About the Project
This project is inspired by the Chinese characters 活动 : which means 活着要动 = “to live is to move around”. The under the void deck series brings together seniors in a collective effort to physically and mentally, to enhance and promote synergy, alertness and general well-being.
Using documentary footage of residents as a starting point and weaving in the images of a lifetime that were excavated from old photo albums, the media installed on site tell us how each senior has been differently dealing with the delicate issues of death and dying that are present in their daily lives.
1. LIFE – SCORE: An instructional exercise
Medium: Cushion, paper, rattan cane, water spray
2. WARM-UP ACTIVITY WITH A FRIEND
Medium: A paper poster with instructions
3. IN THE HOME SERIES: THE LIVING TABLES by Chiu Kim Ho and Miss Soo Yin Fung
Medium: Sound art, container of 2 soundscapes with a player and headphones. Each table contains a photo book and objects from the participants
4. THE UNDER THE VOID DECK SERIES
A live demonstration with 15 seniors who participated in sound, voice and body movement activities with the artist
Creation Process
The work introduced art as a form of cathartic release and self-healing, an empowering experience which attends to the mundaneness of everyday life that takes on visual and auditory shapes. It was conceptualised from the artist’s experience of working in sound, sculpture and performance art. Experiencing art in sound-making and movements can be entertaining and liberating.
anGie believes that it is essential to pay attention to the aural qualities of the mundane and the familiar where participants can rediscover their environment through listening and re-invent the meaning of the everyday for themselves. Applying intuitiveness and interaction in creating art, enables one to rethink and question life through art-making.
Watch this video on the creation process, together with other artworks in the public art installation.
Credits
Artist
Born in 1979, anGie seah is a Singaporean artist. Her multidisciplinary practice traverses the mediums of drawing, sculpture, performance art, sound and video to respond to the enigma of life and explore facets of the human condition.
For more than a decade, she has been actively involved in many community art projects locally and internationally, conducting participatory workshops for families, underprivileged children, youth at risk, children and seniors with special needs and the elderly.
Working within a community is a way to attain a more complete understanding of the society one lives in. It provides opportunities for her to step outside of her practice and be with the reality of life, through people.
Participant Art-Makers (Under the Void Deck Series)
Cheng Loke Sia
Cheng Yiow Yuen
Chiu Kim Ho
Chan Soh Gek
Ho Von Teck
Jamil B Sereh
Janet F Kwong
Kee Sian Kin
Jim Sui Boo
Lee Chek Narn
Lee Choi Song
Ler Sieu Kim
Loh Tai Kum
Nancy Sok Peck Hian
Ong Wee Boon
Salleh Bin Amat
Soo Yin Fung
Tang Lang Heang
Tan Sow Beng
Tham Kum Siew
Teo Ah Geok
Teo Ah Bee
Wong Khi Lan
Wong Yip Hoy
Wong Yit Seng
Participant Art-Makers (In the Home Series)
Chiu Kim Ho
Soo Yin Fung
Workshop Process
A community art-maker during a workshop session with Artist anGie Seah
Community art-makers tearing strips of brown paper with Artist anGie Seah as part of the performance
Artist anGie Seah creating sounds with the community art-makers by blowing through rolled up papers
Artist anGie Seah conducting workshop session with community art-makers
Artist anGie Seah conducting a movement workshop with community art-makers
Artist anGie Seah conducting a movement workshop with community art-makers
BSN volunteer assisting community art-makers during Artist anGie Seah’s movement workshop
Community Voices
“[End-of-life] is often a complicated issue which can be communicated through the arts.”
