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.
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.
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.
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.
From 2009: Permanent public video installation, commissioned by the Land Transport Authority of Singapore. Music by Philip Tan. See a clip on Kai’s old Youtube channel, ‘kaidie3rdlife’.
2009: Review in the Today newspaper. Senior writer Mayo Martin votes The Never-Ending Underwater Adventures! as his favourite of the lot on the Circle Line.
2009: Review in the Straits Times of the video installation.
2009: Write up of artwork on a Land Transport Authority publication.
2005: ISLANDHOPPING Sydney Leg. At the Sydney Biennale. Curator: Dr Charles Merewhether.
2006: Australia: Kai ran lectures and Masterclasses at: Photomedia, School of Arts, ANU, Canberra; School of Film & Video, ECU, Perth. Faculty of Communications & Creative Industries, School of Contemporary Arts, Perth. She also presented at the Teaching of Art Practice Symposium held at the COFA, University of New South Wales, Sydney.
Clements, T, 2006. ‘Bigger Than Christmas’. Sydney Morning Herald. June. Australia.
2006: Biennale of Sydney: Artist’s talk, Gallery 4A.
2006: Sydney Biennale writeup.
2009: Asian Art Archive website featuring the GREAT Taiwanese artist Chen Chieh-Jen who was also exhibiting in the same space. What an honour for Kai. She met him again the the Guangzhou Triennale 2008.
2006: Gallery 4A pamphlet. Cute gallery in the middle of Chinatown – one of the reasons why Kai had made her show resemble a chinese emporium.
2006: Another review of ISLANDHOPPING 2006 Sydney Leg.
2008: Generations, poster. Kai created the video installation and played Chekhov’s Masha (!) in this multimedia production which played in Moscow.
2008: Generations: Cast, crew, on Ivan Heng’s Wild Rice website.
2008: This is the Moscow International House of Music Dom Muzyki, where Generations was performed. You can see the poster on the glass door.
2008: Generations. You can see the video projection in the backdrop. Writer: Alfian Sa’at who reworked Chekhov’s work; choreographers: Aaron Khek, Ix Wong and Gani Abdul Karim. Conductor: Iskander. Director: Ivan Heng.
2008: You can see the speech bubble which acted not just as a space for the surtitles, but intervened at dramatic points in the production.
2008: The splendid Maniam on tabla – juxtaposed against a video of post-industrial Spore.
2008: Finale. Garlands. Neo Swee Lin plays Kai’s mother.
2008: Moscow press conference.
2008: Generations, on The Straits Times. The Singapore Chinese Orchestra vs Malay dzikir barat chorus.
2008: Business Times coverage. Senior ministers and trade leaders from Russia and Singapore were our audiences in Moscow.
2008: Lianhe Zaobao coverage of Gerenations. Juxtapositions: old/new, straight/camp, Russia/Spore.
2009: Japan Foundation brochure about Kai’s artist-in-residency award in Beppu’s Mixed Bathing World.
2009: Beppu Contemporary Art Festival. Snapshots of my show. Artistic Director Takashi Serizawa held a talk show with Kai.
2009: Beppu Contemporary Art Festival. View of Kai’s show at Platform One. This artist-in-residency was sponsored by Japan Foundation.
2009: On live TV in Beppu to talk (in Kai’s rusty Japanese) about her Japan Foundation-sponsored artist-in-residency.
2007: With President Nathan of Singapore. As Winner of the Young Artist Award for Visual Art – with Philip Tan a winner for Music, who is also Kai’s brother.
2007: With President Nathan of Singapore. As Winner of the Young Artist Award for Visual Art – with Philip Tan a winner for Music. Coverage on Singapore Radio.
2008: Guangdong Museum Of Art, at the Guangzhou Triennale was shown. The theme of the Triennale is Farewell To Post-Colonialism.
2008: About Kai’s work at the Guangzhou Triennale, ‘Farewell to Post-Colonialism’. Curators: Gao Shiming, Sarat Maharaj, and Chang Tsong-zung.
2008: Kai’s 3 projection-installation. Music by Philip Tan. Videography by Michal Larsson.
