10 Questions with | Bernice Ong

1. Tell us about yourself in one sentence.

Hi, my name is Bernice Ong. 

2. How did you end up in Curating Lab?

A forwarded link from a friend, an application, an interview, and magic! But primarily, I was looking for another project to be part of, guess I projectified myself well enough to end up here.

3. What has been your coolest moment of Curating Lab so far?

Hong Kong was pretty cool. Not a fan of large group trips, had thought I was past the age of excursions. But yeah, that was real cool. Thanks NAC! Another please?

4. Tell us about Conditions of Production.

May I simply insert our exhibition blurb:  COP is an ongoing project that seeks to pursue a field of enquiry situating objects and process within the complexities of artistic production and reception. To emulate the plurality of situations where artistic discourse may arise, this project calls attention to less tangible structures immanent in the creation of an artwork by adopting the multiple platforms of an exhibition, dialogue sessions, and an online repository of interviews and essays.

5. Tell us about your curatorial journey.

I’m a bit hesitant to latch on to this lab experience as a journeying towards a destination. I suppose, I have found it to be more about practicing my ninja eyes and ninja chops, observing and thinking about what the world needs more of, daring to ask those questions, being critical, practical, and trusting your intuition. Funny story, my group had looked at (artistic) ‘post-fertility’ as a starting point, and now we’re into the conditions of production. Ok…

6. What is the most exciting thing about your exhibition?

For me, the exhibition is as much about the unseen, as it is about the exhibited. We have three main artworks which I think dialogue really well with each other: a light fixture L O D N H A C G E E K of Chun Kaifeng's which for me exists as a sort of urban beacon, the documentary images of Matthew Ngui’s public art project TIMBRE!! that had come only partially into existence, and Amanda Heng’s intimate embrace with her mother in a beautiful photographic image Twenty Years Later.

7. What’s next for you?

Plodding on through life, finding more work as a freelancer. I’m onto a range of jobs, as theatre technician, set builder etc. and looking to get paid for my art and curatorial labour someday.

8. Favourite book.

FB

9. Favourite artwork.

Kazimir Malevich’s Black Square (1915)

 Source: http://www.tretyakovgallery.ru/en/collection/_show/image/_id/378

10. Favourite local art space.

HDB estates are my favourite observatories. When days were much freer, I enjoyed taking the elevator up random flats facing large construction sites to peer beneath the hoarding.

journal | Pulau Gillman

by Bernice Ong 
Centre for Contemporary Art, Gillman Barracks 

Pilgrimage

       On some days, the journey to the Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore (CCA) feels a little like a pilgrimage from the far-eastern end of Singapore where I live. It is more than just a physical traversing of space. To step out of a technical role in theatre production, and into a primarily desk-bound job is a change surely. Thrown into the thick of things, as we consider and ponder the quotations from different companies bidding to be appointed our Theatrical Fields show-build contractor, it does feel pretty great to be privy to such decision-making processes. Given access to the exhibition planning process from the beginning of our internship, one of my first jobs was to draw up a timeline indicating work that was to be done by the contractors. I pondered the necessity of laying out such a clear sequence of tasks for the show-build contractor, but also quietly, really enjoyed drawing up a table and organising the necessary information. I love running about and working with my hands, but man, can I get pretty obsessive once I dive into administrative mode!

Proximity

       Interestingly, working in the Barracks does not actually accord me with more time to hang around the art galleries there in spite of my close proximity. However, the Post-PopUp program with Post-Museum (13 June - 30 October 2014) has introduced a constancy of talks at their premises, and does provide some benefit to being in the area as they are scheduled in the evenings after work hours.

Lunch

       Oh, what can I say. My favourite option is Sum Kee Food in Telok Blangah, introduced by Samantha Yap - SilverLens assistant and other curating lab extraordinaire. Otherwise, it’s a trip across Alexandra Road, through a space-age tunnel, into some office tower, before descending into a car park, which gives access to a food court full of office workers. A bit of a trek to be honest.

Space

       Unfortunately, our time at the CCA is a short-lived one. The office space of 7 Lock Road is also but a temporary one. The studio residencies are by their nature programmed in periods. And so does the name of Post-Museum’s ‘Post-PopUp’ inclusion point to its impermanence. But, being confronted by the transience of such arrangements is not all that undesirable. In my own practice as an artist, I am hugely attracted to construction sites not because I love them, but because I get really annoyed at them. Onsite research processes affords me understanding, as any prolonged discovery has got to be beneficial; I am therefore able to flip this annoyance on its head the more I engulf myself within these transitioning spaces. Changing spaces also hint at a constant renewal. In the arts, although the affordability of time offers stability with long-term benefits, I think working within limitations can also spur us on towards more creative synergy as we consciously expound on what we have.

Summary

       I have a dream of setting up an arts centre to support and connect emerging and established artists. Being at the CCA offered a good insight into the running of an organization in terms of exhibition management. Each one of us in our group had been assigned to a specific area to immerse ourselves in, and although I would have loved to have jumped more into research, it was equally wonderful to have been able to assist and observe the process of planning for Theatrical Fields’ exhibition space.

