RESIDUE: da photos

Popped down to the SMU Li Ka Shing Library from the Velvet Underground Poetry Slam.

Closing performances started 1/2 an hour late. After Venzha...

... the crowd started to stretch its legs.


Just when our boy Ka5 came on with the National Archives Oral History recording.

"It was a beauuutiful place..."



To give you an idea of the breadth of the space:


It was around this time that Ka5 was experimenting with his toy theremin/electric guitar. It created some crazy discordance.

Was wondering why he never faced the audience to show off his gadget. Turned out that he wanted to play with his back to the audience as a homage/imitation of his idol Zai Kuning.


Insert the sequence from Momotaro's Divine Sea Warriors where the little indigenous animals are singing the Japanese syllabary.


And of course, the ISEA crowd was rapt:


No lah, they're always this chatty after the first half hour of a performance session. Saw them at SPEKTR and it was the same.

Then handover to Zulkifle Mahmod, with his analogue performance.


Now to business!

RESIDUE by Choy Ka Fai / TheatreWorks

It's a preview, being performed tomorrow at ISEA2008!

RESIDUE investigates the ruins of the Syonan Jinja Shinto Shrine buried in the heart of MacRitchie Reservoir in Singapore, built by the Japanese during World War II. The physical remains and the surrounding forests are explored using multi-media. Data from sound waves, electromagnetic signals and radio frequencies are also collected and transformed into audio-visual content. Mapping the forgotten inhabitants of nature and reflecting on the silent subsistence of the Syonan Jinja.

Choy Ka Fai (Singapore) is a video artist and Associate Artistic Director of Theatreworks. RESIDUE is a collation of the on-going research for RESERVOIR, a Theatreworks’ production to be staged in their space 72-13 in August 2008.

Theatreworks is an independent, non-profit Singaporean theatre company that develops and nurtures professional arts skills. It supports Singapore artists, and articulates the Singapore arts through its various productions and developmental programmes.

www.ka5.info
www.theatreworks.org.sg
www.72-13.com

Vivian's got photos.

And they're nicer than mine:

Now which of them will make it to the final publicity image? Wait and see.

Pilgrimage no. 3: the Photoshoot

For me, the excursion started at midnight, when I camped out at TheatreWorks with Ka Fai.

That's his office. He likes to play with his many electronic toys inside, some of which are $1 contraptions from Akihabara.

Can you believe that while I crashed out on the beanbag, dreaming of cats, our beloved director DID NOT SLEEP? He was busy testing out sound equipment, and then in the morning he got a buzz from our Sound Designer Chong Li-Chuan saying his baby had a fever. Can't argue much with that. Babies are important.


Ach weel. So Ka Fai and I got up at 6 am and waited for Vivian to pick us up in the taxi.

And we got to MacRitchie at 6:30am, as bright and early as we should. Ooh look! Full crew! Except Pat. Let's eat our breakfast beehoon before she comes.

And here we are:


Roll call, L-R: Paviter Singh (Multimedia Assistant), Rizman Putra (Performer), Patricia Toh (Performer), Vivian Lee (Stills Photographer) and Choy Ka Fai (Fearless Leader).

So it's across the zigzag bridge:

And into the dawn.

Vivian fell behind because she was actually doing her job. But there were cool things to see that weren't there before.


Looky! Chempedak!

Spiderweb! (Later on I walked into a gigantic one with a similarly proportioned spider.)

Tortoises! (Turtles? Terapins?)

It actually took us only about an hour to get to the water crossing - cool morning weather and a comfortable familiarity with the route served as the wind in our sails. So into the jungle.

This might be a good time to get a good look at our shrine virgins. Here's Vivian:

And Paviter:


Ka Fai has made me promise not to talk about how hot the people involved in our productions are, so I'll refrain.

JESUSCHRISTWHATIZZAT???

Haha, fooled you. It's not the Eye of Sauron; it's Patricia Toh's butt tattoo paired with the surprisingly cheap pastel sports clothes we bought for her to wear as a costume.

Time for the shoot!

It's really hard to beat Rizman in a game of silly buggers.

Although Pat sure gets points for trying!


Did you notice we have a reflector?


And a handsome reflector-handler? (Pav actually comes to MacRitchie regularly to train students in long-distance running.)


I ended up dozing off on the steps. When I woke up everyone had gone.


Okay, actually they'd just shifted over to another location in the shrine. But it was still frickin' uncanny.


This is the performers drying their clothes and snacking on Gardenia bread. We also took the time to reflect that we saw no sense of taboo eating there (unlike the Japanese), and that everything seemed so much more comfortable this time round... no tension, no politics, just a comfortable haven in the woods.

We did, however, also see a blue, red-headed snake. No photos of that.

Wrapped up at about 11:15 am. Vivian and Ka Fai stayed behind to gather a little more multimedia data.


We, on the other hand, went trudging back to the water hazard.




And scooted off pronto. We even found a shortcut to Lornie Road from the jungle.


Till next time! And we're sure to have some cool shots from Vivian's camera too. :)