The Garden – I Will Send You To A Better Place

The Garden – I Will Send You to a Better Place
By Zai Kuning
Friday 25 March – Sunday 3 April 2011
The Substation Gallery
This is an OpenHouse event

A worthy failure is more valuable than a mediocre success – Kuo Pao Kun

Since May 2006, Zai Kuning has been campaigning his unhappiness toward how The Substation Garden has been exploited and misused. For the Singapore Biennale 2011, he proposed to close the music venue Timbre, which occupies the garden, for a period of two months so as to restore the garden as a space open to all artists. The proposal failed to materialise. With a body of new work that includes installation, drawings, and a monologue, Zai will respond to this ‘failed project’ by interweaving stories of his childhood, coming of age, his sojourn in the arts scene and correspondence with Matthew Ngui, director of the Singapore Biennale 2011. This show-all, tell-all exhibition and performance is a poignant reminder of how our landscape, history, and memories are all severely threatened by relentless vested interests.

As an artist, Zai Kuning deliberately complicates convenient categorizations by adopting a wide range of practices which span from poetry, theatre, dance, performance art, music, installation art, photography to film. In 2009, Zai completed his book entitled ‘Orang’ (people) based on his experience with the orang laut whom he is closely attached to. It is being published by the Singapore History Museum and Singapore Malay Heritage centre.

For more information about Zai Kuning visit http://www.onisstudio.blogspot.com/