2008: GuangzhouTriennale: Signage leading to Kai’s installation.
2008: Publication entitled Museum, which reviews Kai’s work at the Guangzhou Triennale.
2008: Guangzhou Triennale Catalogue.
2008: GuangzhouTriennale: Wall Text of Kai’s work, which was under the Free Radicals category.
2008: GuangzhouTriennale as covered on Asian Art Archive.
2008: Cinema South Festival, Sderot, 2km from the Gaza strip. Kai was an invited curator and created a programme of South East Asian Films, including the works of the amazing auteurs Apichatpong Weerasethakul and Garin Nugruho.
2008: The Rather Terrible Slaughter Of The Tour Guide: subtitled in Hebrew, at the Cinema South Festival.
2008: Cinema South Festival catalogue in which 2 essays Kai wrote appeared.
2008: Cinema South Festival catalogue in which 2 essays Kai wrote appeared.
2007: Singapore Art Show commission: A double-video-tour. Curator: Joselina Cruz.
2007: Singapore Art Show, as covered by Today newspaper.
2007: About ‘The Rather Terrible Slaughter of the Tour Guide!
2007: Kai’s leaflet distributed to people after the end of the tour / after the tour guide dies.
2007: Brochure of Your Are Not A Tourist. ‘The Rather Terrible Slaughter of the Tour Guide! is one of the 4 walks in this show.
2007: Singapore Art Show commission: A double-video-tour. Curator: Joselina Cruz.
2007: Article on The Philippines Star by Filipino curator Yason Banal on The Rather Terrible Slaughter of the Tour Guide!, reblogged on his blog.
Oon, C, 2007. ‘Walk on the Art Side’.Article: The SAS Companion. Singapore. 1-2.
2008: Asian Art Biennale catalogue.
2008: Asian Art Biennale catalogue.
2007: ‘Trade Routes/Converging Cultures: Southeast Asian and Asian American Women.’ 1-month residency throughout the Philippines. Activities include giving a talk and seminar at the Silliman University in Dumaguete. With Angel Valesca Shaw, Brenda Farjardo, Arahmaini and Yong Soon Min (USA).
2007: ‘Trade Routes/Converging Cultures: Southeast Asian and Asian American Women.’ With Angel Valesca Shaw, Brenda Farjardo, Arahmaini and Yong Soon Min (USA), all professors in the US, Philippines and Indonesia. On a grant from the National Arts Council, Singapore.
2007: TV programme ‘Bloodlines’, shown on Arts Central Singapore about Kai Syng TAN and Creative Director Philip Tan, who is also her collaborator. And brother.
2008: Invitation to Nanking Triennale, by curator Fumihiko Sumitomo. Kai’s ISLANDHOPPING was to be shown.
2006: Artist-in-Residency programme in Helsinki, supported by Theatreworks Singapore and NIFCA. It was at this trip that Kai conceptualised my PhD research.
2006: Artist-in-Residency programme in Helsinki, supported by Theatreworks Singapore and NIFCA. It was at this trip that Kai conceptualised her PhD research.
2008: A Fool On A Stool… New commission by contemporary art gallery 8Q for its inaugural show. Curator: Kowk Kian Chow.
2008: A Fool On A Stool… New commission by contemporary art gallery 8Q for its inaugural show. Curator: Kowk Kian Chow.
2008: A Fool On A Stool… New commission by contemporary art gallery 8Q for its inaugural show. Music by Philip Tan. Some of the videography was by Michael Larsson.
2008: Spinning in my grave, my foot! Jesus Christ! A Fool On A Stool… New commission by contemporary art gallery 8Q for its inaugural show. Booming noise soundscape by Philip Tan.
2008: Can’t go on. Don’t go on. A Fool On A Stool… New commission by contemporary art gallery 8Q for its inaugural show. Booming noise soundscape by Philip Tan.
2008: A FOOL… installation view of main room.
2008: A FOOL… installation view.
2008: Audiences in the same room that previous inhabitants – ex-students of the Catholic High School, construction workers – have been. A FOOL… installation view of main room.
