Ho Tzu-Nyen

Initially, he worked mainly with film, photography and performance, and with time became active also as a multimedia installation artist. Ho Tzu Nyen often confronts political issues related to the stormy history of Singapore; first as a British colony, then as an independent city-state. The artist frequently evokes historical events  and texts, as well as European philosophy and painting.

“Earth” is a film that consists of three long slow motion shots. It depicts a landscape after a catastrophe – human bodies are mixed here with coils of wire, fragments of pallets and cardboard boxes, as well as dead fish and chaotically flashing light bulbs. The work bears a marked reference to European painting, especially French Romantic painting. The film has borrowed inspiration from Theodore Gericault’s “Raft of the Medusa” from 1819, one of the most significant paintings in France after the Revolution. Also noticeable are references to pieces by Eugene Delacroix (“The Massacre at Chios”, 1824) and Caravaggio (“The Incredulity of Saint Thomas”, 1601-1602 and “David with the Head of Goliath”, ca 1599). The artist’s fascination with old painting – highlighted by the strong light of fluorescent tubes that imitate the chiaroscuro effect of the Baroque paintings – was juxtaposed in the film with the contemporary electronic soundtrack of Black to Comm. Played in slow motion, the music seems hardly recognisable combining two temporally and geographically distant motifs.