0501

0501 is a collaboration between 11 individuals of different disciplines in the arts. The project started off as a series of workshops and discussions. Within the span of a year, works of different nature eventually evolved and weaved into a single performance presented at the Victoria Theatre, Singapore from 5-7 April 2007.

系: web

[系] (xi) is a spatial installation conceived as part of 0501.

This piece of work is based on a quest to explore the idea of authorship, to develop a work that can attain a life of its own by manifesting itself through the invisible energies and dynamics around it, akin to how living things would grow in our world.

A methodology of parameters & system are set up for a life to grow in this work, where allowance are given to its intrinsic nature and dynamics to participate in its becoming.

This is based on the belief that there are many invisible complex systems that allow everything to fall perfectly into place in our seemingly chaotic world. Chance and coincidence are merely part of these forces and systems that are invisible to us.

This work attempts to allow chance to dictate. Gesture of the author is intentionally avoided to allow the intrinsic system of the work to surface. In other words, the work attempts to embody the invisible and to trace the complex relationships for the work to become an active participant in the dynamic world.

growing the web

Adopting the body of our childhood game, the paper cup phones and the nostalgic provision shop money tin on pulleys, the body of this work consists of a modular set of line with 2 tins at both ends held up by pulleys. When one end is pulled or pushed the other end will react. On the practical level, this work serves as a communication system.

A line is formed when someone leaves his or her cove/world to leave something for someone else. When a line is formed, it serves as a letterbox where someone known or unknown can leave an object or a message for the person who created the line and vice versa. Therefore ultimately it becomes a web of constellations that traces movements and inherent relationships between people that can grow with time.

Ultimately, the web of lines makes a larger world that encompasses all of the isolated worlds of each individual as a single whole physically.

imagining a world…

A line of the web started from the front of house. The single line led the audiences to the entrance of the backstage onto the stage. It was here where the single line started to split into a massive web of hanging tins. Underneath, the audiences are seated.

Amongst the audiences were 11 isolated islands/worlds created by each artist where s/he dwelled. As the performance progressed, the lines and tins were interacted tracing the connections between people and the isolated islands. Each island came alive with a tale told, as objects and messages were left and received. Someone was connected, someone was born, someone was waiting, someone was searching, someone was hiding, someone was in pain, someone was touched, someone was weeping, someone was reminiscing and time seemingly stopped as the flower burned …

dreaming of a world … where everyone is encapsulated solitarily in our own realm of time …

… momentarily … a thread weaves through …  connecting these disparate time … fleeting moments of intangible relationships… seeking a body in a web of fleeting lines …

… solitarily dependent … in a web of … … lines [系]