2008: The audiences become part of the history of the building as well. A FOOL… installation view of the main room.
2008: A FOOL… has 2 rooms at 8Q SAM. This is the 2nd, claustrophobic room with a loud booming soundtrack (by Philip Tan) and unsettling spinning of a metallic fan – and me turning against the wall, and rolling on the floor- under a mural of Jesus Christ from the old Catholic High School…
2008: Spinning. No Exit. A FOOL… installation view of second room.
2008: A FOOL… a floor text connects the 2 exhibition rooms.
2008: A Fool On A Stool… New commission by contemporary art gallery 8Q. Floor text.
2008: A Fool On A Stool… New commission by contemporary art gallery 8Q for its inaugural show. Music by Philip Tan. Some of the videography was by Michael Larsson.
2008: A Fool On A Stool. Curator’s text in the catalogue.
2008: New Commission A FOOL ON A STOOL IN SCHOOL DRAWING MARGINS TO EXERCISE HER COMMON SENSE for new gallery 8Q SAM. Curator: Kwok Kian Chow, whose text you can see in this picture.
2008: A Fool On A Stool… New commission by contemporary art gallery 8Q. Floor text.
2008: A Fool On A Stool. Coverage on IS magazine.
2008: A Fool On A Stool. Coverage on IS magazine.
2008: A Fool On A Stool. Coverage on IS magazine.
2008: A Fool On A Stool. Coverage on Straits Times.
2008: A Fool On A Stool. Coverage on Universe In Universe.
2008: A Fool On A Stool. Coverage in Lianhe Zaobao.
After 4 terrific years in London, Kai went home. That was when all the big grand questions flooded her small brain: Where am I? Where have I come from? Where am I going? So many questions. So, so many many works. Kai made many many installations, films, texts, and showed her works in film festivals, museums, galleries within and beyond Singapore – and opened up more and more and more questions. So far, so arty, so indulgent, so reflective. Kai was also a responsible adult. She had a job. She taught in a film school, where there was a swimming pool. To make all this working/living business palatable/stomach-able/logical, Kai started swimming.
Chlorine Addiction (transmediale, YIDFF, Fukuoka Art Museum)
That is the short story behind Chlorine Addiction, one of Kai’s most popular works. The cine-essay was structured as a swim, with a series of 10 videos with a runtime of 3 minutes each, which was the time she took to swim each of the 10X100-metre laps daily. The films encourage the audience to ‘re-map’ or re-order and edit them. They may be viewed independently, in any order, as short films or an installation in space, or from the ‘beginning’ to ‘end’ as a linear film. Using images and sounds collected from Singapore, San Francisco, Bangkok, Taiwan and elsewhere, the work contemplates the everyday, rather strange, reality of Singapore and existence in general. Chlorine Addiction has been shown, for instance, at Transmediale and the Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival 2001. An early version of a clip was collected by the Fukuoka Art Museum in Japan. Kai also published a book which is distributed by Select Books, and produced an interactive DVD. The poetic + dynamic music was composed by Philip Tan, who also scored most of my pieces I created in this period.
SPRING.BEAUTY.LOVE. (Shot In the Face show with Song Dong)
SPRING.BEAUTY.LOVE. was another work that Kai holds dear from this period. The subtitle of this installation is Her story of trying to tell the stories of the three sisters. As a young person from a young country (with its own histories nearly wiped out), one of the first steps that she took to understand myself was by discovering, (re-)telling and (re-)constructing her own history, or rather histories. She did so by interviewing her mother and aunties, hence the title is an English translation of their names. Yet, instead of a ‘straightforward’ documentary with an all-telling, truth-seeing ‘voice of god’, this was one in which the narrators and filmmaker alike were unreliable, with their lapses in memory, miscommunication (English was the filmmaker’s preferred lingua franca, while the women spoke in their mother tongue of the Chinese dialect of Hokkien). The stories of the sisters were also different. One was born before the war, one given away for adoption during the war, and the youngest – Kai’s mother – was born after the war. The way the work was presented questioned the grand notions of identity, subjectivity, documentary, truth and so on, with the three films played simultaneously as an installation. The audience had to physically and metaphorically navigate the cacophony of sounds and conflicting narratives. Additionally, as if a literal interpretation of ‘oral history’, only the women’s mouths are filmed. In the screen in which ‘Love’ – Kai’s mother – appears, Kai appears, too. The latter was filmed by her mother, who interrogated her as to why she created such a project at all. The subtitle of this work itself highlights how it is a self-reflexive exercise that problematises these notions. The show was curated by BingHui Huangfu. Other artists in the show include China’s Song Dong (with whom Kai will go on to exhibit with in a few more shows, and who makes amazing works, and whom she later get to know as a grounded and giving artist and person) and Lin Tian Miao.
