SAM Curatorial
Lost & Found: Sea Chanty Project
⭐ star in the top right of the page to add this draft to your favourites list in the Notion side panel. This will ensure easy access if you want to revisit this page in future.
Add an image button below to select a representative image that may be displayed as a thumbnail associated to your post. You may insert beautiful images from Unsplash OR select an animated-gif from GIPHY as you wish.
Tirta Maya unfolds along three scalar chapters: the cosmic ocean, the womb and the underworld. The title of the work contains multiple meanings. One possible reading is a direct translation of the title from Javanese, which means sacred or still waters. At the same time, the title could also be translated to mean the light (of colours). Light presents itself as a spectrum of coloured wavelengths. Despite its absolute presence, light cannot be touched, contained or solidified.
This elusiveness—where something that seems tangible still slips right through your fingers—is approximated by way of a haunting langgam-dangdut soundtrack, which includes elements of Javanese gamelan, Javanese langgam style and dangdut groove. Distinct moments of call and response have been incorporated into the original composition, whilst its lyrical verses correspond to the three chapters, exploring creation mythologies, otherworldly beings and personal stories that have been passed through the generations. Responding to the call of song, the work features a whirling collage of visuals ranging from text, animated graphics, drawings, and both found and filmed footage. Reflecting this profundity, Tirta Maya builds an imagined archipelagic landscape where the sea becomes a connecting substrate for travel from one chapter to another.
Tirta Maya is the first of three music videos commissioned by the Singapore Art Museum for its Lost & Found: Sea Chanty Project. As the first commission to be released, Tirta Maya sets the stage for viewers to listen and contemplate the timeless universe.
About the artists
In navigating their composite backgrounds in diverse mediums, Rosemainy Buang and Zachary Chan engage in art-making with a multidisciplinary and experimental ethos, frequently collaborating with co-creators. The artists share a foundation in the traditional Indonesian gamelan musical ensemble. Within her role as a sound artist and gamelan practitioner, Rosemainy endeavours to interrogate, augment and extend the boundaries of traditional gamelan soundscapes, philosophies and aesthetics. Meanwhile, Zachary's focus centres on the visual landscape, drawing from his background in visual communications. In his personal practice, he seeks to unveil and examine religious frameworks and spiritual ecosystems through a queer lens.
About Lost & Found: Sea Chanty Project
Lost & Found: Sea Chanty Project is the first pillar of Lost & Found, a multi-phased curatorial project exploring the significance of archival documentation and records through artistic practices. By studying how artists collect what seems uncollectable, assemble that which resists assembly, and present that which defies visibility, Lost & Found engages with questions concerning the authoritative voice of archives and history.
The Sea Chanty Project seeks to breathe new life into traditional work songs from sea regions through contemporary interpretation. It brings together musicians, ethnomusicologists and visual artists to explore connections between the sea and labour, as well as human life and the sea.
Drafting in progress and select Completed for review from the dropdown menu.
For posts flagged out for content editing, change the status from Requires editing to Completed for review after all necessary edits and revisions have been made.ADD FOOTNOTES (IF REQUIRED)
Please click the Add footnotes section button below to create footnotes for your post. We recommend typing the in-text citation number directly after the relevant text and making it bold within [ ]square brackets, for example:
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet.[8]
If your post does not require footnotes, leave this section as is.
Related
Filter at the top
2) Click the Related projects dropdown and select / deselect the relevant projects
3) Click Save for everyone
4) If the post does not have a related curatorial project yet, we suggest leaving all existing projects selected, in order to show a range of cards in this section./w=1920,quality=90,fit=scale-down)
SAM Curatorial
SAM Curatorial
Filter at the top
2) Click the … button next to New and click on Group dropdown and select / deselect the relevant themes
3) Click Save for everyone 
Angela Pinto
Syaheedah (Sha-he-dah) IskandarSAM CuratorialSAM Curatorial
SAM Curatorial
SAM Curatorial
SAM Curatorial
SAM Curatorial
SAM CuratorialAngela PintoSyaheedah (Sha-he-dah) IskandarSAM CuratorialSAM CuratorialAngela PintoSyaheedah (Sha-he-dah) IskandarSAM CuratorialSAM CuratorialAngela PintoSyaheedah (Sha-he-dah) IskandarSAM CuratorialAngela PintoSyaheedah (Sha-he-dah) IskandarSAM CuratorialAngela PintoSyaheedah (Sha-he-dah) IskandarSAM CuratorialComments