The title All the Time I Pray To Buddha, I Keep on Killing Mosquitoes is borrowed from a haiku by the Japanese poet Issa Kobayashi, as translated by American poet Robert Hass. It is used in TKG to represent humanity’s persistent reach for an ideal while dealing with the realities of life — a contradiction that mirrors the conditions most contemporary artists work in.
TKG is a single-channel video installation that was first exhibited at *The Koganecho Bazaar 2020 Vol.2 (KB2020) in Yokohama, Japan, and was made for Gan’s online KB2020 artist residency.
TKG is a meandering video essay that seeks to engage the audience in conversations on contemporary art and art-making. It is based on recollections of conversations with various people Gan has met over the last two decades of his creative practice, and ranges from common (mis)assumptions about art to actual insights into how a contemporary artist navigates through the challenges of making an artwork for an international art festival in Japan. TKG is made with found online audio and video, and documents the strangeness of reflecting in isolation, about artists and communities, in the midst of a pandemic.
CITIZEN is the result of an open call for collaboration via TKG. It is based on a script by Makarim Salman, a British physicist turned financial analyst who then became a tour guide and resident of Tokyo. CITIZEN is a love story about Tokyo from the point of view of a global citizen.
From 20 to 23 January, there will be an in-person dialogue session between the artist and selected guest speakers and moderators from different creative backgrounds. Each session will have different areas of focus, with the intention of providing the audience a multi-angle way of looking at art-making and art. These sessions will be made available to stream via FB Live on The Japan Foundation, Kuala Lumpur Facebook’s page.
* SOPs will be observed throughout the exhibition period. Kindly scroll to the end of this page for details.
* Audience will be required to preregister for their viewing slot below.
* The Koganecho Bazaar (TKB) is both an artist residency and an annual art festival started in 2004. It is situated in a former red-light district in Yokohama, Japan. KB2020’s theme is Community & Artists. https://www.koganecho.net/info/english.html
