The Cloud of Unknowing

2011 - Film & Video (Film & Video)

Ho Tzu Nyen

location: Singapore
year born: 1976
gender: male
nationality: Singaporean
home town: Singapore

The Cloud of Unknowing (2011) is titled after a 14th-century medieval treatise on faith, in which “the cloud of unknowing” that stands between the aspirant and God can only be evoked by the senses, rather than the rational mind. In the video, eight protagonists act out their daily lives. The setting is a soon-to-be-demolished public housing facility in Singapore, a country in transition from a mindset of Eastern collectivism to global neoliberalism. These individuals have lived hermetically and absurdly in their apartment space until this moment, when a magical and mysterious cloud appears, connecting their seemingly disjointed lives. It is a story about the tension between solitude and togetherness, privacy and communal experiences. The symbolic cloud embodies both divine illumination and hallucination.


Drawing from historical events, documentary footage, art history, music videos, and mythical stories, Ho Tzu Nyen’s films investigate the construction of history, the narrative of myth, and the plurality of identities. Nyen often collaborates with theater professionals, and the lighting in his films is meticulously orchestrated, the compositions highly aesthetic. Ho also practices painting, performance, and writing, exploring the many possible relationships between stills, painted images, and moving images. His first feature film, HERE , premiered at the 41st Director’s Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival in 2009. He has exhibited widely, including at the Bienal de São Paulo (2004), the Fukuoka Asian Art Triennale (2005), the Singapore Biennale (2006), the Dojima River Biennale (2009), and the Singapore Pavilion of the Venice Biennale (2011).


Colors:



Making Chinatown
© » KADIST

Ming Wong

2012

Making Chinatown (2012) is a remake of Roman Polanski’s 1974 classic neo-noir film Chinatown ...

Exquisite Eco Living (executive Properties series)
© » KADIST

Vincent Leong

2012

The photograph Exquisite Eco Living is part of a larger series titled Executive Properties in which he digitally manipulated the images to insert iconic buildings of Kuala Lumpur in the view of derelict spaces also found in the city...

Masks (Merkel F6.1)
© » KADIST

Simon Fujiwara

2016

Masks is a series of abstract paintings by Simon Fujiwara that together form a giant, fragmented portrait of German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s face...

Canton Novelty
© » KADIST

Fang Lu

2016

Canton Novelty by Fang Lu captures the adventure of a group of three girls, Ruohan, Lily and Zoe on a summer vacation in Guangzhou, China...

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Making Chinatown
© » KADIST

Ming Wong

2012

Making Chinatown (2012) is a remake of Roman Polanski’s 1974 classic neo-noir film Chinatown ...

Exquisite Eco Living (executive Properties series)
© » KADIST

Vincent Leong

2012

The photograph Exquisite Eco Living is part of a larger series titled Executive Properties in which he digitally manipulated the images to insert iconic buildings of Kuala Lumpur in the view of derelict spaces also found in the city...

Untitled (Perfect Lovers + 1)
© » KADIST

Cerith Wyn Evans

2008

Untitled (Perfect Lovers + 1) by Cerith Wyn Evans takes as its starting point Felix Gonzales-Torres’s seminal work Untitled (Perfect Lovers) , in which two clocks were synchronized and left to run without interference, the implication being that one would stop before the other...

Tribute to Inside Looking Out - For the male artists along my way
© » KADIST

Wong Wai Yin

2008

In this work the artist stages a humorously violent “intervention” against male-dominated cultures of art production in present-day China...

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Holly Solomon, the Glamorous Collector Who Became an Influential Dealer - Artsy
© » LARRY'S LIST

Holly Solomon spent most of her life supporting and championing artists; a new exhibition in London charts her influence....

The Cloud of Unknowing
© » KADIST

As part of Asian Contemporary Art Week, Kadist presented The Cloud of Unknowing by Ho Tzu Nyen, a Singapore-based artist and filmmaker...

London concept store APOC has created an alternative fashion gift list
© » WALLPAPER*

An alternative fashion gift list, courtesy of APOC store | Wallpaper Left, Invasive Modification...

Related artist(s) to: Ho Tzu Nyen » Anton Vidokle, » Guy Ben-Ner, » Hans Ulrich Obrist, » Vandy Rattana, » Ali Cherri, » Basim Magdy, » Biljana Ciric, » Cao Fei, » Chen Chieh-Jen, » Cosmin Costinas  
» see more

Endless Falls
© » KADIST

Ali Cherri

2017

As a discipline born at the same time as colonialism, archeology is struggling to rid itself of this sad context...

Wild Boy
© » KADIST

Guy Ben-Ner

2004

Wild Boy is the story of the education of Amir, the artist’s son...

AUTOTROFIA
© » KADIST

Anton Vidokle

2020

Shot in Oliveto Lucano, a village in the south of Italy, AUTOTROFIA (meaning self-eating) by artist Anton Vidokle is a cinéma vérité style film that slides fictive characters into real situations, and vice-versa, to draw a prolonged meditation on the cycle of life, seasonal renewal, and ecological awareness...

Diversionist
© » KADIST

Cao Fei

2004

Diversionist is part of the Cosplayers Series from 2004...

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Clouds paintings
© » KADIST

Benoît Maire

The series Clouds paintings by Benoît Maire features oil on canvas works in varying format, in which the artist depicts clouds, using a variety of tools, including a spray gun, paintbrush, or palette knife...

Tia-Thuy Nguyen — Sparkle in the vastness
© » SLASH PARIS

Tia-Thuy Nguyen — Sparkle in the vastness — Almine Rech Gallery, Matignon — Exhibition — Slash Paris Login Newsletter Twitter Facebook Tia-Thuy Nguyen — Sparkle in the vastness — Almine Rech Gallery, Matignon — Exhibition — Slash Paris English Français Home Events Artists Venues Magazine Videos Back Previous Next Tia-Thuy Nguyen — Sparkle in the vastness Exhibition Painting Tia Thuy Nguyen, série I, my, me, cloud (2018-2023) Courtesy de l’artiste et galerie Almine Rech Tia-Thuy Nguyen Sparkle in the vastness Ends in 13 days: January 11 → February 24, 2024 “Sparkle in the vastness", Tia-Thuy Nguyen’s first show with Almine Rech presents a suite of more than twenty multi-media paintings from the artist’s ongoing series “I, my, me, cloud” (2018–)...

The End One
© » KADIST

Raymond Pettibon

2005

The five works included in the Kadist Collection are representative of Pettibon’s complex drawings which are much more narrative than comics or cartoon...

Untitled 1
© » KADIST

Pratchaya Phinthong

2009

Phinthong made four photographs depicting fragments of meteorites of which the faces have been polished to reflect the sky...