2001: Chlorine Addiction as it is described in the Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival Catalogue.
2000: Homesickness. Hence Chlorine Addiction.
2000: Kai’s new/old surroundings confounded her. It was all semio-illogical!?? From Chlorine Addiction.
2000: Chlorine Addiction. 10 short films, or a 40-minute single-channel film, or a 10-screen installation.
2000: Bit ill. Bit delirious. Floating. Sinking. Chlorine Addiction.
2000: Large 2-page spread on Business Times on a joint show at the Alliance Francaise du Singapour, and on video art.
2000: Large 2-page spread on Business Times on a joint show at the Alliance Francaise du Singapour, and on video art.
2000: The ‘Macdonald’s Madness’. Or madness in general. Chlorine Addiction.
2000: Documenting and trying to make sense of the ‘Macdonald’s Madness’ in Singapore, in which people queue overnight to buy Macdonald’s ‘exclusive’ Hello Kitty soft toys. No wonder Kai needed to invent a neurosis, of being addicted to chlorine.
2000: Chlorine Addiction: filming, being filmed.
2000: Straits Times interview on Dense, in which Chlorine Addiction premiered at the Alliance Francaise du Singapour.
2000: Publication distributed by Select Books: pages and pages of obsessive layering of texts and images that attempt to work through the puzzles….
2000: Spring. Beauty.Love.
2001: My installation Spring. Beauty.Love in a show with Song Dong and others, as it appears in an article in Lianhe Zaobao.
3-screen video installation Spring. Beauty.Love. 2000. Exhibited at the Earl Lu Gallery with artists including Song Dong and Zhang Pei Li.
2000: Spring. Beauty.Love.
2000: Spring. Beauty.Love.
2000: Spring. Beauty.Love. Catalogue.
2001: Opening the Singapore Arts Festival: Kai’s video installation in Ivan Heng’s staging of Ovidia Yu’s Woman On A Tree In A Hill. Screen capture from Wild Rice’s website.
2001: Opening the Singapore Arts Festival: Kai’s video installation in Ivan Heng’s staging of Ovidia Yu’s Woman On A Tree In A Hill.
2000: I Am Fit For Life! Commissioned installation at the Singapore Art Museum.
2000: I Am Fit For Life! Commissioned installation at the Singapore Art Museum.
2000: I Am Fit For Life! Commissioned installation at the Singapore Art Museum.
2000: I Am Fit For Life! Commissioned installation at the Singapore Art Museum.
2000: I Am Fit For Life! Commissioned installation at the Singapore Art Museum.
2000: I Am Fit For Life! Commissioned installation at the Singapore Art Museum.
2000: I Am Fit For Life! Commissioned installation at the Singapore Art Museum. Catalogue.
2000: I Am Fit For Life! Commissioned installation at the Singapore Art Museum. Catalogue.
2003: Catalogue of Open 2003 in Venice, featuring article by June Yap of my video Feeling So What.
1999: Feeling So What, in the form of a performance. Philip Tan and Elyssa Wendi improvise to the film.
1999: Feeling So What, in the form of a performance. Philip Tan and Elyssa Wendi improvise to the film.
1999: Feeling So What. Indeed. An anti-romantic anti-apology.
1999: Pardon My French! Kai’s self-curated solo exhibition at the Alliance Francaise du Singapour.
1999: Why What (Non-Apology). Heavily influenced by Beckett, Nauman.