HO Tzu-Nyen (Singapore)

The Cloud of Unknowing, 2011, single-channel video, color, sound, 28′.

Explores the aesthetic history and role of cloud imagery in art through eight compartmentalized vignettes, titled after a fourteenth century mystical treatise on faith, in which the cloud represents a simultaneous internal struggle and reconciliation with “the unknown” or the divine. Set in a deserted, low-income public housing block in Singapore, each subject encounters a sudden shift, transformation or illumination, which he or she must comprehend through sensory response and emotion, rather than logic and rational thought.

About the artist:

Ho Tzu Nyen works primarily in film, video, and performance, and more recently, environmental multimedia installations. He appropriates the structures of epic myths, invoking their grandeur while revealing them to be not merely stories, but discursive tools. He is particularly interested in exploring false accounts of histories that are invented by contemporary figures to serve their needs—a subject especially salient in the context of Singapore, where he lives and works. Ho represented Singapore at the 54th Venice Biennale (2011) and has participated in major international film festivals including the Cannes Film Festival, and Sundance Film Festival; He has been part of numerous solo and group exhibitions including Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane; Tate, London; Witte de With, Rotterdam and Times Museum, Guangzhou, China.