks alongside a cluster of international galleries, NTU CCA Singapore is unique in its threefold constellation of Exhibitions, Residencies and Research & Academic Programme, engaging in knowledge production and dissemination. NTU CCA Singapore positions itself as a space for critical discourse and encourages new ways of thinking about Spaces of the Curatorial in Southeast Asia and beyond. It aims to play an active role within the local art scene, as well as being part of the development of regional and international art infrastructures. Professor Ute Meta Bauer is its Founding Director, while Dr Anna Lovecchio is Curator of its Residencies programme.
ABOUT THE RESIDENCY
The Centre’s Residencies Programme has a global scope and runs by nomination only. Kai was nominated by Amanda Heng. The Programme is fully funded and highly selective. Artists-in-Residence are provided a monthly stipend, rent-free studio, access to university facilities, and curatorial support in the form of research connections, access to facilities, and public programme development. The Residencies Programme is committed to support artists, curators, and researchers by offering them time and space to pursue their research without the pressure of deadlines and production commitments. Dedicated to established and emerging artists, this studio-based programme embraces creative enquiry and aims to foster the process of artistic research. In the span of five years, it has hosted over 100 Artists- and Curators-in-Residence from all over the world.
Kai first gained notice in Singapore through The Most Promising Young Artist Award she received at the age of 18. In 2008, she was conferred the Young Artist Award by the Singapore President and she was commissioned a permanent installation in the Arts and Heritage District in 2009. Through the residency Kai will create her third work in Singapore in ten years and to support her interdisciplinary research methodologies cutting across the fields of neuroscience, psychiatry, psychology and visual arts. (The first and second were commissions by Sport Singapore and the Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth via Philbeat for an item for the Southeast Asian Games 2013 Closing Ceremony, and the Opening and Closing Ceremonies of the ASEAN Para Games 2015, both directed by Philip Tan).