Filmmaker Liao Jiekai in conversation with artist Yanyun Chen

Objectifs Film Club: The Drawing Room & Episodes from Art Studio by Liao Jiekai
Thu 25 Feb 2021, 8pm to 9pm (Singapore Time)
This event will be held online, via Zoom.
Free admission, donations are welcome

Click here to read a recap of the session via our Journal. 

Join us online for our next Objectifs Film Club session, featuring filmmaker Liao Jiekai in conversation with artist Yanyun Chen.

The Drawing Room & Episodes from Art Studio is a filmic exploration of the text, characters and narratives from the late Singaporean author Yeng Pway Ngon’s novel Art Studio. The film meditates on the practice of life drawing, and moves from the snug art studio to the wide corridors of the newly opened National Gallery Singapore. Chapters of Singapore Modern Art adorn the freshly painted walls of the gallery, and conjure stories of the passing generation portrayed in Yeng’s Art Studio.

Join us for a dialogue between Jiekai and Yanyun, who will discuss the following and more:

  • Jiekai’s encounter with the novel and how the short film was conceived as an exploration of selected themes, rather than a literal adaptation.
  • The experience of making the short film: the durational nature of Yanyun’s figure drawing practice, finding ways to innovate while shooting on 16mm film in tight spaces, and the space the work occupies between documentary and fiction.
  • Notions of the gaze and layers of ‘looking’ within the film, from the artist, to the filmmaker, to the audience
  • Insights into the “resurgence of the figurative” in recent Singapore art history, and the ways in which this is consistent with, and is at odds with, with wider cultural shifts regarding visibility, agency and representation of the body

The Drawing Room & Episodes from Art Studio by Liao Jiekai will be made available to watch for free on the Objectifs Film Library from Mon 1 Feb to Wed 25 Feb, 2359h. Please note this event does not include a live screening of the film; attendees are encouraged to watch it prior to the online session.

Click on the image below to view The Drawing Room & Episodes from Art Studio (PG13). Other short films by Liao Jiekai are available to rent on the Objectifs Film Library.

How to join the online film club:
1. Please register via the form below. You will receive an email from Objectifs to confirm your spot in the session. The Zoom link will be sent to registered participants on Tues 24 Feb.
2. Objectifs will ‘photograph’ (e.g. screenshots) and audio/video record this online discussion for the purposes of documentation. We require participants to enter the Zoom call using the same name they have registered with so we may check against the registration list. You may subsequently change your username and switch off your device’s camera if you would prefer not to be photographed or recorded. We will make an announcement about this before we start any documentation.
3. Objectifs is committed to maintaining a safe and inclusive space for this online discussion. By registering for this session, participants agree to abide by the following guidelines:

  • Treat all people with courtesy and respect.
  • Harassment/discrimination of sexual, physical, vocal, emotional or any other nature based on gender, gender identity and expression, age, sexual orientation, ability, physical appearance, race, ethnicity, or religion are not appropriate.

While this is a free event, please consider donating to Objectifs if you are able to. Your contribution goes directly to supporting our programmes, and the freelancers and artists we work with during this difficult time.

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About the speakers:

Liao Jiekai is a filmmaker based in Singapore / Japan and a founding member of the film collective 13 Little Pictures. His debut film Red Dragonflies (2010) won the Special Jury Prize at the Jeonju International Film Festival. His sophomore film As You Were (2014) competed at film festivals in Tokyo, Torino and Nantes. He attended Berlinale Talents in 2012. His third feature film Light of a Burning Moth (2020) premiered at the Tokyo International Film Festival in 2020.

Dr. Yanyun Chen (b. 1986) is a visual artist based in Singapore, and runs a drawing, animation and installation practice. Her works delve into the aesthetic, cultural and technological inheritances on one’s body, unravelling fictional and philosophical notions of embodiment. She researches cultural wounds, dowry traditions, hereditary scars, philosophies of nudities, and etymology. She is the Arts Practice Coordinator for the Humanities division of Yale-NUS College in Singapore, the founder of illustration and animation studio Piplatchka, and a partner of publishing house Delere Press LLP. She is a recipient of the National Arts Council Young Artist Award in 2020.

About the Objectifs Film Library:
The Objectifs Film Library is a new initiative by Objectifs that aims to be a resource for film lovers in Singapore and the region. Currently, the collection is focused on short films from Southeast Asia.

Users will be able to rent some of these films to watch in the comfort of their homes, and a wider selection is available exclusively at our centre later this year (depending on the Covid-19 situation).

Access the Objectifs Film Library here.

The Objectifs Film Library is supported by

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