Ho Tzu Nyen's 'The Nameless' 'starring' screen legend Tony Leung Chiu Wai
Brought together by 4 regional artists, Ghosts and Spectres – Shadows of History,
is an exhibition piece by filmmakers Thailand's Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Singapore's Ho Tzu Nyen, Vietnam's Nguyen Trinh
Thi and Korea's Park Chan-Kyong. Although
different in expressions, what they share in common is the strong engagement of
political and cultural histories in their works.
Ghosts
and Spectres – Shadows of History looks at how the
notion of “ghost” is used in artworks to showcase histories within respective
cultures that are obscure and not openly discussed. The meaning of “spectres”
here is implied not only to violent histories and trauma, but also to a form of
playfulness, especially in communities not widely known.
'Citizen Forest' by Park Chan-Kyong
The exhibition focuses on works from Asia,
highlighting the legacies of the post-war and the Cold war that still has its
influence and effects on governance to certain degrees, and explores the impact
on a national basis as well as in our daily lives.
As ancestral traditions is deeply embedded
into local culture, each artist had their own critical way of understanding the
social and political consequences resulting from their native country’s beliefs
and traditions.
The exhibition integrates both films and
videos as a medium. And with strong visual imaging, these artists and
filmmakers question the juxtaposition of the same story presented in different
ways.
Ho Tzu Nyen’s The
Nameless (2015), a montage of films presented within a film, was used in
contrast to Ho’s The Name (2015).
Fragmentation is used in the projection of Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s Fireworks (Archives) (2014), which
stimulates the audience to edit the fragments of footage and piece it together
on their own.
Stills from Ho Tzu Nyen's 'The Name'
List of films that appear in Ho Tzu Nyen's 'The Nameless'
Reference documents as part of the exhibition
Glass projection in Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s Fireworks (Archives) (2014)
In Park Chan-kyong’s Citizen’s Forest (2016), it suggests the reappearance of ghosts in
what is left unresolved, as the gathering of spectres of recent calamities in
South Korea’s political history. In Nguyen Trinh Tri’s Letters from Panduranga (2015), it questions the role of an
“outsider”, as the two narrating voices (a man’s and a woman’s) are carefully authorised
to tell the story.
The exhibition space is shrouded in
darkness, making it feel like entering a psychological space rather than a
physical one. As it consists of mainly audio-visual exhibits, each film is
hosted in its own room. Ho’s The Nameless
is the exception to this. Many visitors were particularly intrigued by the
presentation of The Nameless. The
Nameless tells the story of Sino-Vietnamese triple agent Lai Teck (acted by Tong Leung Chiu Wai, but are clips plucked from the famous actor's films in actual fact) and it is
presented in an interesting way, with a room spliced into two even halves.
There is a screen in each half, mounted back to back, and they are separated by
a cloth so viewers in one half cannot cross over to the other side or watch
both screens at the same time. The film being played is the same in both rooms,
except for the voiceover. One is in Chinese and the other Vietnamese. Those
watching the Chinese version would hear the Vietnamese audio as an echo from
the other room, alluding to the doubled-nature of Lai Teck’s loyalties, who had
over 50 aliases. The work is about the ambiguity of storytelling and the
manipulation of narratives by official accounts.
This exhibition hopes to generate interest
in history, as well as to drive home the fact that history is constantly being
reinterpreted and rewritten. History does not solely refer to historical
documents, but also the significance of personal and collective memories. What
we see and experience gives shape to our history, which is then a multitude of
narrations.
Ghosts
and Spectres – Shadows of History is an ongoing exhibition from 1 September –
19 November 2017. It is held at the NTU
Center for Contemporary Art Singapore.
Written by Christine Seow and Jacqueline Lee