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CONTEMPORARY GESTURES
2022


With:
Brandon Tay
Jomel Goh
Phua Juan Yong
Tristan Lim

Design By:
Studio Darius Ou

Presented By:
TO NEW ENTITIES

Comissioned By:
The Upside Space

Movement, in both senses of the word — as a physical act of moving, and also as
a demarcation of a collective advancement — has for long been helpful in shaping
our understanding of art in different times and spaces.

From the impressionists, whose brushworks were loose and imprecise (a movement
that confronted the traditional elite salons); to the expressionists (who
employed swirling, swaying and exaggerated strokes to express anxieties and
yearnings) — and even beyond the visual arts, when considering the performance
artists, who took to their bodies and the potentials of its movements as a form
of expression — it is quite evident that the notion of movement is intrinsic to
and inseparable from art and its trajectory.

This exhibition draws upon the conception of movements rooted in contemporary
living (swiping on dating apps like Tinder; scrolling up or down on endless news
and social media feeds; mobile screenshot culture(s); double-tapping likes on
social media sites like Instagram, etc.) as a framework and entry-point to
understand the relationship between art and contemporary conditions.

What do these contemporary movements gesture towards?
What are the new pathways emerging from this contemporaneity?

        File Under:
        Curation




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(M)across Cultures
2022


With:
Wassim Z. Alsindi
(0xSalon)

Session #1 - Wild Wild Web
with Wassim Z. Alsindi (0xSalon)

Introduction and Moderation by
Rafi Abdullah

Friday, 16th December 2022, 8PM - 10PM



Howdy! What does #Spike and $HASHY have in common aside from being (very)
animated characters whose names are also terms entangled in speculative finance?

Booty, plunder, take a gander! Are the peripheries of the vast “wild west”
fervent grounds for only visions of conquest or are we afforded other
imaginations?

Full information on programme here.
Watch the session here.

        File Under:
        Curation, Moderation


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CROSSROADS (2022)

CROSSROADS aims to be an annual art festival of new media art showcased on
commercial electronic billboard displays. For its inauguration, the festival
takes crossroads as its title, taking cue from the site from which the new media
artworks will be displayed and at the same time the thematic idea of being at a
crossroad. Recent events, from the global pandemic to rapid advancements in
technology, have put us as a society at a crossroads: one where we are
challenged to reconsider our mediations with structures that shape our
collective lived experiences.

Curated by Rafi Abdullah and presenting the works of graphic design trio Hause,
alongside visual artists Howie Kim, Juria Toramae, Phua Juan Yong, Priyageetha
Dia and Tristan Lim; the festival features an array of artworks from a diverse
pool of local and locally-based artists, ranging from animated films,
computer-generated imagery, and generative new media art. The festival aspires
to be an experience in which we are afforded a moment in time to renegotiate our
relationship with cultural consumption, through the activation of art in
advertising display screens.

         
         File Under:
         Curation


Dates:
14th -16th January 2022
21st- 23rd January 2022

Timings:
7.30pm-8.00pm

Locations:
ION Orchard (Outdoor Screen)
Ten Square (Ourdoor Screen)


                With:

                Hause
                Howie Kim
                Juria Toramae
                Phua Juan Yong
                Priyageetha Dia
                Tristan Lim


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Malayan Orchid
2022
With:
Studio Darius Ou
Tristan Lim

File Under:
Writing

First of an extended trilogy, Malayan Orchid is an installation-based work, that
is centred around a collaborative graphic novel written by Rafi Abdullah,
designed by Studio Darius Ou, and with art by visual artist Tristan Lim.

Set in the year 2024, the graphic novel follows the story of a security officer
at an amusement park discovering phantom poems in the crevices of her place of
employment. What ensues is a journey of discovering historicities and
encountering memories unbeknownst to her. Fumbling through speculative fiction,
autobiographical truths, half truths, 'hard truths', and lies, the work is an
attempt at revising revisionism.

—

The work is presented as part of Nodes of Silence, an exhibition exploring the
various degrees of silence, curated by Yashini Renganathan and hosted by STARCH.

