藍天瑀
I am blue like the expanse of the sky, splicing the heavens, delineating the infinities that bound our material world
天
I am blue like the gleam of the stones, where we find the meatspace and long for the perversion of corporeal reality
瑀
The landscapes of the human skin is blue
The materiality of the flesh is blue
The transfiguration of the Real is blue
The ode to the Eternal Forms is blue
The infinite tends to the singular
The singularity tends to infinity
The weave and its asymptotic slink is blue
Dilation of the interlaced net, of the deep black pinhole of perception
Contraction of gridlined plane, of the murky darkness of yonic wavelengths
Blue consumes its tail.
Email bluelamtianyu@gmail.com
䷂屯: A self-taught traditional Chinese seal carver, DJ and tattoo practitioner with performance and writing forming the core of their work, Blue is concerned with returning to ancestral roots and cosmologies. Blue hopes to learn to care and heal through practice and honour traditions, past(s) and histories.
Curriculum Vitae
Education
(2021 - 2024)
Goldsmiths, University of London
BA (Hons) Fine Art and History of Art
First Class Honours
London, United Kingdom
(2019 - 2020)
Nanyang Technological University School of Art, Design and Media
BFA Media Art with Specialisation in Photography and Minor in Art History
Incomplete
Singapore, Singapore
Exhibitions + Events
(13 - 17 June 2024)
Goldsmiths, University of London Undergraduate Fine Art Degree Show
Ben Pimlott Building, Level 3, Goldsmiths, University of London
London, United Kingdom
(9 - 10 May 2024)
Liminal Entities
Milbank Podium
Performance in collaboration with Nereus Hall
Supported by UAL’s Bounce Fund
London, United Kingdom
(8 June 2023)
Kunst Affair Vol. 2
AMP Studios
London, United Kingdom
(10 - 11 December 2022)
barang shop!!!
Studio Lotusroot
London, United Kingdom
(6 - 27 August 2022)
Thresholds of Being
starch
Curated by Sheryl Gwee, Xuan Yeo
Singapore, Singapore
Panels and Talks
(14 August 2024)
EXTRACORPOREALITY: BODIES AND THE URGE TO TRANSCEND
Pushkin House
Artist talk and panel regarding critial theory and art practice
Hosted by everyoneisagirl, discussion led by Noa Fischer, curated by Ester Freider
London, United Kingdom
Writing and Publications
(January 2025)
“玄之又玄,众妙之门。(Xuan and again xuan, gate to all mysteries.)” : Daoist Philosophy and Cosmotechnics as Gateway to Reconciling our Relationship to The Cyberspace
Edited Dissertation
Published by Xeno-Futurism
London, United Kingdom
(2024)
“玄之又玄,众妙之门。(Xuan and again xuan, gate to all mysteries.)” : Daoist Philosophy and Cosmotechnics as Gateway to Reconciling our Relationship to The Cyberspace
BA Dissertation
Distinction
Supervised by Dr. Alice Andrews
Goldsmiths, University of London
London, United Kingdom
(August 2024)
Lest it disappear from the world: The Scars of Singaporean Performance Art History and the Choreopolitical Rise of Singaporean Movement Art and Butoh in the 2020s
Visual Cultures/ Art History Essay and Research Project
Distinction
Goldsmiths, University of London
London, United Kingdom
(June 2024)
spaces as traces: A Devotion to Narratives between the Thresholds of Spirituality and Digitality
Review written for Shiyun Teo First Solo Exhibition, spaces as traces at Feelium Gallery, 14 - 17 June 2024
London, United Kingdom
Performances
(19 - 20 August 2023)
Livia Rita: Dystopian Wetlands
Southbank Centre
With Avantgardeners Community
Creature/ Movement Artist
London, United Kingdom
DJ
(30 January 2025)
Year 555
Bakunawa Entertainment
The Greyhound Peckham
London, United Kingdom
(30 November 2024)
My Little Pony Rave
Its Not A Phase
Off The Cuff
London, United Kingdom
(19 November 2024)
[RRHO4] DJ 小 HIAO “HIAO CHIOBU OF SUNNY SINGAPORE” Mix
Radio Repellent
Featured Artist
Soundcloud
London, United Kingdom
(21 August 2024)
FREE 4 ALL
0116internetculture X Bakunawa Entertainment
Four Quarters Peckham
London, United Kingdom
(15 August 2024)
Margins Pop-Ups
Eastern Margins
The Steam Room
London, United Kingdom
(31 May 2024)
OPIA MYSPACE
Opia
Unit58
London, United Kingdom
(27 April 2024)
K2Y.mp3
Undisclosed Location
London, United Kingdom
(31 March 2024)
K2Y.mp3
Protocol, Vauxhall Arches
London, United Kingdom
(22 March 2024)
CLUBPOC
The Yard Theatre
London, United Kingdom
June 2024
Figure 1. Ancient Chinese seal script character 靈 or ling, from Wikimedia Commons
In ancient Chinese seal script, as well as traditional Chinese script, the character 靈 or ling - meaning god, deity, soul or spirit - illustrates the importance of a medium in spiritual encounters in Taoist religion.
