Exhibitions / Gallery 1 & 2, 3rd Floor
EN THOn-Air, Off-Air
Ho Rui An and Sung Tieu, curated by Vincent Ardidon
On-Air, Off-Air brings together the works of Ho Rui An (b. 1990, Singapore) and Sung Tieu (b. 1987, Hai Duong), two artists whose distinctive practices have investigated the role of state bureaucracies in the global intertwining of capital, finance, and mechanisms of control.
The term On-Air originally meant that a person or a program was being broadcast, while Off-Air meant they were not. The idea being: the transmission and reception of signals that travel through the air. By compounding these two expressions, the title alludes to the atmosphere as a literal field where novel paradigms of war have manifested since the Cold War period, signaling how one ideology’s spread creates the deterrence of another—on the ground and in the air.
Drawing a parallel between the two artists’ distinctive practices, the show incorporates video, photography, and installations that dialogically address the ambient, far-reaching implications of the Cold War in Asia and their ties elsewhere. Biographical and fictional materials unfold in space and on screens throughout the exhibition, imparting various expository and stylistic gestures. Archival and research materials are also presented alongside the works, tracking and contextualizing the two artists' unique and rigorous examination of subjects related to this fraught period.
On-Air, Off-Air coalesces the multifaceted practices of two contemporary artists, Ho Rui An and Sung Tieu. Their respective works excavate the subliminal politics embedded within media forms, examining the entanglement of space, selfhood, and state. Together, they offer a layered, incisive meditation on the Cold War’s enduring imprint and the imaginative labor required to confront its lasting echoes.
All of the works on view will be presented for the first time in Thailand.
This exhibition was selected as part of the Future Project, initiated in 2021 by the Jim Thompson Art Center, with the aim of presenting a diverse range of contemporary artworks within the context of the Cold War in Thailand, Southeast Asia, and beyond, as seen through the perspectives of both Thai and international artists. On-Air, Off-Air is organized by the Jim Thompson Art Center, with support from the James H.W. Thompson Foundation, the Goethe-Institut, A+ Works of Art, and GroundControl.
Sung Tieu, Moving Target Shadow Detection, 2022, HD animation and sound, 18'56" mins, cortersy of the artist
Ho rui an, A Petropolis in a Garden with A Long View, 2024, Video installation with laser etched crystal, acrylic awards, books, globe-shaped bookends, office table and chair, wall shelves, planter boxes, assorted plants and wallpaper, courtesy of the artist
Vincent Ardidon
philippines
Curator
Vincent Ardidon is an artist, writer, and organizer of exhibitions. He founded New Remedios Enterprises, a curatorial alias and exhibition platform operating out of an office in Manila since 2024. His forthcoming writing will appear in Afterall: New Writing.
Ho Rui An
Singapore
Artist
Ho Rui An is an artist and writer working in the intersections of contemporary art, cinema, performance and theory. Through lectures, essays and films, his research examines the relations between labour, technology and capital across different systems of governance in a global age. He has presented projects at the Shanghai Biennale; Bangkok Art Biennale; Gwangju Biennale; Jakarta Biennale; Kochi-Muziris Biennale; Centre Pompidou, Paris; Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin; Kunsthalle Wien; Singapore Art Museum; Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven; and Yamaguchi Center for Arts and Media.
Sung Tieu
Germany
Artist
Sung Tieu’s work takes place at the intersection of her personal experiences, global history, and the cultural incursions of European art traditions. Her immersive installations result from her research of the dynamics of hegemonic globalised capitalism, working through and with spatial dislocation while paying heed to the cultural testimony of the Vietnamese diaspora communities in Germany. Through the personal lens of post-colonial identity and cultural membership, she upsets the status of objective narrative and of proof when science works at the service of sociopolitical agendas. While addressing social and cultural class divides in both contemporaneity and recent history, Tieu’s work foregrounds the ways evidence is manipulated in imperialist violence both of physical and psychological nature.
Forthcoming exhibitions include the German Pavilion (with Henrike Naumann), 61st Venice Biennale, Kunsthalle Bern and the 14th Taipei Biennale. Selected solo exhibitions include KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin (2025); Oakville Galleries, Toronto (2024); MUMA, Melbourne (2024); Ordet, Milan (2023); Kunst Museum Winterthur (2023); Amant, New York, NY (2023); MIT List Visual Arts Center, Cambridge, MA (2023); Mudam, Luxembourg (2022); GfZK Museum for Contemporary Art Leipzig (2021); Nottingham Contemporary (2020); and Haus der Kunst, Munich (2020). Tieu’s work has been included in group exhibitions at the 15th Gwangju Biennale (2024); CAPC Musée d’art Contemporain, Bordeaux (2024); Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge (2024); the 14th Shanghai Biennale, Shanghai (2023); Jameel Art Centre, Dubai (2023);Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art, Oslo (2022); Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (2022); Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin (2021); Taipei Fine Arts Museum (2021); 34th Bienal de S.o Paulo (2021); and Kunsthalle Basel (2021).
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