In The Open | Gavin Maughfling & Min-Wei Ting

Gavin Maughfling trained at the Ruskin School of Art, University of Oxford, and the University of East London. He has shown internationally, including the Galerie Van der Planken and Elzenveld Foundation (Antwerp), the Carrousel du Louvre (Paris), the Pump House, Lounge and ICA Galleries (London), the Holland Art Fair (den Haag) and the Mostyn Biennial (Llandudno).Recent exhibitions include Over Time (University of Greenwich and National Maritime Museum, London), Unnatural Histories (Sun Pier House, Chatham) and Ruskin Shorts 13, selected by Elizabeth Price (Modern Art Oxford). As the founder with Suzanne de Emmony of the artist-led curatorial team DEM Projects he has recently co-curated a number of international exhibitions, including Ghost on the Wire,  (Bermondsey Project Space), Mysterious Objects at Noon (Objectifs Singapore and ArtLacuna London), and Ghost on the Wire 2 (Objectifs Singapore). An exhibition of new paintings will be held at Westminster Reference Library in October 2017

Min-Wei Ting completed the General Studies in Photography Program at the International Center of Photography in New York before receiving his MFA in Fine Art at Goldsmiths, London. His work has been featured in various spaces, including Whitechapel Gallery (London), International Film Festival Rotterdam and the National Museum of Singapore.

No Go

Entering any rainforest space in Singapore is always to cross a boundary, to abruptly slip out of a cityscape that has been built on human exceptionalism.

Bukit Brown, the largest Chinese cemetery on the island, semi-abandoned, slowly reverted to secondary rain forest. Grave tenders and marginal outsiders erected makeshift shacks, laid down fishponds and planted fruit trees. It became a space outside civic space, an alternative ‘naturalcultural’ ecosystem in the heart of one of the most civically ordered societies on Earth.

In 2013 work was started to construct a four-lane highway, carving the site in two and necessitating the removal of 3,746 graves.

We investigate ways in which the structure of film can address the altered physical and spatial experience of visiting Bukit Brown. The previous intimacy of slipping out of one reality into another is now laid bare, replaced with exposure and the ever-frustrated attempt to remain entangled.