The Substation, Singapore’s pioneering independent arts centre, will launch Re-connect/Centre/Converge: The Arts Festival on the 16th September 2023 at 6:30pm at Lvl 8 Parklane Shopping Centre

Led by Festival Director John Tung, The Arts Festival features 15 Singapore artists presenting an array of artworks and programmes, and reflects on the circumstances of arts presentation, place-making, and fostering community between artists and audiences.

As John Tung puts it in his Festival Statement: “Amidst the bewildering multitude of formats that art festivals (and biennales, triennales, and what nots) have embraced in contemporary times, nothing perplexes me further than the compulsion towards “de-centralisation”. The maddening dispersal of artworks across far-flung places perhaps spurred on by the fancy of seeing art in a different environ? Can a painting win a mountain? A soundscape challenge the tumult of the sea? It is with certainty though, that bus fares and boat fares contribute to GDPs.”

“In this respect, a format that is dated and passé seemingly becomes bold and audacious again. A re-convergence of disparates in a central location is an opportunity to reconnect wandering souls. It checks the box for perhaps the most fundamental criterion in terms of accessibility – just one day, and one bus ticket there and back; you may probably even walk if you choose to.”

The festival will feature the following artist line-up:
1. Ang Kia Yee
2. Dylan Chan
3. Hong Shu-ying
4. Kim Whye Kee
5. Kon Fu Shan Joshua
6. Adeline Kueh
7. Lai Yu Tong
8. Amelia Lim
9. Susie Lingham
10. Masuri Mazlan
11. Marc Nair
12. Ezzam Rahman
13. Dennis Tan
14. Marvin Tang
15. Bridget Tay

In addition to the visual arts presentation that will be made free for all members of the public, the festival will also be hosting a range of complimentary and ticketed artwork activations and artist-led programmes.

A total of 14 programmes encompassing performance activations, artist conversations, and artist-led workshops will unfold over the course of the festival, allowing festival goers opportunities for deeper and more meaningful interactions with the participating artists. Director-led tours of the festival provide yet another avenue for arresting the nuances of the artworks presented. For attendees looking forward to attending a range of these programmes, a Festival Pass offered at a discounted rate is also made available.

The programmes include:

tarps as planes and ropes lines to bind, by Dennis Tan
This site-specific installation employs a similar strategy to Tan’s 1999 work Echoing Dotjari, with tarps as planes and ropes lines to bind, allowing audiences to co-author spaces, and consequently, transforming them. The artist invites audiences to utilise the blue tarps that constitute part of the installation as they deem fit – as seating, shading, or covering. The pinching system employed in hanging them offers an alternative to conventional clothes pegs. It draws inspiration from traditional laundry-hanging practices, especially pertinent to the historical significance of Dhoby Ghaut. On 27th September, catch Dennis Tan and Festival Director John Tung in a nuanced conversation surrounding Tan’s philosophy and approach to artmaking.

尘惦 (chén diàn) found on paper, made in minds by Hong Shu-ying
This work delves into the narrative potential of music, where Hong drew inspiration from Chinese orchestra scores, notably Liu Tianhua’s 空 山鸟语 (Birdsongs in the Vacant Valley). The visual elements of the installation give prominence to the notations marked by prior performers and dissonance from repeated photocopying of the scores – indicative of how often they’d been replicated for sharing. Aurally, the work echoes music’s desire to mimic nature, and the human desire for connection and communication, with the audio component is made in collaboration with musician Ng Wei Xuan. Join Shu-ying for a short sharing on 21st September for the poetic side of hand-written and hand-copied scores used in Chinese instrumental music. Shu-ying and Wei Xuan will also be sharing more about the collaboration between an artist who plays music and a musician who loves art on 24th September.

Ideal States by Marvin Tang
Building from the artist’s prior explorations of hoardings as construction camouflage, Tang’s intervention of introducing a hoarding to the carpark space uses a multi-layered collage of Tengah forest to speculate on the forest’s biography and agency. Its constituent video, a montage of stock footage of Singapore collected by the artist since 2022, highlights the emphasis that the Garden City places on the urban green and people amidst “nature”. Replaying as a never-ending loop, it alludes to the idyllic trance of paradisical impressions of Singapore. On 28th September, enjoy an Artist dialogue with Dylan Chan & Marvin Tang.

Centre Piss by Bridget Tay
Centre Piss reflects on the convergence of spaces within institutions and outside of it while questioning the role art has to play in challenging traditional notions of luxury and elitism. The chandelier is employed here has a status symbol, dislocated from its typical domicile, it beckons considerations of the support structures holding up opulence. With microphones within the structure that captures the carpark’s ambient sounds that are distorted and reverberated to viewers, the satirical and grotesque visual symbol literally speaks to viewers of its out-of-placeness. On 20th September, unlock the art of crafting mini table sculptures in a hands-on Mini Sculpture Workshop by Bridget.

Universe in a Teacup by Kim Whye Kee
Reflecting on the desire for escapisms, Kim’s Universe in a Teacup offers up mindfulness as an alternative remedy to the urban fatigue. Amidst the urban haste, the tea ceremonies he conducts utilising handmade tea ware creates a moment of meaningful pause from the everyday. Post-brew, attendees pen a word or Chinese character on calligraphy paper that is subsequently displayed on a clothesline. With each passing session these writings progressively frame the site of the tea sessions with an encapsulation of the values that are held dear and precious.