The exhibition features the works of the artists, Chok Si Xuan, Daniel Chong,
Amrita Chandradas, Yen Phang and Zarina Muhammad. The exhibition was also
organised with the partnership and collaboration of the Singapore Association of
the Visually Handicapped (SAVH) and the Singapore Association for the Deaf
(SADeaf).

—

Exhibition Details:
10 - 31 March 2022
Tuesdays - Sundays, 12 - 6PM

www.nodesofsilence.com












...It’s all fun and games
2020, 2021


With:
Hothouse
So-Far

Hotdesking residency exploring and researching the notion of ‘gaming’ as a
phenomena in aiding our understanding and navigation of the socio-political
realities in contemporary living. Here, agencies and new knowledge-building
potentials residing in ‘gaming’ were investigated. Some possible strands of
themes includes: world-building, gaming platforms as communal spaces,
contemporary ethics, gaming as strategies and methodologies, alternative
economies

Deep dive into the research and residency here.
Watch the livestream presentation here.

—

“From geopolitical psyops to experiments with alternative economies, games don’t
just distract us from reality but reshape it in significant ways. Writer Rafi
Abdullah sets out a concept of gaming as a powerful cultural phenomenon.”

Read the text here.

        File Under:
        Research, Writing, Online Performance



Untangling Petro-Histories at Pulau Bukom
as part of Residencies Rewired for NTU CCA (Singapore)

With:
Rand Abdul Jabbar



“As Iraq and Singapore embark on ambitious nation-building and modernization
plans during the 1960s, petroleum extraction features prominently in the
evolution of the complex bilateral relationship between the two countries.
Through an engagement with both institutional and personal archives, the project
attempts to map out the elaborate trajectories that characterize the seemingly
contradictory bonds across these two nations through the prism of petroleum
trade, workforce tensions, warfare coalitions, counter-terrorism strategies, and
conflict resolution.”

Work as proxy and research liaison for the Iraqian artist Rand Abdul Jabbar as
part of her residency at Nanyang Technological University’s Centre for
Contemporary Arts (NTU CCA), where we mapped the trajectory and evolution of the
complex bilateral relationship between Iraq and Singapore via petroleum.

Watch the presentation here.



         File Under:
         Research, Presentation


What is... ‘Radical Productivity’
as part of Negentropic Fields

With:
Formaxioms
Intermission
Currency

Contribution to exhibition and publication, Negentropic Field, that is part
reflection on the end-uses of digital/web productivity tools and our
relationships with their developments; a foray through design/productivity tools
as unlikely platforms for communal meaning-making and knowledge building. All in
all an attempt at situating a potential for ‘radical productivity’ and a nudge
towards a new field of reimagining.

Read the text here.

         File Under:
         Writing










Manual for Clairvoyance
for Resigning Mass
2020


With:
Tristan Lim
Darius Ou
I_S_L_A_N_D_S
“Resigning Mass centres itself around a script compiled from conversational
scenes found within various movies, forming a collaged conversation between two
parties. This script becomes the material in which the project’s characters are
literally and metaphorically shaped from, in their forms and lives.

[...]

A sense of loss pervades- a resignation of fate, present in the title of the
show. As an aberration of the term ‘mass resignation’, which connotes departure,
a seemingly collective choice to leave, Resigning Mass takes an opposing tone,
of an individual giving into the path laid out, having been exhausted,
overcomed; bringing to mind questions of fatalism and predeterminism. These
qualities seem to reflect the manner in which media is produced, consumed, and
how they shape the way in which we perceive our lives. Stories of destiny,
succumbing to or freeing oneself from its binds; of staged realities, real/reel
lives- wills toyed by powers beyond and unknown.”


For the full catalogue, write in to me.
For the full design documentation, visit here.


