The Cloud of Unknowing
2011 - Film & Video (Film & Video)
Ho Tzu Nyen
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:
Related works featuring themes of: » Collective History, » Contemporary Conceptualism, » Film/Video, » Focus on the Social Margins, » Singaporean
» see more
© » KADIST
Vincent Leong
2012The 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...
© » KADIST
Joachim Koester
2006Physical and mental exploration have been founding elements in Joachim Koester’s research for several years...
Other related works, blended automatically
» see more
© » KADIST
Vincent Leong
2012The 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...
© » KADIST
Wong Wai Yin
2021Drawn from the widely circulated images of protests around the world in support of women rights and racial equality, the phrase I can’t believe we are still protesting is both the title of Wong Wai Yin’s photographic series and a reference to similar messages seen on protest signages...
© » KADIST
Zarouhie Abdalian
2010The first iteration of Flutter was specifically conceived for the Pro Arts Gallery space in Oakland in 2010, viewable from the public space of a sidewalk, and the version acquired by the Kadist Collection is an adaptation of it...
Related works sharing similar palette
» see more
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
© » KADIST
Ali Cherri
2017As a discipline born at the same time as colonialism, archeology is struggling to rid itself of this sad context...
© » KADIST
Anton Vidokle
2020Shot 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...
Related works found in the same semantic group
» see more
© » 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...
© » 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–)...
© » KADIST
Olivia Erlanger
2016Sideways Time by Olivia Erlanger is the result of the artist’s interest in networks, seen and unseen, financial and ecological, the collapse of which has resulted in the fracturing of a middle class American identity...