Ho Tzu Nyen
Singapore | Installation/Virtual Reality

R for Resonance
& The Critical Dictionary of Southeast Asia (Volume 15)

The installations of the Singaporean theatre director and video artist Ho Tzu Nyen are visually stunning, opulent works. Various allusions to Eastern and Western literature, art and music are woven together with multifaceted sound collages to form these enigmatic pieces, which reveal new layers of meaning to the viewer on every level of perception. The central theme of his long-term work «The Critical Dictionary of Southeast Asia» is the search for the cultural identity of his region of origin, which has been written and overwritten by countless languages, cultures and influences.

«R for Resonance» comprises a 15-minute virtual reality installation that provides an amazing insight into Ho Tzu Nyen’s magnificent world of images and concepts. It can be experienced simultaneously by six people wearing VR headsets. The focus is on the phenomenon of resonance as a property that the artist associates with the sound of the gong. The cast bronze instrument, which is used in spiritual and social ritual music, has also raised questions of social hierarchies, social inequalities and oppression since the Bronze Age in Southeast Asia due to its high-quality material. The virtual reality experience links various artistic genres and transfers the complexity of the artist’s practice into a unique exploration that physically engages the audience.

The web version of the entire dictionary will also be shown in Rossstall I as a non-stop projection.