Silhouettes of Having Been

An exhibition by Mark Chua and Lam Li Shuen

4 to 28 Apr 2024
Objectifs Lower Gallery 2

Opening: Thu 4 Apr 2024, 7pm – 9pm
Free admission

Related events
Analog Filmmaking: The Basics and Experimentations (Please register here)
Date & Time: Sat 27 Apr, 2pm – 6pm
Location: Objectifs Workshop Space
Fee: $80 (General admission) | $50 (participants aged 35 and under)
This workshop is supported by the National Youth Fund (NYF).

Silhouettes of Having Been is an exhibition by Mark Chua and Lam Li Shuen, devised as a response to the site of Objectifs Centre for Photography and Film. Focusing on fallen hair strands as a central material, it is a reflection and turning of attention toward physical presences and the possibilities in being together between time and images. The invisible becomes visible and the minute becomes magnificent as teeming lines are silhouetted against light.

Over a period of time, fallen hair strands by people passing through Objectifs were collected. The hair strands were adhered to film loops running through 16mm and Super 8 projectors, in a live expanded cinema performance taking place before the exhibition. This was done alongside live modifications of the performed film with ink and lenticular interventions, in combination with an improvisational soundscape with the film loops prepared as percussive elements. As a result, the film loops were physically altered by the live process, creating a unique, unrepeatable moving image piece that forms the core of the exhibition.

In the exhibition, Chua and Lam wish to invite an encounter with the materiality and speculative fictions of fallen hair as a bodily response which silently traces our existences. What do they say and express, these silhouettes of having been?

About Mark Chua and Lam Li Shuen

Mark Chua and Lam Li Shuen are a Singaporean filmmaker and artist duo. Their films explore existential anxiety, alienation, and histories, often using surrealistic imagery, bizarre narratives, and body horror as social commentary.

Their films have screened at international film festivals, including the International Film Festival Rotterdam (2023), New Directors/New Films (2023), and BFI London Film Festival (2021). In 2021, they were awarded Best Southeast Asian Director at the Singapore International Film Festival for their short film A Man Trembles. Their short film, The Cup also received the First Prize (Moving Images) of the Julius Baer Next Generation Art Prize in 2021.

They are currently developing their upcoming feature film The Want, which was selected to participate in Berlinale Talents Script Station 2024, mylab+@Jogja 2023 and Talents Tokyo 2023.