CATALYST 2021 - An embedded response by Alyah Amani
CATALYST is an annual incubation programme for P7:1SMA associates that supports research process and performance-making. We hope to inspire artistic practices that grow and embrace failures. Personalised support is given to artists such as unlimited studio time, mentorship circle, feedback with community and administrative support. Since 2018, there have been 4 local artists who have shared their works and creation process with the community.
Read more about shared works and artists here.
Embedded writing and personal response
by Alyah Amani
This marks the first day of Catalyst where 7 artists will be sharing their works and creation process to the community. As I sit here watching Rumah slowly come to life, I take in the calm energy of the room, the silent anticipation and busy hands. Coloured boxes line the floor as the first performer prepares her stage.
Tape town
by Valerie Lim & Melinda Lauw
Introduction to Tape Town and how the idea was formulated
The gloomy atmosphere of covid gave them the inspiration for this work
- Play on COVID restrictions
- Finger dance & Choreography
- Given time to decorate and create our own finger costumes
- Performance Time!
Mood : Playful, Light hearted, Engaging
Artist sharing
Is this meaningful enough for you as the public to continue the movement?
Audience sharing
“There is something flirtatious about the way my hand was dancing within and outside the box. If we did it with our bodies, we would attract attention and trouble but with our fingers and hands, it doesn’t seem wrong to do.”
“ There is potential for this project to grow. Tik Tok or other trendy social media platforms could be considered in marketing Tape Town.”
Personal Response
Basics of movement
Imitation through movement
Stick man
Reminds me of when i was a child using my hands and fingers to mimic and create scenarios for play time.
Garap
by Ismail Jemaah
Garap // Work on // Work // Cultivating
An interactive work that uses the ideas of the audience to formulate a performance. Elements of sound and movement are woven into this piece to create an immersive experience.Ismail was attracted to the intangible feeling of sensing each other’s presence during a live performance. He created this work for the sole purpose of enjoying the vibe a live performance gave off.
Instructions
Day 1
Draw one thing that you saw today
Use a Google app to create a melody of your own
Create a sculpture from the responses
Find a way to connect these sculptures aka responses
Day 2
Write down the first word that comes to mind
Shout the word out loud ( Verbs, Adjectives, Nouns )
The use of instruments such as the Triangle are introduced
Hold up a hand sign to the performers
Personal Response
“Sufi and Syimah (dancers) are seen gracing the makeshift stage with their smiles and erratic movements. As the audience feeds the dancers their words and sounds, I become highly aware of my surroundings and what I was witnessing in front of me. The intangible feeling the artist was trying to get across finally relayed to me. The light hearted atmosphere of the room coupled with the air of playfulness got me feeling pumped and excited.”
Live Response
“The dancers have stopped closely interacting
Now they are dancing individually
Their movements are slow unlike previously where they were erratic
Watching them move i find myself smiling
As the rhythm picks up, their movements get faster and more frantic.
They move in accordance to the tempo and beat
There is an air of playfulness.
Even though they are not touching it feels and looks as if their bodies are moving as one
The barricades are then removed signaling the end of the performance.”
Visuals
The inside of a child’s mind. Bringing back fond childhood memories.
Resurfacing past experiences.
Azure
by Jonit On & Syarifuddin Sahari
Live Documentation
“Dressed in white cropped tops
Jonit carries a laptop around with a blue screen with what appears to be coding of some sort? She moves in slow calculated steps
In a cat pose she slowly plays an audio of high pitched noise
She is seen observing the computer.
I can feel and hear the ringing in my ears i think it makes me feel nauseous
Like a sharp long lasting prick
Jonit addresses the audience as she moves to center space.
She then lies down in the middle of the white plastic
Syariffudin pours the blue paint on Jonit then proceeds to lay on her.
Now both bodies are stained in blue.
They slowly move in unison, almost mechanical.
The paint gets rubbed onto their bodies as they move in slow erotic movements.They keep a stoic face. Not particularly making eye contact with anyone. Staring into nothing.
Occasionally, lumps of paint falls off their bodies
I hear the sound of their feet covered in paint crumpling the plastic.
I smell the pungent smell of the acrylic paint.
The performance has come to an end.”
