Choe U-Ram creates intricate kinetic biomorphic sculptures out of metal, motors and machinery, giving them Latin titles almost as if they were new species. Originating from a creation myth written by the artist, Custos Cavum is one such chimerical creature that bridges the multiple worlds behind the veil of known reality. A prone form with skeleton-like metal ribs lies in a foetal position on a bed of sand, suggesting that it has washed up on a forgotten shore. Upon closer inspection, delicate gold leaves appear to be growing out of the metallic tendrils that emerge from its ribs. Their gentle movement, accompanied by quietly whirring gears prompts the realisation that the body of the creature is also rising and falling, almost as if it is breathing. This simultaneous embodiment of death and life, growth and decay, and the artificial and the natural is characteristic of Choe’s work, which explores evolutionary morphology through the aesthetics of motors and machines. On one hand, his delicate, fantastical creatures evoke wonderment at the miracle of creation out of inanimate material, and play on the very human desire to anthropomorphise the objects of our mechanical civilisation. Yet, they also suggest the ghost in the machine, or the idea that the human mind has developed at the expense of more primitive brain structures, which might at any time rise up and overwhelm our higher functions.

Winner of the APB Foundation Signature Art Prize 2014 Jurors' Choice Award 

Liu Jianhua’s site-specific sculptural installation Trace makes reference to an aesthetic standard in Chinese calligraphic practice known as wu lou hen (literally translated as “water stains on the wall”). It alludes to seemingly ordinary, naturally-occurring phenomena that inspire a skilled and subtle artist to create work that relies on, yet transcends this stimulus. Made of porcelain, and approximating inky calligraphic marks on a swathe of rice paper, the elements of Trace use and evoke some of the most historically important Chinese inventions which have been developed and refined over centuries into full-fledged art forms such as ceramics and ink painting.

Black is a significant colour in ink brush painting and calligraphy, two of the most elevated forms of Chinese art practiced by the literati. In the colour spectrum, it is conventionally seen as light-absorbing, indicating the absence of colour. However, in the hands of a master with supreme control over the movement of the brush and flow of ink, black can take on remarkable nuances of tonality, shade, texture and depth. By turning inkflow into sculpture, Liu throws attention on the way the medium itself inhabits and changes the space it is positioned in. Installed in the curling white spine of the museum’s central stairwell, the monumental black drips and marks appear to scale the two-storey walls and flow onto the landing, forming a distinctive contrast with the features of the colonial building. Harmoniously bridging three different zones, the work allows viewers to be immersed in the experience it creates, while meditatively altering their perspective as they move through the transformed space.

Low murmurings and soft sounds of chewing and swallowing reverberate in a darkened space through which loom life-size projections of 19 individuals. Nguyen Trinh Thi documented these artists, curators, writers and key figures from the independent contemporary art scene in Hanoi as they ate a food item of their choice, stated their name and identified what they had just consumed. The act of eating is rendered artificial and uncomfortable by their standing postures, and their individualised utterances delivered head-on into the camera subtly suggest interrogation procedures, or the practice of selfcriticism, in which a person must explain every intention, revisit every action, and account for his or her very existence.

With Unsubtitled, Nguyen Trinh Thi continues her investigation into the history and development of the place and role of the artist in society. The figures in the work assume complex positions: on one hand their stances evoke the controls and scrutiny pervasive in the cultural scene of her home country, yet their commitment to their artistic practice and individual identities is symbolically asserted by the universal, elemental and sustaining act of eating. Even as the artists engage in a collective performance, made durational through the medium of video, their individual identities remain distinct through quirks of attitude, action, voice and attire. This work is a haunting testimony to the enduring yet fragile condition that is freedom of expression.