Timepieces
Ho Tzu Nyen
(Film 5 of 5) Walking around the bustling commercial streets of Hong Kong, artist Ho Tzu Nyen questions what unites a region as diverse as Southeast Asia. “All of these different forms of culture, histories are stacked one on top of the other like the strata of the earth with different layers,” the artist says. “This sense of composites or mixtures is very much part of my DNA.” While looking at representations of merlions or through stacks of archival slides, the artist reflects on his personal memories and childhood experiences from Hong Kong cinema to Cantonese pop music to colonial histories of the region. This suite of four documentary shorts follows Ho as he works with AI, archives, celebrity, and the moving image, exploring the disparate cultures, worldviews, and experiences that comprise Southeast Asia.
Featured artists
About the artists
Ho Tzu Nyen was born in 1976 in Singapore, where he lives and works. He received his BA from Victorian College of the Arts, University of Melbourne, in 2001 and his MA from the National University of Singapore in 2007. In 2024, he was a recipient of the CHANEL Next Prize. Throughout his practice, the artist draws from epic mythologies, historical figures, popular culture, and film archives to better understand how history, culture, and identity are constructed and disseminated. Through film, animation, performance, and installation, Ho weaves fact and fiction to investigate the realities, histories, and temporalities that comprise Southeast Asia.
