Whitney Biennial 2024: Even Better Than the Real Thing

Film

Born 1976 in Singapore
Lives in Singapore

The Singapore-born artist and filmmaker Ho Tzu Nyen’s The Critical Dictionary of Southeast Asia—which began as a research project in 2012 and has since developed into an interactive online platform—consists of an evolving database of images, music, and texts reflecting Southeast Asia’s multilayered histories, cultures, and politics. The term “Southeast Asia” was first used in 1943 to designate a military command established over several Asian states by the Allied Forces during World War II; today, it is commonly understood to refer to a region of eleven countries characterized by distinct languages, religions, and political ideologies. When viewed online, Ho’s The Critical Dictionary of Southeast Asia follows the twenty-six letters of the English alphabet to form an abecedarium of associative descriptions (for instance, “k for kinship, kingship”) that examines Southeast Asia’s postcolonial histories and pluralistic sociocultural identities. When the viewer selects a letter, it activates a succession of dynamic audiovisual projections that suggest the impossibility of accurately representing a place. The Biennial program will feature the work as a film excerpt that includes terms from A to L.