Making Shadows by Moses Tan & Migrant Art [2017]
[07.10.17 — 18.10.17]
Grey Projects is proud to present Making Shadows & Migrant Art, two presentations by Moses Tan and migrant workers working with Transient Workers Count Too (TWC2) and The Select Centre.
These exhibitions are a central part of Architecture With/Out Public, a programme of exhibitions and public activities created in conjunction with Archifest 2017. The programme includes two walking tours by the photographer and art educator Gilles Massot on the 7th and 14th of October. Together, they highlight the dilemmas of exclusion/inclusion when architectures and spaces designated for 'the general public' are confronted by claims on them from the precarious and the shunned.
Making Shadows explores the claims on the built environment and public spaces through the eyes of a queer voyeur. Tan conceived an installation that could facilitate cruising, the set of unspoken physical movements and signs that form the vocabulary of private communication across public space. Using partition walls, the installation is an imaginative and playful recreation of an interior space that facilitates sidelong glances and furtive looking. Slits are cut from within a maze-like interior, with drawings and objects placed as navigational guides. The space itself is inspired by configurations of bookstores, parks as well as toilet facilities.
The installation itself includes a suite of drawings and video works. Shadows of trees on ground, empty bottles and backpack in public toilets and closeup of individuals form the images that can be seen within the installation.
Migrant Art features images by 15 photographers, who worked with Alex Au from TWC2 and William Phuan from The Select Centre, among others, to create photographs for an as-yet-unrealised book project. These photographs show the lives of these transient and domestic workers through their eyes and hands, and an accompanying poetry and music program on 15 Oct 2017, 5.30pm offers visitors a chance to hear from the creators themselves.
Two special walking tours, led by Massot, explore the changes in the older city core through the eyes of a longtime immigrant and heritage photographer. Moving through Jalan Besar, Bugis, Little India and other neighbourhoods dating back to the colonial period, Massot offers historical and personal anecdotes as witness to the destructive logic of development.
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Moses Tan (b. 1986) is an artist based in Singapore. He is interested research surrounding queer melancholia, resistance through poetic forms and diffraction. Employing drawing and video, he is interested in creating experiences.
He graduated from LASALLE College of the Arts with a BA (Hons) in Fine Arts. Prior to that, he studied Chemistry and Biological Chemistry at Nanyang Technological University. He is also currently an adjunct faculty with LASALLE College of the Arts with the diploma in Fine Arts programme.