About Artist
Brian Gothong Tan is one of the leading creatives in Singapore and is best known for his cutting-edge and highly engaging works in theatre, film and installation art. He graduated from California Institute of the Arts in 2005 under the Shell-NAC Scholarship.
His works have been featured in numerous productions which have toured successfully in many countries like Italy, USA, Korea and the United Kingdom. His eclectic - and strange - use of multimedia in theatre earned him the “Best Use of Multimedia” award in the 2005 Life! Theatre Awards, as well as “Best Multimedia Design” in 2008, 2012 and 2016.
His first solo exhibition, Heavenly Cakes and Sentimental Flowers, was held at the Singapore Art Museum in June 2003 under the NAC New Media Arts grant. Later on, he created Hypersurface, which was held at Sculpture Square and featured at the 9th Venice Architectural Biennale in 2004. He represented Singapore in the cultural segment of the Commonwealth Games at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI) in Federation Square in Melbourne, and was the youngest artist participating in the Singapore Biennale 2006 with his installation, We Live In A Dangerous World, showcased at Tanglin Camp. In 2007, he created Signs, Omens and Relics of Faith, an interactive multimedia installation as part of the 72-13’s Creatives-in-Residence programme. In 2010, Brian was commissioned to create the anchoring video installation for the Singapore Pavilion at the Shanghai World Expo.
His film project with Ekachai Uekrongtham, Pleasure Factory, in which he was the Director of Photography and editor, was screened in Cannes Film Festival 2007 under the Un Certain Regard section. His first feature film, Invisible Children (2008), was produced by Eric Khoo's Zhao Wei Films and has travelled to many film festivals around the world. He was also appointed the Director of Film and Visual Effects for Singapore’s National Day Parade 2009, 2011 and 2016, Youth Olympic Games Opening and Closing ceremonies in 2010, as well as SEA Games 2015.
His latest projects include Tropical Traumas (Singapore International Festival of Arts 2016), Into the Wild (Art Science Museum, 2017), the Singapore Bicentennial Experience, Lost Cinema 2020 (Esplanade The Studios) and Havoc Girls and Kamikaze Boys (M1 Fringe and NAFA). He was conferred the Young Artist Award in 2012 the Singapore Youth Award in 2015. He is currently the artistic director for T:>Atelier under T:>Works.
Coming up at SIFA
Angel Island
Inspired by poetry inscribed on the walls of the titular immigration station, Angel Island is a music-theatre performance weaving a story of immigration, discrimination, and confinement, bringing history into the reality of our current lives.
