Exhibit 101: Li Ran and Gary Ross Pastrana
Research Presentation
 

Artists-in-Residence Li Ran and Gary Ross Pastrana speculates on how an image is created and deconstructed.

Exhibit 101: Li Ran and Gary Ross Pastrana

2 October - 29 November 2015

Unfolding over two months, Artists-in-Residence Li Ran and Gary Ross Pastrana will develop projects for The Lab, NTU CCA Singapore’s space for experimentation, which are speculations on how an image is created and deconstructed.

Gary Ross Pastrana’s An ASEAN Exhibition 1 creates an artistic gesture around the idea of Southeast Asia as a reference with no visual referent. The artist engaged DSM Solutions, a young Singaporean creative collective, to stage a “Contemporary Southeast Asia Art Exhibition-Themed Event” and prototype props that could stand in for Southeast Asian artworks. In this manner, the artist has effectively outsourced the sometimes-problematic task of representing Southeast Asia, an implied obligation of artists invited to regionally themed group exhibitions within the region.

Li Ran presents a new project Waiting for the Fog to Drift Away, a collaboration with Singapore Management University (SMU), Assistant Professor Rowan Wang, a specialist in overall planning science. Li Ran will conduct interviews to gain planning advice from Wang in an attempt to define the most successful trajectory for the life of an artist as a business enterprise, estimating production levels and peaks and troughs in key life moments.


Exhibit 101: Li Ran and Gary Ross Pastrana, October 2 – November 29 2015, The Lab, Courtesy NTU CCA Singapore.
Exhibit 101: Li Ran and Gary Ross Pastrana, October 2 – November 29 2015, The Lab, Courtesy NTU CCA Singapore.
Exhibit 101: Li Ran and Gary Ross Pastrana, October 2 – November 29 2015, The Lab, Courtesy NTU CCA Singapore.
Exhibit 101: Li Ran and Gary Ross Pastrana, October 2 – November 29 2015, The Lab, Courtesy NTU CCA Singapore.
Exhibit 101: Li Ran and Gary Ross Pastrana, October 2 – November 29 2015, The Lab, Courtesy NTU CCA Singapore.
Exhibit 101: Li Ran and Gary Ross Pastrana, October 2 – November 29 2015, The Lab, Courtesy NTU CCA Singapore.
Exhibit 101: Li Ran and Gary Ross Pastrana, October 2 – November 29 2015, The Lab, Courtesy NTU CCA Singapore.

Contributors
Gary-Ross Pastrana
Gary-Ross Pastrana
Artist-in-Residence
Philippines

Gary-Ross Pastrana is an artist and curator. His artistic practice combines concepts with objects and his poetic and subtle works often focus on the afterlife of things and the new meanings it generates. Between July and October 2015, Pastrana was Artist-in-Residence at NTU CCA Singapore. His residency coincided with Singapore’s 50th-year celebrations as a nation state, which prompted the artist to document a series of coincidental encounters in the city with this anniversary number.

Li Ran
Li Ran
Artist-in-Residence
China

Li Ran is a performance and video artist. His practice tests the line between fact and fiction, questioning assumptions of cultural cliché and challenging the idea of the self. Between September and November 2015, Li was Artist-in-Residence at NTU CCA Singapore where he started the work It is not Complicated, A Guide Book (2016). As part of the work, Li juxtaposed recordings of Singapore’s popular attractions, Gardens by the Bay and Marina Bay Sands, with quotes from the Chinese version of the Centre Pompidou museum guide, whose account of modern art resonates with Singapore’s contemporary landscape.