Ota Fine Arts Shanghai is delighted to present "Telling Tales", the duo presentation of Singapore artist, Liao Jiekai, and Dutch artist, Saskia Olde Wolbers. Three video works, Yes, These Eyes are the Windows (2015) by Saskia Olde Wolbers will be shown alongside Bukit Orang Salah (2013) and Silent Light (2015) by Liao Jiekai.
The exhibition tells of stories that are not often told. Each artist utilizes distinctive, different approaches for their own story-telling. Olde Wolbers fabricates model sets to create imaginative narrative, whereas Liao uses personal and archival footage and presents it in a documentary style. The contrast in the aesthetics of the two artists would be the highlight of this exhibition.
In Yes, These Eyes are the Windows, Olde Wolbers combines anecdotes and historical research, creating a colorful fictional narrative. The film focuses on Brixton, London in the 1970s. Featuring a house that was meant to be demolished as part of London's developmental plans, but was saved after a postman discovered that the artist, Vincent Van Gogh had lived there. The work was filmed in both the decaying house and in model sets that Olde Wolbers created in her studio. In the film, the house takes on its own persona becoming the main character and narrator , telling of the tales and myths that surround Van Gogh's period of residence from 1873 to 1874. Viewers sense the increasingly strong influence that Van Gogh's ghostly presence had on the destiny of the humble house and its owners over the years.
In comparison, Liao reappropriates archival and personal footage to create two films that trace the path of history and that of untold personal memories. He explores the history of St. John's Island - an outlying island to the south of Singapore - in Bukit Orang Salah. This island is known to be where Singapore's colonial founder Sir Stamford Raffles docked his ship upon arrival. Unbeknownst to many, the island has also been a quarantine center for immigrants and pilgrims returning from Mecca, a penal colony for political detainees and secret society leaders, and a sleep holiday resort. Thus, giving it its nickname 'Bukit Orang Salah' which translates loosely to 'Hill of Wrong People' or 'Hill of Misfits.'
Liao brings his viewers on a journey marked by out-of-bound markers and fences, deserted paths, barbed-wire structures and dilapidated housing, vestiges of the island's history are scattered around the land. One cannot help but wonder about the many untold tales surrounding the site. The island becomes a site of and for reflection, prompting questions about history, heritage and identity.
In Silent Light, an elderly female voice narrates her memories of growing up in a Singapore that no longer exists, the passing of a generation and her acceptance of death. Her narration interweaves with scenes of mechanical fans that rotate to the rhythm of passing wind, footage of a mourner accompanied by restless phantoms and a lonely moth perched upon the yellow funeral tent; together they welcome the silent light of daybreak.
Ota Fine Arts Shanghai invites viewers to a unique moving image journey with Saskia Olde Wolbers and Liao Jiekai through "Telling Tales".
About the Artists
Liao Jiekai (b.1984) is a filmmaker and artist from Singapore. His work in both art and film often investigates hidden history of places, drawing out the relationship between people and land, both past and present. I 2009, he co-founded film collective 13 Little Pictures and made his debut film "Red Dragonflies" which won the Special Jury Prize at the Jeonju International Film Festival. In 2012, Jiekai was conferred the Young Artist Award by the National Arts Council of Singapore. In 2013, his 16mm film installation "Brother's Quarters" received the Credit Suisse Artist Commissioning Award.
Saskia Olde Wolbers (b. 1971) lives and works in London. She has made 13 short films to date, three public art works and a sight specific sound installation for Artangel, London. Her videos combine carefully crafted fictional scripts with unique analogue visuals that reveal other-worldly environments. her work has won multiple awards and has been regularly exhibited worldwide in leading museums and galleries such as Tate Britain London, Mori Museum Tokyo, MOCA San Diego, Art Unlimited Basel, Ota Fine Arts in Tokyo and Singapore, Fondation Vincent van Gogh Arles, Whitechapel Gallery, London and 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa. Her work is held in collections of the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, Saatchi Gallery, London, Hirshhorn Museum, Washington DC, Goetz Collection, Munich, South London Gallery, SMAK Gent and the Museum of Old and New Art, Tasmania.
About Ota Fine Arts
Ota Fine Arts was established in 1994 in Tokyo. For over 20 years, the gallery has defined itself as being a pioneer of Japanese contemporary art. Since its inception, Ota Fine Arts has promoted various Japanese artists, including internationally-acclaimed Yoyoi Kusama, and has been expanding the variety of its artists and their works. In 2012, Ota Fine Arts opened a gallery space in Gillman Barracks, Singapore, to expand its programmes in the region. One of the main goals of Ota Fine Arts is to support and showcase more regional character, originality and commonality of the Asian cultural belt. The gallery hopes to continue its commitment to East Asian artists, and moreover to organize various collaborations with artists from South Eastern Asia to the Middle East region to convey the new aspect of contemporary art today. The gallery opened a new space in Shanghai in November 2017 to extend its programs further in the region.