Audience body language
“I see a man covering his ears probably as bothered by the sound as i am
I see a man in a bucket hat unable to keep eye contact with the performance, he often glances about. Everybody is captivated by the performance.”
Observations
A transmission of data is taking place
Used more paint during the second performance
Movements changes due to paint
There is a certain anticipation and thrill watching the performers trying to move in swift motions without falling.
Artist sharing
Did not want to make much meaning out of the creation
Left it to the imagination of her viewers
She intended the capture the little space in between moments
The space between realities
“ When your computer dies on you and you start having an existential crisis.”
Mood : Alienistic Foreign Bodies, Futuristic yet Primal, Melancholy, Calmness
Audience sharing
It felt surreal
Reminded him of the “Blue screen of death”
The alien aspects reminded him of the Matrix skin
The blueness of the paint reminded him of laundry detergent
Reincarnation and death of sorts
Sacred Connection
by Sharul Mohd, Nurliyana Shukor, Geraldine Tng
Concept
How can the intangible be felt throughout the body? Death is inevitable
In order for something new to surface many things have to die.
A Soul Body Connection.
Layout of performance
Video - Performance - Artist QnA
Process
Relying on sense of hearing and sight observation
Collaborative process took a longer time
Allowing his counter parts to be involved
Indonesian Vocalist, Peni Candra
Developing asian contemporary dance in Singapore
Layout of set
A single red rope separating sharul from the other two performers
Wooden box placed away from them
Tepak sirih
Traditional malay container
Store fancy food offerings
Batik used for deaths
Live Observations
Day 1
The two bodies are interacting with each other
They take in deep breaths
A type of possession is taking place
Entering a trance
Erratic movements
Sharul sits on a white platform where the rope is tied from
It feels as though he is the one singing
There is a hierarchy in the roles
“I can hear the sound ringing in my ears. The occasional sound of Sharul hitting the white platform breaks the silence. The two dancers are entering a sort of trance. The music sounds absolutely terrifying. With every beat of the platform, the two dancers fall deeper into their trance. I feel like I'm watching a ritual of sorts taking place. Sharul’s body answers to the calling of the music. His body contorts and moves as he slowly unveils a piece of batik from the wooden box. The batik now becomes an extension of his body as he twirls and becomes one . He handles the cloth delicately at the same time he tosses it about.”
Day 2
Clapping - Water trickling
Heavy breathing - Melodic Humming
Stomping - Chanting
Skirts flowing - Summoning
“The rain downpour is significantly heavier today. As the performances take place, a sense of tranquility takes over Rumah. The swaying of the trees and the occasional sweep of breeze changes the direction of the performance completely. In comparison to the first performance where the two dancers were worshiping Sharul, in this rendition all three performers are seen gathered praying to a higher being together. What felt dark and sinister yesterday is overwhelmed by a sense of peace and calmness today. The music is melodic and the performers enter a trance humming and breathing rhythmically.”
Visual Image Response to performance
MANMAN
by Syimah Sabtu & Merissa Tan
Describing the performance to me in three words
Raw, Cathartic, Transient.
Mood
Gloomy
Ritualistic
Ambiguous
Live Observations
The set consists of a large scroll of paper smeared with what appears to look like charcoal, the performer is seen donning a red silk dress. She wriggles her body in accordance to the music as she drags herself across the white sheet of paper. Moving in calculated steps the relationship between her body and the music creates a tense and suspenseful atmosphere. A single light illuminating the start of the scroll, the light bleeds onto her skin. There is a single projection on the window. I am unable to fully make out an image nor decipher the words behind the audio. The muffled sounds coming from the speaker along with the hazy projection creates a simulation of the performer’s mind. Her movements change in accordance to the beat and tempo of the music. As the performance peaks, she is seen to be moving more frantically, dragging herself through the charcoal.
A form of surrender
Towards the end she unrolls the scroll and holds it against herself. Lastly she covers the light with the scroll. Movements started from fetal position - crawling - standing
Tense, rigid, frantic, calculated, broken (movements),
Sounds (what I can hear)
Intense ritualistic music
The sound of her feet hitting the floor
Crushing the charcoal
Her palms rubbing the charcoal in
Instrumentals accompanied by chanting? Voices?
