An interview with artist, writer and filmmaker Ho Tzu Nyen

Ho Tzu Nyen is an artist and filmmaker. His last major project 'Utama - Every Name in History is I', which is an installation of film and paintings was recently exhibited at the 26th Sao Paulo Biennale (2004), and the 3rd Fukuoka Asian Art Triennale (2005). The film component of the project has been shown at various film-festivals. He will be presenting the work as a ‘lecture performance’ at Kunsten Festival Des Arts in Brussels this May.

He has recently completed 4 x 4 – Episodes of Singapore Art (2005) - an attempt to shift the practice of art from the manufacture of objects to the production of ‘discursive events’. The project included amongst other components, four short films scripted and directed by Tzu Nyen that resurrected 4 exemplary moments in the history of art in Singapore that were broadcasted over 4 weeks on a public television channel, Arts Central. Each of these short films consisted of a dramatic scenario constructed around 4 artworks, from 4 distinct historical periods, and encapsulating 4 specific modes of art practice – painting, conceptual art, performance art and ‘post-conceptualism’.

He writes on film and the visual arts, and is the Singapore Desk Editor for the magazine Art Asia Pacific (US)


RJ says:
how are you?

Tzu Nyen says:
Hey!

RJ says:
With its longstanding relationship to religious and secular systems of
thought, what are the inherent values of contemporary art today?

RJ says:
God,what a mindbomb!

RJ says:
What did you think of the question when you first came across it?

Tzu Nyen says:
That is a tough one ha ha!

Tzu Nyen says:
Not sure if there is an inherent value..

Tzu Nyen says:
And certainly not sure if there is one in contemporary art - I understand the state of contemporary art today as being precisely in a kind of entropy - which is what is problematic about it, but also its attraction for me.

RJ says:
When you were first approached with the theme 'belief' for the biennale, did it spark something in your mind for a possible art piece? Or did that come over a period of mulling, brainstorming? How does it work for you?

Tzu Nyen says:
Well - in a way, I think that much of my work can be interpreted as dealing with 'belief' - the problem is that interpretation is a loose process. Also, a theme for biennales, or even for any group shows is so often so elastic that it is no longer means much at the end of the day. But this is something we have to deal with - one just does what one can. And for this biennale specifically, I proposed a few projects that had been on my mind for a long time - and let the curators select which one they wanted...

Tzu Nyen says:
It is important, I think, to keep to one's own trajectory, and to use the biennale to produce the work that one needs to do.

RJ says:
Ahhh. I understand.

RJ says:
You have done so much for someone so young. You are an inspiration for many artists here. How is this biennale further challenging, exciting the artist in you? Or is this becoming another show another day kind of thing?

Tzu Nyen says:
You know, this needs to be answered in 2 ways. First the 'personal' - I see the biennale simply as an opportunity - an opportunity for getting money to make work, an occasion that calls for a work - a deadline, a frame that forces me into making something. My point also is that there is never - or there should never be 'another show another day kind of thing'. Every show an event for creation, and an opportunity to transform oneself.

Tzu Nyen says:
Second, the biennale is important in a larger, 'impersonnal' sense - for the 'scene' as a whole. But this level is maybe something that I sometimes feel an artist should not get too mired in. We need to be concerned, of course - this is inevitable. But thinking too much at this level is distracting - it takes time and energies off our own work - and this can be detrimental. But different artists work differently.
Some even work better being distracted.

RJ says:
Sure.

RJ says:
I will leave the biennale subject in a bit.

RJ says:
But tell me. The theme itself is quite a relevant one today. Are you excited about perhaps telling your point of view or trying to make a difference, showing a way out,…etc.

Tzu Nyen says:
Well, the theme is definitely interesting, but it is as old as...God(s) . I've never been much of a believer in things - although I certainly have convictions. It is really tough to discuss a word like 'belief' - it has been charged with so much, by so many...I can only maybe discuss a little of how my past works - I think - may have dealt with this...

Tzu Nyen says:
I have always been interested in belief systems that are hinged on the notion of the 'one' - be it a Platonic one, or its other mutations. This is of course relevant today - because Fundamentalism - in all its different shades and disguises is primary a fascination with the one - a one at the origin, an origin that is attained with violence - elimination of the other

RJ says:
This is interesting. Please go on.