Figure 2. The characters that constitute 靈 or ling in ancient Chinese seal script, all images of Chinese seal script characters from Wikimedia Commons
The seal script character of 靈 or ling depicts a shaman calling for rain to fall. This notion of shamanistic practice as medium for spirituality in Taoism is inherently implied in the construction of this character that reflects the spiritual and the rituals surrounding it. We can expand this understanding of medium beyond the spirit medium towards media and mediation between the contrasting realms of spirituality and digitality.
Teo’s practice acknowledges the criticality of medium in relation to the spiritual and digital. The meanings inscribed into the form of the character 靈 or ling is elucidated in her most recent work, space as traces.
Central to spaces as traces is a keen recognition of medium extending beyond the traditional confines of the spirit medium in Taoist religious practice. Teo achieves this through three key lines of inquiry:
- If meatspace is mediated by digitality - or the cyberspace, is there a place for spirituality to exist within this mediation?
- If spirituality does exist within this mediation, how does the role of a spirit medium transform and does this role of a medium become analogous to that of the digital?
- If we were to view such encounters with the spiritual and spirit mediums as performance and language, can filmmaking be a medium for mediating this complex intersection between cyberspace, meatspace and spiritual realms?
Along such lines of inquiry, Teo notes that “the role of a spirit medium progresses along with technology”. spaces as traces is an ode to the flux between technology and spirituality in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic where “spirit mediums take their presence online”, according to Teo. Observing how mediums have connected to audiences to aid with inquiry to Taoist gods and spirits, media such as livestreaming have altered the fundamental role of the spirit medium, allowing them to take on a new meaning and significance.
Throughout Teo’s oeuvre (with the short film ‘a tale of ula-nara’, a fictional xianxia tale of achieving transcendence from mortality and ‘蝴蝶山;NOW, THEN’, a documentary-fiction film installation offering a contemporary take on the wuxia genre of Chinese cinema and documenting Singaporean Taoist spirit medium ceremonies using archival footage), filmmaking is buttressed as a medium of transformation, translation and transcription of narratives - both fictional and non-fiction. Through interplay of her extensive archiving of Taoist ritual and practice in Singapore and her interest in contemporary Chinese mytho-fiction, Teo has developed an aesthetic that seeks to mediate such spiritual, fictional and digital experiences. She synthesizes realms that house these seemingly opposing narratives through time-based media, yet tethers the audience to a material sensuality and experiential space through evocative installations alluding to spaces particular to Singaporean culture.
Teo explains that “what was captured is never a definite truth”. Her practice of documentation and archiving asserts a longing for truth-seeking, yet it also nods to the impossibility of achieving this truth. According to Teo, “filmmaking is one of the many mediums to mediate these spaces, as we document our relationships, helping us understand how we interact and exchange ideas using the digital space.” spaces as traces wields filmmaking as a tool for collective memory-seeking - allowing the audience to seek these ephemeral, fleeting fragments of information and reality within fiction and documentation in tandem with Teo’s enduring wish to excavate meaning within the thresholds of reality, spirit, gods and storytelling.
spaces as traces exists as work of Teo’s devotion towards stories, memory-recording and an everlasting quest for truth within liminal realms of sensual spirituality and narratives.
Digital Spirits in Religion and Media: Possession and Performance by Alvin Eng Hui Lim
Review written for
Shiyun Teo First Solo Exhibition
spaces as traces
Feelium Gallery
14 - 17 June 2024
shiyunteo.com