“The Head”
Solo Exhibition, 18 – 31 Jan 2019
The Head’s first public outing, involving interaction with a larger audience.
Victor Tan began The Head Project in 2013 in his studio to create and test the boundaries of art and social media for himself. It was an attempt to bring his art to the virtual spaces of the Internet. Victor focusses his art practice on creating 3D forms with metal wires, doing so primarily by touch. As such, his works have a strong tactile dimension. To experience this dimension of Victor’s art, however, an observer needs to be in the same physical space as the artwork. The Head looks into the possibilities of how this art can be experienced in the virtual spaces of the Internet.
“The Head” is a large wire sculpture in the shape of a human head (medium: 316 stainless steel and rod, dimensions: 115 x 102 x 148 cm). It was Victor’s attempt at allowing the audience to experience the sculpture both from outside and inside.
“I often wanted to go near a sculpture to touch and feel all around it. This sculpture allows the audience to go right in.”
With the aid of accessibility features on his phone camera, Victor invited his audience to climb into the sculpture and to tweet their experience being in the sculpture, creating digital documents of the event. In 2013, tweeter was used and in 2019, Instagram was used as the media. Victor invites the audience to record on video their feelings in the sculpture, and Instagram it. That way, Victor hopes that the audience all over the world can experience the sculpture even without physical presence.
Some excerpts from the audience :
“It’s calming, it’s surreal, I feel like I am in a cocoon. You can hear all these noises from outside … but there’s tranquillity being in here”.
“As I slowed down, I could feel my heart stilling itself. Victor asked me to speak into his iPhone so he could Insta-document me and my thoughts.”
“I can hear my own thoughts. This is my experience in The Head.”
“The Head” also showcases 2 other series of works “Born Again” and “Vines and Branches”.
“Born Again”
“Born Again” was done some time ago and now for this exhibition, it is given a new dimension; to allow the audience to interact with the sculpture and to see the changes that develops from the interaction. The element of light is added to cast shadows on the walls and ceiling. A kind of shadow puppetry which is often played with his children when they were little. With his poor vision, Victor sees lights and shadows and it often amazed him to see them flying around. With this torch that shines on the sculpture, it allows the audience to see more than what they could not have seen.
“Vines and Branches”
A series of works that Victor have been working on and still evolving The first sculpture came about years ago when Victor was in Japan in winter. Having felt the trees on a winter day, where the branches were bare; with the leaves all gone. For Victor, who lives in a tropical Singapore, the bare branches were fascinating to the touch. Upon his return, he made the sculpture. Vines and Branches were born, with its name inspired by a verse from the gospel.
Victor also introduced the element of movement for this series of works allowing the audience to experience the work with the space, light and time. Instead of moving around the sculpture, the sculpture moves or rotates for the viewers in a faster speed. At some point, vines and branches seem to also take on the feel of the brains and arteries in the head.