        File Under:
        Writin



Conversation with Khairullah Rahim and Ahmad Abu Bakar
as part of Gathering of Flocks by Khairullah Rahim
2020

“... Gathering of Flocks presents a new body of assemblages influenced by
[Khairullah’s] daily observations of his everyday urban landscape. In this
iteration, Khairullah’s neighbourhood in Singapore comes into focus. In
navigating these domestic, quotidian spaces since relocating to the area in late
2018, the artist has kindled unspoken relationships and developed a new
familiarity with his neighbours. In doing so, he inevitably reveals fragments of
their private lives and social demographics. Commonplace objects lining the
corridors of his building, including altars and potted plants, act as uncanny
gatekeepers of each respective housing unit.

[...] sees the artist play with these silhouettes through the assemblage of
familiar household items such as furniture parts, laundry pegs and kitchenware.
Upon closer inspection, these garish and flamboyant ‘almost-altars’ reveal an
array of forms and materials that have been selectively chosen, manipulated, and
reconfigured with the deliberate intention to evoke both a sense of congruence
and opulence. The very act of beautifying and transforming these everyday
objects also points at the strategic means in which other possibilities to
thrive and flourish are carved out and made possible within the fabric of our
daily lives.”

— Extract from Yavuz Gallery’s Press Release
Gathering of Flocks, Khairullah Rahim, 2020

—

Introduction excerpt and conversation with the artist himself, alongside visual
artist Ahmad Abu Bakar.

“... I must admit that I was wary when Khairullah first approached me to
contribute to the exhibition catalogue. I hadn’t been able to share it then, but
I had been ruminating on the kitsch, colloquiality, gaudy-ness, or as he puts
it: the obiang and orbit. I had observed (what in my opinion is, however I have
no moral authority to conclude for a matter of fact) a growing romanticism of
the obiang from a perverse gaze of its visual vernacular. This, for the most
part, is frequently appropriated and manifested into curated online (and even
offline) personas and practices. This co-option — often employed by actors that
are far removed from the consequential realities of such a vernacular — veils
itself, unnoticed if one is not attentive, as an expression of
counter-normativity. But somehow I was certain that Khairullah’s fondness of the
obiang/orbit did not come from such a place. In our conversations, he had
emanated an acute sensitivity towards that which he references and an astute
awareness and careful consideration of his gaze of and position within the
obiang/orbit. Our conversation was also littered with his sincerity, whether in
his unfettered admissions of his genuine love for the quirks, eccentricity and
‘extra-ness’ of Bollywood; or his adoration of the unadulterated beauty of
commonplace objects that he encounters in his locale...”

Read the text here.


         File Under:
         Writing











Para Site Workshop
for Emerging Professionals

PS Paid Studio Visits:
Alexmalism aka Alex Yiu

2019

With:
Joseph Chen King Yuen 
Alex Yiu


“For the sixth consecutive year, Para Site is working with a group of emerging
curators, writers, critics, researchers, and other art professionals from Hong
Kong and abroad, throuah a series of closed-door workshops and studio visits. As
a consequence of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, for the first time the workshops
are being conducted online. Nevertheless, acknowledging the value of
face-to-face experience and of the unscripted in-between moments central to
learning, this year’s participants will also be invited to join next year’s
workshops, which we hope to be able to organise physically in Hong Kong. The
programme is as ever, designed to provide learning and thinking opportunities,
mediated by reputed art practitioners, as well as being a labratory for
experimentation, posing fundamental questions that challenge various models of
curatorial practice.”

Participants:

Rafi Abdullah (Singapore), Diane Ahn (Williamstown), Gwen Bautista (Manila),
Gala Berger (San Jose/Buenos Aires), Marta Cacciavillani (London/Milan),
Priyankar Bahadur Chand (Kathmandu), Joseph Chen King Yuen (Hong Kong), Rodrigo
Guzman-Serrano (Mexico City/Hong Kong), Asia Jong (Vancouver), Lee Hiu Ting
Christine (Hong Kong), Susie Quillinan (Lima/Melbourne), Akmalia Rizqita
(Jakarta), and Amy Weng (Auckland).