Theatrical Fields is on from 23 August - 31 October 2014

Exhibition Centre: 34 Malan Road, Singapore 109443

Opening Hours: Tue to Sun 12-7pm, Fri 12-9pm

journal | Questions we can ask

by Bernice Ong

After every discussion during the curatorial-intensive, and during our field trip in Hong Kong, our facilitator Heman will quite predictably yell out “Any questions!” Even recently on our Facebook group, he charged us with a task.

Here's a small thing I want all the participants of Curating Lab 2014 to contribute. Within 24 hours of reading this, please write down ONE question you would like to discuss about curating and post it here. Thanks! I just want to hear your thoughts about things at this point to see where I can enter to help out. Thanks! Please post! Keep it precise! [1]

To put it literally, metaphorically, technically, the silence has been deafening. (Ok, well there have been some.)

Questions we can ask:

Who am I

Why are we here

Why am I here

What are they saying

What is being said

Why do they say this

Who is she

Who is he

How do I spell this

Well, it reminds me of that

What is his name

Who will they have me with

How shall we do this

How can we do this
Where can we find this

Lets talk about that

More about this

Where do we go from here

Where are we

What do you know

What shall we say
What more can we say
Is this ok.

I am reading an article on Durational Performance by Forced Entertainment, which hinges on the performative structure of the event as being a task or a game. In Quizoola!, a six-hour performance in which three people alternate between sitting within a ring of bare electric bulbs and are grilled using a catalogue of about 2000 questions, the audience come and go as and when they please. [2] FE speaks of the event as being about “the nature of language, and how it can, or cannot, describe or define or deal with the truth of our lives.” [3] This fluidity and contingency of knowledge in its very creation and re-generation brings to mind several other things. Advanced Studies… (Ten Lessons in Life) is a work by Heman that relies on students to take on the role of the teacher. Ten 16-year-olds separately pick apart gargantuan topics and attempt to convey this knowledge to a willing audience. More than about gauging informational correctness, the work also flourished with every attempt and failure at advising on such complexities.

The process of living is constituted by an unending list of questions, the ebb-and-flow of various understandings, and changing narratives. As we go about the several phases of Curating Lab, it becomes increasingly clear to me that the curation of anything has to allow for an open-endedness framed by certain topical guiding lines. Outside of any context, this open-endedness too disappears into a puff of smoke! It is a game we play as we attempt to list the rules abiding by our own logic, but also almost hoping that someone will hack our gem of a system to throw up new possibilities. And so as we plough along towards our exhibition in 2015, it has become more urgent to gather what these questions are that we want to be asking.

As of yet, I too feel guilty about my lack of a definitive question. But perhaps, there is something else to be gained from looking at the gap we want so dearly to be filled, a gap that was created from the moment of inquiry. As a curator, what are the questions we want to be asking? How will we ask it?

In the same flow of things, I am piqued by the absence of Kim Lim in many of our discourses around Singaporean artists. And if one might add, in general, the absence or rarity of material surrounding Singaporean artists in our local libraries, which the visit to the Asia Art Archive in Hong Kong highlighted our lack thereof. I am reminded also that the topic of knowledge production is a focus of this year’s programme. Perhaps, another way to think about it is to consider ‘gap’ production as equally useful. I’d like to make these gaps apparent. Let’s dive further into that.

 Recap in pictures to follow, I will leave the captions to you.

I wish to thank Heman and Latitudes (Max and Mariana) for their stories and conversations, and NUS Museum (Michelle and Flora) for their making the programme possible!

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[1] https://www.facebook.com/groups/curatinglab2014/ (Secret group), accessed 14 July 2014.

[2] A. Heathfield (ed.), Live: Art and Performance, Tate Publishing, London, 2012, p.101.

[3] Ibid.

public symposium "When Does an Exhibition Begin and End?" | Live-tweeting by participants

Part of the Curatorial-Intensive, the public symposium "When Does An Exhibition Begin and End?" presented Curating Lab 2014 participants with an opportunity to reflect on the role of a symposium and its public within curatorial practice. Building on lectures and workshops with facilitators Max Andrews and Mariana Cánepa Luna from Barcelona-based curatorial office Latitudes as well as artist, curator and writer Heman Chong, participants engaged with the symposium by live-tweeting proceedings, mapping concepts of the discussions, and devising approaches such as blogging to document and report the day for those not physically present.

Bernice Ong @ongxbern, Melvin Tan @melvntan, Samantha Yap @daisyfay and Kenneth Loe @lactasered engaged with other participants of the symposium, including members of the public, by live-tweeting and building conversations on Twitter with the hashtag #curatinglab2014.

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Other posts on the Public Symposium:

Recap | Photos | Videos
Concept-mapping by participants 
post.scripting | An Interview with Vera Mey