Vasan (Thailand)
Khai Hori (Singapore)
Kim Youn Hoan (Korea).........
What is life imagined and possibility in performance art? In terms of themes that the artist touches on, a lot of times, it is based on issues that are personal to the artist. Their actions or gestures became a medium for them to express their emotions and thoughts. It is how the artist imagined their life and society to be and not an exact reproduction of life itself.
An example of a performance artist that I believe is about life imagined and possibilities is Korean artist Kim Youn Hoan. During the recent Future of Imagination 4 (FOI) he painted a 3 metre flag that reads “ARTISTS AS WORLD PRESIDENT – KIM YOUN HOAN, Seoul Presidential Election 2007/2008”. He paraded the flag for an hour on a trishaw that brings him around from 72-13 to Chinatown. Is he playing with the idea of imagining artists as world president and the possibilities of it in the future? At the same time, he is also an activist in Korea, would this influence the way he look at the possibilities that he can be Korea’s president? Or could it be a mockery of the state of how artists are perceived as?
Another example of a performance artist is Singaporean artist Lynn Lu. For FOI 4, she set up a large tent. The audience has to queue up to know what is happening. The act of inviting audience’s curiosity - having to queue to know what is going on inside the tent. As I wanted to feed my curiosity, I queued up. What happen inside was the play of imagination and maybe creating possible friendships in the future. The interior of the tent was simple – 2 chairs were placed near each other and Lynn is seated on the one of the chairs (left). She ask me to close my eyes and she spelled words like ‘sweethearts, darling’, (sweet-nothings that your loved ones may call you) on my left palm. After that, she asked me to give her something back. The act of spelling on one’s hand with the eyes close plays with the idea of senses and sensitivity of the audience. It is intimate and the experience of each audience is different. While she is spelling the letters out, one’s thoughts may fly to imagine what she is doing and why. I feel that, that simple act is about the possibilities of how life is played thru one’s imagination, pushing the limits of realities (as normally, we may not want a stranger to touch our hand and spell out sweet nothings on our palm). The idea of trusting a stranger or someone we may not have met before.
The international performance art event that is called the Future of Imagination is itself interesting. Are the organizers (Lee Wen, Kai Lam and Khai Hori) looking at performance art as the future of imagining thoughts, dreams and desires? It is possible. The postcard itself reads; “The future is not enough”. So what does the future holds for these performance artist? Perhaps, it is the power of possibilities based on imagination.
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An example of a performance artist that I believe is about life imagined and possibilities is Korean artist Kim Youn Hoan. During the recent Future of Imagination 4 (FOI) he painted a 3 metre flag that reads “ARTISTS AS WORLD PRESIDENT – KIM YOUN HOAN, Seoul Presidential Election 2007/2008”. He paraded the flag for an hour on a trishaw that brings him around from 72-13 to Chinatown. Is he playing with the idea of imagining artists as world president and the possibilities of it in the future? At the same time, he is also an activist in Korea, would this influence the way he look at the possibilities that he can be Korea’s president? Or could it be a mockery of the state of how artists are perceived as?
Another example of a performance artist is Singaporean artist Lynn Lu. For FOI 4, she set up a large tent. The audience has to queue up to know what is happening. The act of inviting audience’s curiosity - having to queue to know what is going on inside the tent. As I wanted to feed my curiosity, I queued up. What happen inside was the play of imagination and maybe creating possible friendships in the future. The interior of the tent was simple – 2 chairs were placed near each other and Lynn is seated on the one of the chairs (left). She ask me to close my eyes and she spelled words like ‘sweethearts, darling’, (sweet-nothings that your loved ones may call you) on my left palm. After that, she asked me to give her something back. The act of spelling on one’s hand with the eyes close plays with the idea of senses and sensitivity of the audience. It is intimate and the experience of each audience is different. While she is spelling the letters out, one’s thoughts may fly to imagine what she is doing and why. I feel that, that simple act is about the possibilities of how life is played thru one’s imagination, pushing the limits of realities (as normally, we may not want a stranger to touch our hand and spell out sweet nothings on our palm). The idea of trusting a stranger or someone we may not have met before.
The international performance art event that is called the Future of Imagination is itself interesting. Are the organizers (Lee Wen, Kai Lam and Khai Hori) looking at performance art as the future of imagining thoughts, dreams and desires? It is possible. The postcard itself reads; “The future is not enough”. So what does the future holds for these performance artist? Perhaps, it is the power of possibilities based on imagination.
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