Sama-sama: Comfort is on the Menu by Adeline Kueh
Sama-sama, a Malay term signifying unity and togetherness, serves as the inspiration behind the work. In a world altered by the pandemic, the artist invites communities to a table, sharing simple meals reminiscent of frugal familial traditions. In creating opportunities for conversation over the course of a meal, the work intertwines food, memories, and the transmission of generational knowledge through the sharing of participants’ stories. In highlighting the role of food in connection and understanding, the work also alludes to the socio-cultural and economic circumstances in our periphery.

sometimes you make me feel that it is better if i am not here by Ezzam Rahman
Ezzam Rahman reflects on absence, presence, and the repercussions of ended relationships. Drawing from his previous body of works, he delves into autobiographical experiences utilising symbolic gestures; yet rather than his iconic use of talcum powder in this instance, 252 small loaves of bread takes its place. Whilst his performance reiterates his unceasing interest in the body’s relation to space, in its aftermath, remnants become preserved artifacts, questioning memory, decay, and the extent of the notion of permanence.

Rearrange the World by Lai Yu Tong
Rearrange The World is a suite of thirty papercut collages showcasing a game between two hands, one injured. A cup, can, and bottle, form ever-changing configurations within each frame – with each object accompanied by a word drawn from a child’s vocabulary, or one that the artist hopes to introduce to children. The work embodies the spirit of artistic agency, and reflects on the possibility of changing the world by rearranging it. A version of Rearrange the World has been adapted into a book by Thumb Books, the artist’s 2022-founded press that makes children’s books for both children and adults.

From Mine to Yours by Dylan Chan
From mine to yours delves into the body’s relationship with domesticity, intertwining personal and collective innate reactions to familiar materials that surround us. The melding of image and object alludes to narratives embodied in both printed surface and flooring panels. Chan’s emphasis on flooring isn’t merely for the sake of tactility; it prompts introspection on our groundedness, navigating the fine line between orientation and disorientation, alignment and misalignment. On 28th September, enjoy an Artist dialogue with Dylan Chan & Marvin Tang.

Having a Great Thyme! by Joshua Kon
After a brush with municipal authorities over a stint of guerrilla gardening, the rehabilitated artist created this video guide in the style of an early instructional tape, to help navigate eager gardeners through the “cant’s” and “don’ts” of creating their very own green spaces, the intricate processes of starting a community patch for themselves, and contending with the unfortunate realities around gardening in a land-scarce land. The tongue-in-cheek video keeps in theme with the artist’s practice of continually questioning established powers. On 22nd September, learn about guerilla gardening and how to make a seed bomb in a workshop led by Joshua.

Syzygy by Masuri Mazlan
Syzygy was produced over the course of Masuri’s PietrArts Residency where he sought to revisit and reiterations from his Softstrong series of works in 2019. Employing materials such as plaster, silicon, and polyurethane, his reworking of typically industrial materials into visually delectable treats evokes a paradox of associations – a dissonance compounded by the artist’s employment of pastel colours. By problematising archetypal associations in such a manner, the artist also questions the typicality of mainstream queer iconography, opening up avenues for more fluid interpretations of gender and sexuality.

The Trees that Felled by Amelia Lim
The installation reassembles a series of felled tree logs from the former Lentor Forest into two reconstituted trunks reaching from floor to ceiling. The mirrors on both ends extends an infinity effect that re-glimpses the larger-than-life tree that they once were. Previously segmented into portions defined by a person’s strength limit, their reconstitution calls to mind an unlikely rebirth within a carpark. Standing together in solidarity they evoke feelings of kinship, and perhaps even the possibilities of reunion in an afterlife.

A Rough Majesty by Marc Nair
In Singapore’s meticulously planned landscape, entropy subtly unfolds in the city’s liminal spaces. In A Rough Majesty, Nair doesn’t seek blatant transgressions but observes the quotidian negotiation of space. With each photograph and haiku pairing, the text and image challenges us to understand our connection to the city, revealing moments of slippage — questioning, affirming and complicating our inherent right to inhabit and interpret the spaces around us. On 23rd September, enjoy an evening of poetry with Marc as he reads through a selection of works –– including classics such as, but not limited to, Postal Code (2013), Vital Possessions (2018), and The Earth in Our Bones (2023).

SLOW MACHINE DREAMING, a Poetry Reading by Ang Kia Yee
Enjoy an evening of poetry with Poet Ang Kia Yee as she reads through a selection of past works. Ang Kia Yee’s work comprises transdisciplinary art, writing and research, with a focus on poetry and performance. Her first book of poetry is slow dream machine. Kia Yee was a participating artist for the Singapore Biennale 2022, a selected participant for da:NS LAB 2023: IDIOSYNCRASIES at Esplanade, and a resident writer for Centre 42’s New Scripts Residency 202. She also leads the development of Feelers, a nascent artist-run label that innovates at the intersection of art and technology.

Name Your Problem, a Poetry Reading by Susie Lingham
More than just a poetry recital, the reading by Susie Lingham will be accompanied by a shared conversation with the audiences, delving into the nature of problems –– through dimensions such as scale, degree and kind. Encouraged to “offer” what they consider problems, participants will collaborate and categorise each of them.

“The introduction of art to the everyday is a fallacy brewed from the comfort of ivory towers. This everyday of blood, sweat, and grime, and now even more of that in those few escapes that could be sacred and sanctified,” says Festival Director John Tung, in his Festival Curatorial Statement. “If the venue still bears the dirt of the mundane, it is only because we are forsaking the forest for the trees. If I were to hazard a proposition, it would be that placemaking has hardly got anything to do with places or making. You give me some people; I will give you a new world.”

Re-connect/Centre/Converge: The Arts Festival runs from 16th to 30th September 2023 at 6:30pm at L8 Carpark, Parklane Shopping Mall, 35 Selegie Rd, Singapore 188307. Tickets available from Peatix

You can support The Substation in its fundraising efforts for The Arts Festival by making a donation to the ongoing Giving.sg campaign here