Four Practices: Artist Resource Platform

Dennis Tan went to an arts college in Singapore and graduated with a diploma in Painting. Tan subsequently took on an MA in Architecture, however this course of study was peppered with interruptions and took over a decade to obtain his degree. During his studies, he took on the role of a nomad and a bricoleur, of thinking while making. Tan cites the turning point of his practice when he first encountered Alan Kaprow’s, The blurring of Art and Life and sees this and Tom Marioni’s, The Act of Drinking Beer With Friends Is the Highest Form of Art as a pivotal influence on his practice. Tan’s practice suspends conceptualism, tinkers with found objects and the environment as a gestural structure upon which the loop closes with the behaviour of its recipients. To date, this inclination sets the tone of his evolving practice.

Between February to June 2016, Tan was Artist-in-Residence at NTU CCA Singapore. During his residency, he continued his research on the fast-disappearing knowledge of marine craft in the region, working with oral histories in the Riau Archipelago to reconstruct a traditional Kolek sailboat.

Haegue Yang (b. 1971, Korea) currently lives and works in Berlin and Seoul. Her works are known for their eloquent and seductive sculptural language of visual abstraction out of her research on historical figures and events. Bringing together a variety of working methods, ranging from complex spatial installations with industrially produced items, such as Venetian blinds, to hand-made sculptures using rather low-tech craft such as paper folding, known as origami, knitting, macramé and other types of weavings. Recently, bells have been entered as sonic and performative elements, which illuminate one of her interests in the notion of movements, in physical, social and metaphorical sense. Also to mention as new material encounter is synthetic straw, an intriguing elements gesturing towards the notion of folk which is both an anthropological reference well as democratic base. Yang’s oeuvre has reached a level of rich complexity and across her work is a focus on sculpture and a rigorous negotiation with materiality through processes of creation and the final form itself, yet the invisible part of investigation on history has been additionally inherent, which has been widely discussed as a method of unique abstraction.

Haegue Yang has exhibited in major international exhibitions including the 53rd Venice Biennale (2009) as South Korean representative, dOCUMENTA (13) in Kassel, Germany (2012); Mediacity Seoul, Korea (2014); and Taipei Biennale, Taiwan (2014). Her recent solo exhibitions include Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing, China (2015); Leeum, Samsung Museum of Art, Seoul, Korea (2015); Museum of Contemporary Art, Strasbourg (2013); Bergen Kunsthall, Bergen, Norway (2013), Haus der Kunst München, Munich, Germany (2012); and major institutions including the New Museum in New York, Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, Kunsthaus Bregenz in Austria, Modern Art Oxford in UK, Aspen Art Museum in US, Arnolfini and Tate Modern Tanks in UK among others have hosted her solo shows.

Zac Langdon-Pole’s work is underpinned by questions of belonging, translation, and identification. He has worked in a variety of media, including sculpture, performance, photography, film, textiles, poetry, installation, and using the work of other artists, to explore processes of montage, transposition, travelling, reinterpretation, collaboration, and appropriation. He is the latest recipient of the BMW Art Journey Prize (2018), was awarded the Ars Viva Prize for Visual Arts in Germany (2017), and received the Charlotte Prinz Stipendium in Darmstadt (2016). Langdon-Pole completed a BFA (Hons) at Elam School of Fine Arts, Auckland (2010) and at the Städelschule, Staatliche Hochschule für Bildende Künste, Frankfurt (2016). Recent exhibitions include scions, Kunsthalle Darmstadt (2018); Ars Viva, S.M.A.K., Ghent (2018), and Kunstverein Munich (2017–18); Discoveries, Art Basel Hong Kong 2018 (presented by Michael Lett Gallery); emic etic, Between Bridges, Berlin (2018); Trappings, Station Gallery, Melbourne (2017); La Biennale de Montréal (2016–17); and Oratory Index, Michael Lett Gallery, Auckland (2016). Between March and April 2016, Langdon-Pole was Artist-in-Residence at NTU CCA Singapore, where he developed further his work My body … (Brendan Pole) (2015), a text based upon the memory of a poem that was only ever conveyed orally to the artist’s mother by her brother shortly before he died of AIDS complications.

Zulkifle Mahmod is a sound-media artist. Formally trained in sculpture, Zulkifle has expanded his practice to include sculpted sound and live sound performances. Zulkifle’s practice investigates the audible attributes of physical space to explore the emotional responses of its inhabitants. Zul is one of the participants for the 52nd Venice Biennale in Italy for the Singapore Pavillion in 2007 along with three other artists. Zul‚ practice signals an encompassing and expanded visual arts sensory experience.

Between February and June 2016, Zulkifle was Artist-in-Residence at NTU CCA Singapore, where he explored the aural relationship between ready-made sound sculptures, and the architecture of space, and examined the sonic characteristics, forms, and textures of everyday objects.