A Silence That Sits
Long Table
- What
- SPECIAL EVENT
- When
- General information
- Level 1 - Grand Foyer
- Tickets
How can we speak about silences that endure for decades? Are some erasures best left untouched or tenaciously unearthed?
Journeying through themes of migration, histories and inheritance, A Silence That Sits invites participants to bring family photographs and share stories through song, writing and speech. Responding to Sim Chi Yin’s One Day We’ll Understand 有那么一天 – a multimedia performance and exhibition investigating family history, archive and memory against the setting of the Malayan Emergency (1948-60) – this event is led by artists Sim Chi Yin and Nikki Lam. It will delve into family silence and hidden histories and explore the many temporalities and migratory conditions that occupy this collective space. The non-hierarchical Long Table format creates a space for meaningful dialogue around complex issues. Audience members can bring their own stories of migration and family history and participate in the conversation, or they can simply listen and witness.
Sim Chi Yin
Artist
Sim Chi Yin is a Singaporean artist based in Berlin from Singapore whose research-based practice uses artistic and archival interventions to contest and complicate historiographies and colonial narratives. She works across photography, film, installation, performance and book-making. She has exhibited at the 60th Venice Biennale (2024); Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin (2024), the Gropius Bau, Berlin (2023); the Barbican, London (2023); Camera Austria, Graz (2024); Harvard Art Museums, Boston, USA (2021); Les Rencontres d’Arles, France (2021); Nobel Peace Museum, Oslo (2017). She was an artist fellow in the Whitney Museum’s Independent Study Program (2022-3) and has completed a PhD at King’s College London.
Nikki Lam
Artist-Curator
Nikki Lam is an artist-curator and filmmaker based in Narrm/Melbourne and Hong Kong. Working primarily with moving images and text, her work explores memory through contemplation on time, space and impermanence. She is interested in the complexity of migratory expressions, fragmentation and relations. Nikki’s work has been shown, published and screened widely across Australia and internationally. With an expanded practice, she is currently co-director of Hyphenated Biennial and Hyphenated Projects, an artist-led network that nurtures practice in Asian diasporas. She co-runs Slow Burn Books, a bookshop and publisher that circulates independent art publications across Asia-Pacific. Nikki is a PhD (Art) candidate at RMIT University.
This event is presented by Chamber Made in conjunction with the Australian exclusive season of One Day We'll Understand, as part of Asia TOPA Festival.
Chamber Made cultivates adventurous multi-artform practice to disrupt and rewrite conventions of live performance. A commitment to collaboration, an appetite for innovation, and an ongoing fascination in the intersecting spaces between artforms drives the company through its fourth decade. The company is led by acclaimed performance-maker and director, Tamara Saulwick, whose works are defined by a deep, abiding engagement with sound and music. Chamber Made has presented over 100 performance seasons in Australia, NZ, Asia, Europe, USA and South America, receiving multiple award nominations and wins. The company has commissioned over 56 new Australian works since it was founded in 1988.
Accessibility
Please view our accessibility page for helpful information. For access requirements please contact our team on 13 11 02 or email us at [email protected] to discuss how we can support your visit.
