Christa Donner and Andrew S. Yang, Re:Production – Suggestions from the Animal Kingdom, 2008
Digital video with hand-drawn animation, 5 minutes 58 seconds. Courtesy of the artists.
Yale-NUS College has launched a new Artist-in-Residence programme. Multidisciplinary artists Andrew Yang and Christa Donner were selected as its first artists-in-residence for one semester starting in January 2020.
Situated within Yale-NUS College, a fully residential liberal arts and sciences college, the Artist-in-Residence Programme aims to catalyse activities that promote art as a living and breathing practice as well as create art that increases the understanding of China and Chinese culture. The programme is supported by the Tan Chin Tuan Foundation through the Tan Chin Tuan Chinese Culture and Civilisation Programme at the College.
Creative works made during the programme will seek to inspire, reflect and expand upon the core learning within a liberal arts and science educational experience. Artist team Andrew Yang and Christa Donner – whose works span the visual arts, sciences, ecology and history – will be active members of Yale-NUS’ community of learning where ideas are expressed and enriched in an interdisciplinary environment.
Yang and Donner will create new multimedia work based on the theme of ‘gardens’ in Singapore, as a way to explore relationships between humans and their environment. The artists often employ painting, immersive installation art, and small-press zines in their multifaceted projects. The lush green spaces on the Yale-NUS campus will be an important point of focus for this project, and they hope to collaborate with Yale-NUS students and work with the College’s food sustainability programme, “Farm to Fork,” where students learn to grow vegetables on campus in a sustainable manner, harvest and then cook the vegetables.
“We are excited to pursue our artistic exploration in Singapore because it is home to so many gardens, including a vibrant culture of community gardening rich in biodiversity. Because both gardens and landscape painting were scholarly domains in the classical Chinese tradition, we believe these themes are especially meaningful in collaborating with Yale-NUS students, who are themselves scholars seeking ways to make new sense and new relationships with the world,” said Yang and Donner.
The Artist-in-Residence programme is a three-year programme that will run through the end of 2022, with five additional artists on campus. The next artist-in-residence will arrive in August 2020. Upcoming artists for future cycles include those working in media such as film, installation art, socially engaged art, theatre and photography. Through the programme, the College aims to support meaningful community engagements with artists to contribute towards nurturing a vibrant arts community in Singapore.
