Artists and Collaborators: Yang Vicki, Wu Jun Han & Teo Xiao Ting

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‘Do all birds go to heaven? Do I need a standing fan in hell? Is it a healthy descent of 10,000 steps? A soft-hearted take on a grief practice, Auction for the Afterlife is a participatory performance that illuminates our systems of value appraisal across the material and transcendent plane.

 

Drawing inspiration from a Chinese cultural practice of burning paper good offerings for the departed, the performance presents an alternative valuation on traditional afterlife securities through personal memory, desire and legacy.

 

Through an invitation into a spirited collective process of bidding in an “auction”, the performance is an exercise and an inquiry into how we decide what is important to us, and how it might change when we reflect upon these things in temporary community with others.

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As emerging and experimental artists from the fields of experimental music, psychotherapy, performance and production, we hoped for a fertile testing ground and supportive playground as Artist-in-Residence at *SCAPE for our seemingly disparate artistic interests to collide, coincide, and co-evolve for a playful and productive collaboration. To bring this conversation to the fore and to life, we also invited Kishan Singh, performer and co-host of the popular T42 podcast, to host our experimental auction-as-performance.

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This collaboration and pertinent conversation on end-of-life issues, with a touch of the thanatechnological, culminated in two sold-out shows on 17 and 18 January 2025 at *SCAPE, presented to audiences of Comma Creative Arts Festival, and Singapore Art Week.

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Shows: #1 – 17 January 2025: 8:30PM – 10:00PM | Show #2 – 18 January 2025: 8:30PM – 10:00PM

Venue: *SCAPE Level 4 Dance Studio 3 & 4