As Singapore Art Week returns for its 12thth edition from 19 to 28 January 2024 with more than 150 art exhibitions, talks and programs from over 400 artists, curators and partners from Singapore, Southeast Asia and the world, the Singapore Art Museum highlights Singaporean talents including Ho Tzu Nien, among the most exciting artists in the country today after representing Singapore at 54th 2011 Venice Biennale Continues until March 3, 2024 Ho Tzu Nyen: Time and the Tiger is a mid-career survey of the artist that brings together paintings, films, theater performances and video installations spanning two decades. Organized in conjunction with the Art Sonje Center in Seoul, the exhibition presents a new commission, ‘T for Time’, a two-channel video installation that explores the embodied and heterogeneous experiences of time. Inspired by historical events, documentary footage, art history, music videos and mythical stories, Ho questions the construction of history, the telling of myths and multiple identities. I sit down with the artist to discuss his creative process.
Video frame of one or several tigers, 2017, synchronized two-channel HD projection, automated … [+]
Photo courtesy of the artist and Kiang Malingue
What is the most important consideration when you first start creating a piece of art? How do you come up with the themes and plots for your artwork?
Some of my projects start as questions. Sometimes they come from an encounter with another work of art, piece of music, or book. I start my day in the morning with reading. It sets the tone for the day for me. I don’t know how I come up with the topics and subjects for my work. Perhaps my works are rather constellations of themes and subjects. Sometimes I think that I didn’t choose, but maybe I was chosen to serve as a conduit.
What role do words, music and lighting play in your films and how do you incorporate them?
Words are critical starting points, but also what must be resisted. Music is a huge inspiration for me. I listen to music almost all day and can only work in an environment with music of my choice. And sometimes I listen to the same record for days or even weeks. It became a way to tune my nervous system. There are times when I think I made videos just to have an excuse to make a soundtrack. As for lighting, when I was working more with the camera I was obsessed with chiaroscuro, extreme contrasts of light and dark. What interests me, I think, is that all moving images are essentially light. To me, light is only interesting when there is darkness.
Why did you choose to explore the history of Singapore, Southeast Asia and the wider Asian region in videos that intertwine fact and fiction, exploring how stories are constructed?
I think my interest in history arose solely out of trying to understand my present. And when I started researching the past, what interested me for my work was neither fact nor fiction, but very much that border between the two.
What are the biggest challenges you face when creating your works?
Knowing when to stop.
How has your work evolved over the past two decades and what keeps you going?
I suppose my works have become more complex in terms of their processes and technique. I seem less and less able to summarize what my works are about. So I think I’ve gotten worse than ever at giving them lifts. But this indescribability is something I find quite interesting… interesting enough to keep me going!
Ho Tzu Nyen, R for Resonance, 2019. From Critical Dictionary of Southeast Asia, 2012 – continued. … [+]
Photo courtesy of the artist
What do you think is the role of the artist in society? What do you hope to achieve or what message do you hope to convey through your art at the end of the day?
I think artists exist to channel other realities into this one. Artists are like mediums to other worlds. But I don’t think they necessarily have to have messages.
