6 Nov 06 Making sense of a Dangerous World: An Interview with Brian Gothong Tan By Adrian At the age of 27, Brian Gothong Tan is perhaps one of the most exciting and prolific multi-media artists to have emerged from Singapore in recent years. Trained in Fine Arts, Multimedia and Animation at the famed California Institute of the Arts, he was awarded the Young Designers' Award for Multimedia in both the year 1999 and 2000 consecutively. Brian has worked extensively with Singapore’s foremost theatre companies , creating multimedia works for theatre productions. He is also the youngest artist to represent Singapore in the Singapore Biennale with “We Live in a Dangerous World”, now showing at Tanglin Camp till 12 November 2006. In this exclusive CRASHOUT! Interview, we talk to Brian about his journey in the arts, the choices he made and his work. Why did you become an artist? Because I want to do something that was not boring, and I didn’t want to succumb to market forces and be a mediocre 9-to-5 salary man. Who are your major influences? Local: Alfian Sa’at, Alvin Tan, Jeff Chen, Royston Tan. Non-local: Italo Calvino, Forced Entertainment, The Wooster Group, Erwin Wurm, Takashi Murakami, Mariko Mori, Borges, Olafur Eliasson and Madonna. What’s your latest work about? My latest work is called “We Live in a Dangerous World”, it’s a multimedia installation for the Singapore Biennale 2006. It’s a socio-political commentary of Singapore. I guess in most of my works, I’m always trying to make sense of place. How have audiences responded to you work?. Oh dear, there are many types of responses I get from the public. Fortunately, more positive than negative. The one I remembered most is from a woman from the US who said she cried when she saw my first installation, Heavenly Cakes and Sentimental Flowers, because she said she could relate to the images, which is surprising because I never thought my stuff could make people cry…laugh, maybe, but cry…quite an unusual response. Has your work been criticized? How would you respond to your critics? Of course, especially from the local art critics. They love to dismiss my works. I listen to what they have to say, and see whether they are relevant or not. Most of the time, they don’t really understand the context in which I create my works, so I just ignore them. If they point out something which I never realized or thought about, I take it down and make sure I don’t repeat the same mistake. You’ve done work in the theatre, film and also exhibited – what are the different challenges of each genre? Theatre and film are really about collaborating, while visual art is really more of a solo endeavor. Collaborations are exciting because the energy working with different people is electrifying, but it also can be time-consuming and sometimes the work comes out uneven. Working alone can be very intense and lonely, but you get to really meditate and refine your personal voice. What would you say to CRASHERS who aspire to become visual artists? Dream big, work hard, open your heart and mind, go to the library as often as possible, expose yourself to new experiences, talk to as many people as you can, see as many artworks as you can, create as many artworks as you can. Don’t listen to people who say “no” to you. And don’t get sucked up in the shallow art world. Be an independent thinker. Is there enough support for young artists in Singapore? Yes, but it’s competitive. I know that if I don’t work hard enough, there are tons of other artists more talented than me from China, Philippines and the rest of Asia who dream of getting support from NAC the way that they have supported me thus far. So although I am very grateful to the amount of support I get, I know I can’t rest on my laurels. Nil sine labore: Nothing without hardwork, my Victoria School motto. You pursued your degree in CalArts, how would you describe the arts community in the US, in comparison to Singapore? Singapore’s art scene is very territorial…there are annoying camps that love to bring each other down. It is also very fragmented. But once in a while, there are flashes of “community”, but that happens so rarely, so I guess it results in an arts scene that has no real voice or cultural power within the island. In the US, I guess it’s more coherent…. their art scene is definitely more mature than ours. I don’t think we can really compare…they have Artforum…… thousands of curators, writers, artists, art institutions, art collectors, critics, etc… you see my point. That said, I believe that Singapore has what it takes to be a cultural centre because of the number of educated people we have here, but the problem is we are over-educated but under-exposed. We have to slowly change the minds and hearts of people. Economic success is not the answer to life. Is it tough to make a living in Singapore as an artist? No, not really. Just don’t rely on the sale of your artworks as your source of income. You will be starving unless you have a steady stream of buyers. Plus I think the cult of artworks as products is very problematic. My main source of income comes from teaching part-time in NAFA and LaSalle, and the commissions I get from various projects. What are your latest projects? What are you working on? I’m working on a few, but mainly on a video installation at the National Museum of Singapore, titled “Waking the Fluorescent Lion”, and a new small installation at 72-13 titled “Signs, Omens and Relics of Faith” which I’m probably bringing to Boston next year for an exhibition over there. Brian will be dropping in to Show offs! So look out for his thoughts on your work! Talk about this article in the Forums, and share your thoughts with Brian! Brian Gothong Tan’s website at http://www.briangothongtan.com/ Check out “We Live in a Dangerous World” at Tanglin Camp • Where is Tanglin Camp? Where in Tanglin Camp? 73 Loewen Road, Singapore 248843, at Blks 71, 72 & 73 and Smaller Outlying Houses • How to get to Tanglin Camp MRT Station: Queenstown / Redhill Bus Services: 7, 75, 77, 105, 106, 123, 174, 174M, 502 • Admission Fee $5 (This includes single entry into all other Singapore Biennale venues that charge an admission fee, namely, City Hall, National Museum, Singapore Art Museum) • Opening Hours Mon, Wed, Thurs, Sat & Sun: 10am – 6pm Tue: 1pm – 6pm Fri: 10am – 9pm • How much time you should set aside About 1 – 1.5h