Revisiting “conversations between father and son”

• Main Author: Ong, Bendini Junior Boon Kok
• Other Authors: Louis-Philippe Demers
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2014
• Subjects: DRNTU::Visual arts and music
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/60830
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Revisiting “Conversations Between Father and Son” (2014) is a participatory installation where the audience joins the artist in revisiting her last conversations with her father, a medium, before his legal death in 2009. In a space that can be described as a contemporaneous séance, audiences will be invited to participate in the present memory of these conversations, between a dying father and a transgendered son, and join in the creation of the work. The participatory installation projects live role-play interaction onto an immersive multimedia environment, one that is both physical and metaphysical. In this environment, some audience members will join the artist in initiating and reimaging conversations by assuming the role of the medium, as her father and for the art experience, creating meaning, projecting resolution, finding peace or embracing support. Conversations Between Father and Son (2010) was a part documentary; part obsequy; part performance piece dedicated as a tribute to Marla’s father who died in 2009. Their last conversation before his legal death has been pivotal in Marla’s artistic practice and activism ever since- his plea for her to undergo sexual reassignment surgery, in order to secure the legal birthright that she should enjoy like cisgender people. The notion of a loving father encouraging his son to undergo castration in order to advance had a profound effect on her philosophy in life. Revisiting “Conversations Between Father and Son” grew out of this earlier work, and raises the stakes for the audience by blurring the relationships between artist, art object and the creative viewer in this experience. The work combines these personal histories with social issues and audience participation, not only for the artist to rediscover meanings in the realities of the present, but also ultimately to use these conversations as a tool to access thinking about the living. As living social creatures, how do we relate to each other? How do we help, support and care for those we have known forever? What can we offer someone we’ve only ever shared a performance space with?