Jonathan Tan
(NUS Faculty of Arts and Social Science, 2019)Jonathan Tan is a 2019 alumnus from the NUS Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, photographer with a psychology and art history background, who uses varying analogue and digital photography processes. His addresses issues regarding representation, subject-photographer dynamics, reconceptualizing the documentary practice through using collaboration, re-photography, and deconstruction of the photographic process. The current exploration focuses on experimenting with other artists of different mediums
Personal Statement
Warp & Weft is an ongoing series of artist collaborations that starts with the desire to challenge the rituals of documentary photography by raising questions about authorship and the photographer's gaze. By employing the method of photovoice, as developed by public health researchers Caroline C. Wang and Mary Ann Burris, the work contemplates the artist's role as both a subject and collaborator, placing subject intervention at the core of its inquiry.
The artist(s) are invited to intervene in any stage of the process, from conceptualising, photography, editing to installation blurring the boundaries of authorship in the work. The gaze of the photographer is returned by the gaze of the subject, and conversely so, which results in a chimeric and Janus-faced expressions.
In Jean-Pierre Rehm's essay the ’The Plays of Witnesses’ he discusses how documentaries often disguise themselves as reality, unaware that they "merely possess opacity and depth, serving as objects of study, documents among documents, forming part of an interpretive process that enables the viewer's political freedom." By subjecting gaze upon gaze, the notion of authorship becomes fluid, thereby challenging the viewer's perspective.
Warp & Weft is an ongoing series of artist collaborations that starts with the desire to challenge the rituals of documentary photography by raising questions about authorship and the photographer's gaze. By employing the method of photovoice, as developed by public health researchers Caroline C. Wang and Mary Ann Burris, the work contemplates the artist's role as both a subject and collaborator, placing subject intervention at the core of its inquiry.
The artist(s) are invited to intervene in any stage of the process, from conceptualising, photography, editing to installation blurring the boundaries of authorship in the work. The gaze of the photographer is returned by the gaze of the subject, and conversely so, which results in a chimeric and Janus-faced expressions.
In Jean-Pierre Rehm's essay the ’The Plays of Witnesses’ he discusses how documentaries often disguise themselves as reality, unaware that they "merely possess opacity and depth, serving as objects of study, documents among documents, forming part of an interpretive process that enables the viewer's political freedom." By subjecting gaze upon gaze, the notion of authorship becomes fluid, thereby challenging the viewer's perspective.
Jonathan Tan with Adil Arsad
Who am I before your eyes/have you heard the ‘Pyramid Song’
2023
Digital print mounted on wood, acrylic, bricks, and bleach
Personal Statement
Adil shows me the place(s) of his nostalgia.
I make pictures out of them
and he made sequins out of
my negatives.
I wondered if he made old things
new or made
new things
old?
"Who am I before your eyes? Have you heard the 'Pyramid Song'?" is a photography installation that incorporates a mixture of documentary, posed portrait, and abstracted photographs of Adil Arsad. The photographs are mounted on a wooden piece, partially submerged in bleach. The installation is encased in an acrylic case and stabilized with bricks. It explores the concepts of nostalgic spaces of love and its grief by playfully experimenting with their materiality.
Adil shows me the place(s) of his nostalgia.
I make pictures out of them
and he made sequins out of
my negatives.
I wondered if he made old things
new or made
new things
old?
"Who am I before your eyes? Have you heard the 'Pyramid Song'?" is a photography installation that incorporates a mixture of documentary, posed portrait, and abstracted photographs of Adil Arsad. The photographs are mounted on a wooden piece, partially submerged in bleach. The installation is encased in an acrylic case and stabilized with bricks. It explores the concepts of nostalgic spaces of love and its grief by playfully experimenting with their materiality.
Jonathan Tan with Johann
stereographies/hidden in (plain) sight
2023
Transparency on light box, lamp, Nintendo 3DS, table, framed digital prints
Dimensions variable
Personal Statement
stereographies/hidden in (plain) sight is a photographic installation of printed photographs, a Nintendo DS game console, and ready-made furniture. The installation explores the interplay between avatars, portraits, spaces, and objects, captured or manipulated using both the Nintendo DS and digital single-lens reflex camera (DSLR). Johann's body/avatar appears to traverse between the physical and digital realms, encountering various objects, animals, and spaces. By merging the game console and camera as photographic mediums, the installation combines real and imaginary perspectives, resulting in a transformative amalgamation of both.
stereographies/hidden in (plain) sight is a photographic installation of printed photographs, a Nintendo DS game console, and ready-made furniture. The installation explores the interplay between avatars, portraits, spaces, and objects, captured or manipulated using both the Nintendo DS and digital single-lens reflex camera (DSLR). Johann's body/avatar appears to traverse between the physical and digital realms, encountering various objects, animals, and spaces. By merging the game console and camera as photographic mediums, the installation combines real and imaginary perspectives, resulting in a transformative amalgamation of both.