Tutors:

Cosmin Costinas (Curator, Hong Kong), Inti Guerrero (Curator, Hong Kong), Hit
Man Gurung (Artist and Curator, Kathmandu), Anders Kreuger (Curator, Helsinki),
Koichiro Osaka (Curator, Tokyo), Pan Lu (Academic and Artist, Hong Kong), Marie
Helene Pereira (Curator, Dakar), Sheelasha Rajbhandari (Artist and Curator,
Kathmandu), Katerina Teaiwa (Academic and Artist, Canberra), and Yang Yeung
(Curator and Writer, Hong Kong).

—

Workshop included an online studio visit with sound artist Alex Yiu.
Watch the session here.



         File Under:
         Moderation, Workshop, Studio Visit











POOR IMAGINATION
2019

With:
Stephanie Comilang
Fyerool Darma
Agan Harahap
Takuji Kogo
Tristan Lim
Michael Lindeman
Ramesh Mario Nithiyendran


Poor Imagination borrows its title from artist and writer Hito Steyerl’s term:
the ‘poor image’. The ‘poor image’ is characterized as having an atrocious
quality which deteriorates as it is distributed, an image that is readily and
easily accessible. It is dormant debris in the landscape of excessive image
production. Comprised of ceramics, paintings, photographic prints and new-media
works, the exhibition features seven artists whose works — whether overtly or
covertly — employ the ‘poor image’ or embody its characteristics.

Stephanie Comilang's science-fiction documentary, narrated by a ghost drone
named Paradise, tells the story of three Filipina migrant workers (May Salinas,
Lyra Ancheta Torbela and Romylyn Presto Sampaga) in Hong Kong. The film captures
the interactions - through the transmission of cellphone photos and video logs -
between the domestic workers and Paradise, unpacking themes such as isolation,
the conditions of migration and the diaspora, as well as solidarity and
connectedness as a navigational means. Fyerool Darma recomposites a found image
of Sentosa (a leisure island attraction) used in a promotional ad by the Los
Angeles Times and stretches the imagination of a site as a cultural marker by
corrupting the image to appear foreign and alienating. The recomposed image,
featuring two tower structures at the “Southernmost point of Continental Asia”
which has made appearances in films as filler imagery, allow for a rumination
over the potential of sites designed for purposes of leisure, as a location of
culture instead.

Agan Harahap's distinct style juxtaposes worlds by superimposing celebrities
onto local bodies donning religious garbs. His ‘fictive portraits’ serve as a
commentary on the increasingly divisive dichotomy between religion and local
culture in Indonesia and reflects upon the role of images in cultural paradigm
shifts. Takuji Kogo borrows texts ranging from advertisements, comments and
announcements found in online communities for military personnel and recomposes
them as songs. His mixed-media installation offers new viewpoints from which the
borrowed banal texts can be resuscitated to contemplate diverse issues that are
derivative of a geopolitical military complex.

In his new media works, Tristan Lim appropriates and assembles Singaporean TV
commercials sourced from the internet, that although are not officially
archived, find their way on public platforms at the will of uploaders who
resonate with them. The transmission of the found ads in the work, glitching and
bleeding into one another, reflect upon the idea of images as signs and
signifiers that help in shaping our understanding of identities. The inimitable
and irreverent sculptures by Ramesh Mario Nithiyendran pushes the boundaries of
what is to be traditionally understood as ceramic art. His mischievous approach
towards the medium is encapsulated in his sculptures, which are to be taken as
avatars from which one can deliberate religion, spirituality and popular
culture. Michael Lindeman’s satirical, subversive and conceptual paintings
emulate the form of newspaper classifieds that critiques the conditions of the
contemporary art world. In his signature self-deprecating humour, Lindeman’s
provocations jab at commodification, personalities, narcissism, social dynamics,
and gatekeeping in the art world.

In its entirety, Poor Imagination brings together these seven artists and their
works that, whether overtly, covertly or unintentionally, employ the poor image
or embody its charactheristics. The exhibition is an allusion to the autonomy
and agency that the ‘poor image’ offers, and a mediation of the plausible
imaginations that they propose.

Read the text here.
         File Under:
         Curation

Mark



© 2023 RAFI ABDULLAH


> ︎︎︎

WRITER AND CURATOR BASED OUT OF SINGAPORE. (....)
︎  ︎  ︎ 
Mark