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16/8/2005

In exile

Alliance Francaise de Singapour, Singapore

An Exhibition by Tay Kay Chin & Gilles Massot

Exile is a state of mind. One can hardly be present mentally and physically at one place; just as one can, through the power of imagination and memory, live in another place. Photographers Gilles Massot and Tay Kay Chin have found themselves moving between the two extremes for their whole lives. Hails from France, Massot is often more comfortable in his adopted home – Singapore. While Tay, who is Singaporean still have problems at times calling Singapore home, after spending several years aboard.

This displacement often encountered by individuals who have lived aboard long enough to call the adopted country ‘home’, found themselves heavily influenced by a different culture and pressurised by their social surroundings. So the question remains – where is home?

Yet, cultural roots remain an essential part of a person’s identity, a driving force in one’s interaction with the world that can hardly be denied. On the occasion of a recent trip to France, Massot rediscovered his country of birth in a way he hadn’t experienced for a long time, while Tay took the time over the last couple of years to reflect on his origins.

How close is home? How far is the dreamland of exile? Does one really ‘belong’ to just a place? Is there a need for vernacular dissection when cultures and languages are crossed? ‘In exile’ is a visual dialogue between two citizens of the world who might have well decided in the end not to answer that question.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Tay Kay Chin, a Singapore-based photographer and educator, is a 2003 Hasselblad Master, a 2004 Olympus Visionary, as well as an Epson Stylus Professional.

A photojournalism graduate from the University of Missouri-Columbia, he joined The Straits Times (Singapore) in 1992, and during this time he also built one of the first online photography galleries. Gaining recognition within and outside of Singapore, Kay Chin with 15 others were invited to an ethics and leadership workshop at Poynter Institute of Media Studies in St. Petersburg, Florida.

He becomes a freelance photographer and web consultant in 1999, and founded the Nikon Media Photographer of the Year award in 2000.

Kay Chin is heavily involved with the photography scene in Singapore – judging at various regional photographic events, participating in the Month of Photography (Singapore) since its inauguration in 2002, and is linked with other events/names such as ClickArt, GRAIN Magazine and Objectifs, where he founded ‘Shooting Home’ workshop. Since 2003, Kay Chin has been a member of the selection committee for the National Arts Council’s (NAC) Cultural Medallion and Young Artist awards. He is also a member of the Resource Panel for Photography for NAC.

He has participated in group and solo exhibitions in Dhaka, Sydney and Singapore. Curatorial experience include SARS exhibition at the Singapore History Museum as Picture Editor, and Director of Photography in Glimpses of Light exhibition series for Mercy Relief, where he devoted his time volunteering at this non-governmental organisation.

Kay Chin’s works are collected by Singapore’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the European House of Photography in Paris and private collectors. His clients include TIME Asia, Newsweel, Olympus, Shriro Singapore, Hasselblad, Brutus Magazine, Asahi Weekly, Austrian Airlines, United Overseas Bank, MTV Asia, Singapore Tourism Board, Land Transport Authority of Singapore, Biopolis Singapore, Epson Singapore, Asia Business, Mercy Relief and the Singapore International Foundation.

GILLES MASSOT (aka Ma de Marma), born in 1955 in Aix en Provence (France), Gilles came to live in Singapore in 1981 after studying architecture and graduating in photography in Marseille. After a brief hint in advertising, he took the road in 1985 as a travel photographer and writer. Since then, part of the resulting work has been published extensively as editorial material in magazines in Asia and Europe, while his personal approach to the art of traveling resulted in a series of fine art exhibitions held in diverse cities in France and diverse Asian countries.

Gilles’ work covers a wide range of styles, techniques and forms of expression, ranging from visual arts, to writing, to performing arts, to events and festival organization. Among other things, his contribution to the Singapore art scene saw him presenting some of the very first street art performances in 1984 during the first Fringe Festival as well as organizing one of the earliest interdisciplinary art events with the 1987 Yin Yang Festival.

In 2003, he published his first book “Bintan, Phoenix of the Malay Archipelago”, the result of a 3 years project in which he could synthesize different aspects of his artistic pursuit, while contributing the new view of an island central to the Malay World history. He now lectures on photography for the fine art and multimedia universities of LASALLE SIA - College of the Arts.

His work is part of the collection of the Maison Europeenne de la Photographie and the Maison du Geste et de l’Image in Paris, and diverse private collection in Asia and Europe. His latest solo exhibition was held in Sculpture Square, and was defined as “a video and photo based time sculpture”.

Image: Tay Kay Chin

SG Private Banking Gallery,
Alliance Francaise de Singapour
1 Sarkies Road - Singapore
Public Viewing: Monday to Friday, 11am – 7pm; Saturday, 11am – 5pm
Closed on Sundays & Public Holiday
Admission: Free

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