outhouse gallery
what’s on
online articles
outhouse magazine
about
past exhibitions
past events
refrains on the edge of appearance
curated by charmaine wah8 - 24.05
PV: 7.05 / 6-9pm
“What you want to hear, you hear not. For what finds its way out from the underground and the out there is spoken in rhythms and tones, in a language that solicits a different hearing.”
- Trinh T. Minh-ha, in Elsewhere, Within Here (2010)
Refrains is a curatorial project that examines Edouard Glissant’s concept of opacity through the framework of language—in its sound, text, narration, translation and censorship. In a group exhibition, we present a multidisciplinary dialogue of sculpture, performance, writing, moving image and textiles.
Embracing illegibility over fluency, 𝑹𝒆𝒇𝒓𝒂𝒊𝒏𝒔 exhibits the experiences of artists from the Southeast Asian diaspora through fragments of clarity and noise. Each work carries a phantasmological quality: sculpted, drawn, sewn or captured by hidden hands. Together, the artworks converse with one another across borders and tongues, embracing the multiplicities of national identity and lingua francas.
Refrains features the work of:
Yadanar Aung, Lu Lei, Arty Nicharee, Aarti Pillai, Liszu Tan, Moses Tan
With performances by:
Liszu Tan with Ezra Escobar, Yadanar Aung
This exhibition is supported by Shoes Off (@weareshoesoff), a growing collective and network of creatives based between the UK and Southeast Asia.
rotting english: a decolonial writting workshop
Rotting English celebrates the deviations from standardised language, encouraging people to bring their slang, patois, singlish, creole and more to the forefront of their writing. Ignore the structures that you have internalised through rigid education, and write in a way that comes innately to you.
book your slot here
the abc of translation workshop
Hosted by curator Stephanie Chung, this workshop is part of the exhibition 'Refrains on The Edge of Appearance', curated by Charmaine Wah.
In this workshop, we will meander through the folds of translation—hover, linger, as we unravel the layers, at once familiar and oddly askew.
We will explore translation as laborious utterance, when one translates their interiority into transmissable codes; close reading, when translating words of an unfamiliar language into a definition in familiar language; or attentive listening, when attempting to read through the opacity in meanings.
The workshop holds space for many languages. All are welcome, whatever tongues you bring.
book your slot here
it’s only a move
jeremi biziuk30.05 / 6-8pm / live performance
31.05 / 12-5pm / exhibition open
For this project, which explores ambience and narration through sound, Jeremi brings his sound making machines, speakers and cables, and casts them in organic shapes reminiscent of a place close to a recent past, which has never actually existed.
The title is taken from Aleksandra Komsta's writings, which have been used in collaboration with Jeremi throughout last year. What's come after is an album, physically printed in a shape not so clear, sonically searching for a meaning in cyclic changes.
Jeremi's practice deals with searching for a reimagined home, an organic shell made through synthetic means. They do so by putting together their own sound systems, making use of what's been the closest to their idea of a home; digital spaces, open-source projects, online based communities, and the shared knowledge and passion that's been found there not long ago. This imaginary place is often explored during performances, where Jeremi acts directly on his machines and searches for tones and drones to replace the words that don't exist.