ArtScience Encounters with Mark Chua and Lam Li Shuen: A Lotus Turns To Light

Created by Singaporean filmmaker and artist duo Mark Chua and Lam Li Shuen, the work responds to ArtScience Museum’s Oculus and the natural cycles of light within the environment.

Three movements were composed for different times of the day. Within each movement, the same three motifs repeat, interpreted through the time of day and the changing form of light. Woodwinds, tape loops, prepared guitar, vocals and synthesisers are used in a gentle balance of the physical and the ethereal.

The piece draws upon the materiality of the lotus in its various forms, to create an organic sonic environment where tones and textures drift through the Oculus, slowly tracing the movement of light over the day.

Audio Mixing: Cheng Lijie

Artist Statement

A lotus flower blooms in the morning and closes by evening. The next day, it begins again.

A Lotus Turns To Light is inspired by the cycles of lotus flowers, light and time. We wanted to hear the sound of their visual forms, to weave a kind of auditory speculative fiction.

Being both filmmakers and musicians, we devised the three main motifs in a light-sound process that started with capturing three film sequences of the lotus, light and the Oculus structure. The sequences were made into physical film loops that were played through a 16mm film projector, where sounds would be generated from the images through the optical sound system. The sound of each film sequence was transcribed as musical notation and used as the basis of each motif.

The unique circular structure of the Oculus was thematically and spatially profound for us in this piece. We wanted to create within it, gentle, incidental, textural compositions, that incorporate spatial movement reflecting cycles and circularity. As visitors encounter the different forms of the piece throughout the day, we hope the experience will invite a flow of memory, feeling and simply being.

About the Artists

Mark Chua and Lam Li Shuen are a Singaporean filmmaker and artist duo who work across film, audiovisual performance, music and installations. Their works explore the existential and historical through speculative fictions and surrealistic imagery. Their films have screened at international film festivals including the International Film Festival Rotterdam (2023), New Directors/New Films presented by MoMA and Film at Lincoln Center (2023) and BFI London Film Festival (2021). They have presented sound works and expanded cinema performances in Zurich and Singapore, and released multiple albums as the art rock duo ARE. They are currently developing their next feature film The Want.