immaterial bodies
Curator (Recipient of Objectifs Curator Open Call 2020)
Objectifs Centre for Photography and Film
3 September - 1 November 2020
Extending a thread of inquiry situated between the material world of things and the immaterial world of affects, immaterial bodies weaves together the works of Weixin Quek Chong, ila, Wayne Lim and Denise Yap. Through varied approaches, they explore how bodies respond to and are affected by different encounters, serving as conduits for affective responses and surfacing new possibilities of existence and relationships, ideas which are especially relevant in a world made more precarious, anxious and chaotic in light of Covid-19's global impact.
The works of the artists in the exhibition probe four areas: the memory of the body in relation to shifting urban landscapes; systems of control over the citizen body; morphings and transformations of the post-human body; alternative kinships and possibilities of being. The exhibition questions: can we speculate on the potential of artworks as disobedient agents to generate affect that sits (in-between, beside, under, behind, next to, alongside...) the prescribed, rational world? How can affect be a way to resist controls and trace the emotional contours of life during increasingly precarious times? How have previous notions of bodily relations, distanced encounters, and forms of collectivity and exchange transformed in a post-pandemic climate?
immaterial bodies, curated by Seet Yun Teng is the recipient of Objectifs Curator Open Call 2020, an annual programme that encourages innovative curatorial approaches to lens-based art by giving emerging curators an opportunity to realise an exhibition with professional and financial support.