Tzu Nyen says:
Well - think for example, of Freud - for him, the 'primal scene' - the child's attempt to discover the riddle of his 'origin' is depicted as that of the child seeing his parents copulating - and the child often perceives the father as being 'aggressive'.

Tzu Nyen says:
But at another level - something more 'everyday life' - we try to maintain a sense of identity by a persistent exorcism of the 'other' - to try to be 'one' self is to have to negate all the multiplicity that swarms around ..

Tzu Nyen says:
Or maybe you know - before there was light, there had to be the darkness that was purged - and with Creation, there is also the Fall...a most violent fall...

RJ says:
Yes yes...

RJ says:
Anyway, I am going to change subjects quickly if you dont mind..

Tzu Nyen says:
Sure - happy to.

RJ says:
What will you say Tzu Nyen is your 'art'... writing? painting? installation
art?

Tzu Nyen says:
I think my art is simply to keep on thinking, and to try to arrive at new thoughts. To present it in any format is of little consequences - though of late, the moving image seems most open as a vehicle - after all, thought for me is in itself an image in time, an image that moves.

RJ says:
You were once said to be interested in the possibility of producing a work of art that does not die with the end of its exhibition-life, but which can be disseminated in the economical medium of talks .. can you explain?

Tzu Nyen says:
Sure - to make a work of art is to be responsible for its life. To have a life, the work must continue to disseminate. This is easy with films, but I do think of talking - accompanied by PowerPoint slides, as a kind of primitive film - instead of 24 frames per second, it may be a frame/slide every 15 or 20 seconds, and talking is like an accompanying live audio track. In the early days of silent cinema, before the human sensorium was acclimatized to moving images, films were projected with 'speakers' to explain what was being shown. So the format of talks, or lectures accompanying vertically projected images, is in a very real sense -primitive film.

RJ says:
Your recent project 4 x 4- Episodes of Singapore Art (2005) - a series of four televised episodes that focuses on four important works by four important Singaporean artists - is this perhaps you taking the above to another level?

Tzu Nyen says:
Yes - I was trying to extend the format of the lecture - talking at lectures is exhausting, and one can only be at one place at a time. But to incorporate a lecture - with all its possibilities for pedagogy, and dramaturgy into a filmic medium that can be broadcasted to the widest possible audience seemed the logical thing to do. It was also part of my wish to try to reclaim a space for thought on TV - which could have been the most utopian of mass mediums, though it is now quite lost..

RJ says:
Ahh yes, but how can we reclaim this medium?

Tzu Nyen says:
Well the medium as a whole cannot be reclaimed under current social structures - one can only hope to puncture little holes where we can, to let in a little fresh air...

RJ says:
Final question on the Biennale! Can you give us a brief description of your
project?

Tzu Nyen says:
Well....the biennale project will be part of my continued effort to try to 'destroy' the One - which Gilles Deleuze, in a beautiful phrase, had once called the 'most innocent of all destructions'.

RJ says:
Oh my god!

Tzu Nyen says:
yes that's right - your god...ha ha..

RJ says:
What is your next step as an artist? Where do you go after the biennale?

Tzu Nyen says:
Well - the next step is to get better ideas, more fresh air, keep the brain alive, open oneself up, find out more things, dream of better things, find ways to make more interesting things...

RJ says:
Hallelujah.

Tzu Nyen says:
Hallelujah. Ha Ha.

RJ says:
A tangential question to our discussion thus far.. what influence do you think 'street art' is exerting on the scape of visual arts today? How does it matter if at all? How will paintings and art appreciation change?

Tzu Nyen says:
Well - I don't think about street art much - at least not institutionalized forms of street art, which I sometimes find a bit of a contradiction in terms. But art should definitely take into the streets - you know - or at least try to take people into the streets, into alley ways, dark corners, sewers and tunnels...hope I answered you...

RJ says:
Yes and thank you kind sir..

RJ says:
We wish you the best for your biennale and projects ahead .

Tzu Nyen says:
ha ha - thank you - it is difficult to project my usual tone of irony and
sense of self-mockery through this typed dialogue.