10 October–2 December, 2015
Institute of Contemporary Arts Singapore
LASALLE College of the Arts
1 NcNally Street
Singapore 187940
Hours: Tuesday–Sunday 12–7pm
www.lasalle.edu.sg
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Navin Thomas: The Heart is a Variant
Navin Thomas was born in Madras in 1974. He was educated in cinematography and graphic design and currently works with acoustic ecology and salvaged architecture. The Heart is a Variant is his first solo exhibition outside India. It invites speculation on the design and sustainability of urban environments such as Singapore and the “electronic city” that is Bangalore, his place of residence.
Thomas discovers the beginnings of his installations and films in and around the discarded detritus of scrapyards, recycling plants and flea markets. He uses “rough” technology to construct his poetic and philosophical art from the salvage of rapidly transforming 21st-century economies.
Throughout his career, Thomas has experimented with the reverberant and percussive effects of insects, birds, animals and people as they react and co-exist with invisible electronic fields. For the major installation Long Live the New Flesh (2014), he takes two powerful modern symbols—targets, literally—and creates between them an unfamiliar ecology dense with sound, memory and sensation.
Navin Thomas won the prestigious ŠKODA Prize for Indian contemporary art in 2011. He has undertaken residencies and participated in group exhibitions in India, Europe and the United States since the mid-2000s. He is represented by GALLERYSKE, New Delhi and Bangalore.
Art Calls with Tracey Moffatt
Earl Lu Gallery
Art Calls is a two-part TV pilot written, directed and produced by artist Tracey Moffatt in 2014. In each episode Moffatt performs the role of talk-show host, interviewing artists about their lives, interests and art. The interviews—conducted by Moffatt via Skype and telephone—reveal the artists as variously sociable, humorous, reflective or withdrawn.
In making the videos, Moffatt was inspired by the power of on-screen personalities and reality television to capture and expose the “true” character of human subjects. The format of the two 28-minute episodes reflects the style of popular TV programs, with their quick sequences, saturated colours and high-quality production.
In the interviews, the artists are surprisingly open. Their openness indicates the capacity of online and communication platforms to generate intimate revelations from users, the latter protected by the anonymity and distance that these platforms provide. Art Calls raises questions about the influence of broadcast media and the Internet on social relations and perceptions. The videos unhinge categorical notions of artists and creative practices.
Tracey Moffatt is represented by Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney, and Tyler Rollins Fine Art, New York.
About the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) Singapore
The Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) Singapore is the curatorial division of LASALLE College of the Arts, dedicated to supporting innovative and emerging creative practices. Focusing on art and design from the present, it provides an active site for contemporary culture in Singapore.