Audio of a woman talking
Personal Response
“The dark and gloomy ambience initially gave off a sinister almost suffocating vibe. As the performance progressed it felt more like she was regurgitating her past experiences using her performance as a form of catharsis. The relationship between her body and the music - visually, her movements looked restricted, rigid and minor. During the climax of her performance, her movements grew messy and she moved in a chaotic and turbulent way. Towards the end of her performance, the artist is seen making movements revolving her hands and stomach going around in circles.
It felt to me like she was externalising the internal.
Inner turmoils, inner conflicts and doubts, are now aired out for the world to witness.
It was an intimate part of the performance that I felt connected to. It was as if I had dipped my feet into her mind for a short fleeting moment.”
Circle time between Artist & community
Why did the artist choose to shine the projection onto the window?
The decision gathered mixed responses. Some loved the ambiguity it held, others could not connect to the performance.
The part of the performance where the artist is seen lifting up the white sheet creates a new horizontal plane which adds dimension to the performance.
The positions where you witness the performance from makes a huge difference. Different focus points.
Grain
by Syarifuddin Sahari
“What do you see in the music?
What do you hear in the movement?”
What I see (What do you see in the music?)
Rain
Thunder
An old house with wood creaking floors someone pacing up and down
Tension in hand movements almost like the arms wants to run away from the body
Movements get more frantic
The body is slowly transforming into a white being
Movements go from one arm to the other
His body parts are isolated but coming to life individually
Almost as if they have a mind of their own
As if his body is an anchor to his limbs
Erratic movements
What I hear (What do you hear in the movements?)
Rain pelting
Occasional foot on wood
Knocking of bones on the floor
The squeaking created by rubbing// mopping cloth on floor
Heavy breathing
Accompanied by silence
A strong sense of wanting to run away
What I feel
Curious
A strong sense of nostalgia
Viewing the body and its limbs as separate entities
“Oddly enough it reminds me of when you’re to be questioned in the here after, your limbs will speak for you. Your hands will speak of all the things they’ve touched and done while the legs will speak of all the places they’ve come across.”
Visual Image Response to performance
Shadow-ing
by Sonia Kwek
Live Observations
“Artist is seen in a black full suit leotard holding ashes. She is situated in a circle made of ash with jaw sticks lighted in front of her. The image of the grey powder falling and dropping on the black body is visually disturbing.
It feels private, intimate and subtly confrontational.
It forces the viewers to pay full attention in suspense.
The black leotard transforms and reduces the human body to a figure.
The smooth and almost erotic movements of the body is constrained to the limits of the circle. The performer is seen crawling on all fours, almost like an animal. This particular scene feels primal. Towards the end she is seen standing upright with her hands in the air swaying from side to side and making full body rotations. It gives off the impression that she is ascending. The music picks up towards the end of the performance, a sudden spike in the atmosphere that gets your heart pumping. I watch in awe as the performer enters a sort of trance as her body contorts into certain shapes and forms. I think I feel afraid of the unfamiliar image before me. It’s creepy i think, yet it forces you to keep your eyes watching. Her body morphs as she peels off the black leotard which once clothed her body. The black leotard which now looks like a second skin is tossed aside precariously.
She frantically messes up the neatly set circle that once kept her captive. She then gathers the ashes and spreads it across her body. She sits and stares at the audience, unflinching, almost as if we have intruded into her space. I feel like I'm being teleported. I don't know where and i don't know why but it feels as though i’m intruding.
Irony.”
What I can see
Praying
Worship
Taking in her body
Shadow reflected on the wall mimics her actions
There is a sense of vulnerability in the way she completely gives herself away to the performance
Often seen with hands above head as if she is worshipping/praying looking up to a higher being
Morphing
Shedding her skin
Baby animal upon birth
Slimy struggling to move properly
Rubbing in the ashes into her face and body
Looks straight into the crowd
Different stages of body levels
Starts standing eventually all 4 limbs make contact with the ground
Upon addressing her boundaries she is back to standing upright
Her body starts to contort
Ends in a “bridge” position
She ends up on her back with all limbs suspended
Squats
What I can hear
The introduction of bells/ percussion
The occasional sound of her body being dragged across the floor
There is a sudden change of tempo // electric guitar
Ritualistic music
The vibrations of the music echos and fills the room
The occasional sound of the drum and gong lingers
Visual Image Response to Performance
