Gina Peyran Tan
An Embodied Monologue

Gina Peyran Tan makes films that engage in existential inquiry informed by discourses surrounding power, social relations and the digital age. Her works employ lo-fi techniques to interrogate both performativity in the every day and broader societal issues. The film An Embodied Monologue considers the disharmony between humans and nature and the uncertainty among humans as technological ‘progress’ shapes society.

Gina Peyran Tan examines political and technological infrastructures. Her practice refers to poetics deriving from Eastern and Western philosophy such as haikus and critical theory. Her work centres on acts of observing and being observed; she draws from online video culture platforms like YouTube and TikTok, and critiques the increase in mass surveillance in the formation of a ‘smart’ society.

She comments: “An Embodied Monologue contrasts ancient traditions from the East with the West’s aspiration for a post-human existence. The emancipation of all that lives and breathes, almost as one single entity of an organic creature – can we even postulate such a thing?”

The camera follows a body engaging in repeated movements – yoga positions, exercises – and focuses on magnified views of features such as the eyes, mouth and folds of skin. These scenes are accompanied by texts in a font that echoes computer coding programmes. They explore questions of the human condition and act as the film’s titular ‘embodied monologue’.

Georgia Perkins comments: “The film bridges ideas of Western theorists such as Rosi Braidotti and writings from historical Eastern philosophy. For example, by referencing the haiku by Sugita Hisajo on ‘chasing a butterfly into the spring woods’, it looks at poetic connections across species.”

Gina Peyran Tan is an artist based in Singapore. She participated in festivals and screenings in institutions such as Rombak, Multimedia University, Malaysia; The Film-Makers’ Cooperative, New York; and the Wandsworth Arts Fringe, London. She holds an MA in Contemporary Art Practice from the Royal College of Art, London.

An Embodied Monologue is commissioned by SIRIUS. This exhibition is produced by SIRIUS and curated by Miguel Amado, Director, with Georgia Perkins, Curatorial Fellow.