The Spirit that Moves

Curated by Clifford Loh

Artists: Amy Lien, Enzo Camacho, Fyerool Darma, Miljohn Ruperto, Stanya Kahn

October 2019

Though spirituality and superstition speak to elusive and intangible forces in the physical world, their presence is clearly felt in contemporary art and visual culture emerging out of Southeast Asia.

 The Spirit that Moves takes, as a starting point, manifestations of belief and mysticism in visual art, and considers how spiritual materiality can be productively analyzed in dynamic relation to socio-economic and socio-cultural undercurrents in Southeast Asia. The works on view draw from myth, local wisdom, and alternative narratives of site. They echo a multitude of temporalities and disparate understandings of beliefs in this region. The exhibition asks: What are the limitations in presenting works that emerge from the region under the blanket term “Southeast Asia”?

陰府, Shady Mansion (2018) by Amy Lien (b. 1987, United States) and Enzo Camacho (b. 1985, Philippines) draws from speculative visions to depict New York's Low Line through an effigy of the Chinese underworld and harkens at socio-economic issues such as globalized labor, resistance against capital, and urban gentrification. In a similar vein, Zoning (2018), a collaboration between Miljohn Ruperto (b. 1971, Philippines) and Stanya Kahn (b. 1968, United States), explores present spectrums of labor struggles from a socio-economic and supernatural register. In Stairway to Heaven (2018), Fyerool Darma (b. 1989, Singapore) mirrors the cultural appropriation of horror films that adapt folklore to exoticize Southeast Asia as a land of black magic and monsters.