Kent Chan | Solar Masses

A.I. is pleased to present a debut solo exhibition for Kent Chan (b.1984, lives and works in Singapore and The Netherlands) in anticipation of Frieze Week London. Chan presents a collection of works including video, objects and prints that delve into the legacies of colonial accumulation in relation to the tropics.

 

Within the exhibition, "mass" alludes to the large-scale amassments and movements of people, resources, and objects that drove colonial enterprises. In the latter, homogeneities were often imposed upon the tropics that stripped much of its subjectivity and agency. Through a decolonial lens and multimodal displays informed by the dynamics between museology and the tropical imaginaries, Chan offers new narratives to challenge these entrenched perspectives. Music plays a central role in tying the collection of works in the exhibition together. Collaborations with electronic music producers from different regions of the tropics bring about an expansive sonic dimension to the thematic explorations within his visual narratives.

 

In the dim, vault-like atmosphere of the gallery - reminiscent of a museum’s storage, the two-channel videos tell-tale and Shivers are displayed. The videos delves into the predicaments of tropical artefacts held within various European museum storage depots, which having lost their original purpose have since been reduced to states of idleness. In tell-tale, conversations reveal the artefacts’ once splendid and nostalgic origins that have been rendered redundant. Viewers are left to ponder whether these objects may ever return to the past they yearn for. The video is accompanied by 3D-printed reproductions in the colour of ocean blue – inferring to the arduous journey that preceded their collection. Whilst in Shivers, we glimpse upon artefacts juxtaposed with bodily movements revealed by sequences of flashing lights. As the rhythm intensifies, it evokes the spectres of the artefacts that signal the onset of a frenzied resistance.

 

In Solar Orders, we may find potential answers to pressing questions. The work unfolds a narrative centred upon our future reliance to the sun with a speculative scenario inspired by contemporary observations of expanding tropical borders. The work reflects upon the processes in which entities assemble into new environments in an age of expanding frontiers. While often seen as a sign of crisis, tropical expansion is instead re-examined by Chan. Who through the sonic ritual of a DJ, provides communion to the new solar terrains for alternative sun-centred societies of the future. Solar Orders prompts us to consider how we might commune with a pluralistic solar deity that offers transcendental abundance while expecting nothing in return, and how we might thus establish a new order.

 

Amidst collective anxiety, it raises the question: might climate forecasts eventually ferment into prophecy?

 

KENT CHAN (b. 1984, Singapore) is an artist, curator and filmmaker based in Netherlands and Singapore.