Totem TV (2022)
Mixed Media Installation
(CRT broadcast monitors, mini CCTV cameras mounted in articulating arms, LED bulb, black out curtains, multi-gang rack mount power strips)
On view till March 7

Urich Lau

Artist Statement:

The video installation of ‘Totem TV’ created for The Non-Season, uses the format of old technological means and plays on the notions of surveillance, biometrics, and a hypothetical build-up of metadata for the human analogue – in other words, how do we visualise and re-present the human form(s)?

The screen is our electronic mirror that reflects what we could manipulate to visualise other actualities. It is both a tactile surface and a phenomenological window to another ethereal domain. The audience can be wary of cameras and screens, but equally curious about the representations therein.

The human self, which is constantly being reflexive on its appearances and perceptions, is in an auto-capturing and auto-recording habit, therewith reflecting on the systemised premises of cameras, screens and capturing.

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Sustainability note: The artist will reuse 100% of the materials after the work is de-installed.

About the Artist:

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Urich Lau, born 1975, is a visual artist, independent curator and art educator based in Singapore. Focusing in video art, photography and media art, he has presented works in Singapore and internationally. Graduated with a Master of Fine Art from Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology in 2004, he is a lecturer at LASALLE college of the Arts. He is also the founding member of the art collective INTER–MISSION and the studio Hothouse.

The artist’s practice and research are based in the interests of art and technology that engage in conceptual discourses within the intent of contemporary art. Working in the forms of video, photography and media art, the artist examines subject matter in contextual irony through the audience’s perceptions and perspectives on socio-political and cultural interpretations with methodological interactions, interventions and interruptions.

Socials:

Instagram: @urichlau

Facebook: urich.lau

​Linktree: @urichlau

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Video Links: 

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Spy Ball (2018 - 2019)

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