WITH/OUT | by Loo Zihan

In May 1999, The Necessary Stage worked with Paddy Chew to stage a monologue titled Completely With/Out Character at the Drama Centre on Fort Canning Hill. The docu-theatre piece records his experience as the first person in Singapore to come out publicly with his HIV-positive status. Unfortunately, Paddy passed on in August 1999, a few months after the production’s conclusion.

Today, AIDS is no longer perceived as a terminal disease; HIV-positive individuals can lead a relatively normal and  healthy life with the aid of advances in medication. In part, this is due to the roads paved by individuals and researchers who came before us, individuals like Paddy, who defied convention and conservatism to tell his story at a time when there was still much ignorance and prejudice surrounding AIDS.

With/Out is a faithful interpretation of Paddy’s monologue. Through the use of multimedia, video documentation and other archival material, Loo Zihan will re-construct the production as an extension of his research into performance re-enactments, the mediation of a ‘live’ presence via the use of technology, and the re-visioning of queer histories in Singapore.

Credit source: M1 Singapore Fringe Festival 2015

With/Out by Loo Zihan is a new work commissioned by the M1 Singapore Fringe Festival 2015. For the second half of November 2014, the performance and moving-image artist and educator Loo Zihan will be in residence at Centre 42 to develop With/Out. At the end of this first phase development, Zihan will be presenting a work-in-progress preview to a select group of audience. Zihan will then resume his work at the Centre in January 2015, before the premiere of With/Out at the Festival from 14-18 January 2015 at the Centre’s Black Box and Rehearsal Studio.

Artist – Loo Zihan

Loo Zihan is a performance and moving-image artist and educator based in Singapore interested in investigating the tension between the flesh of the body with the bone of the archive.

Zihan graduated with his Master of Fine Arts from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2011. He was given a merit scholarship upon admission to the programme and was awarded with a graduate fellowship upon graduation. He was also part of the pioneer batch of students to pursue a Bachelor of Fine Arts in the School of Art, Design and Media, Nanyang Technological University.

Zihan’s moving-image works have been selected and screened at various international film festivals such as the Pusan International Film Festival (South Korea). His co-directorial debut feature Solos has also been selected for competition in AFI Festival (Los Angeles) and Deauville Asian Film Festival (France). Solos was awarded the ‘Nuovo Sguardi’ award at the 23rd Turin GLBT Film Festival (Italy).

Beyond his moving-image works, Zihan’s solo performances have also been presented at various performance events such as the Macau International Performance Art Festival and Rapid Pulse International Performance Art Festival (Chicago). He participated in the M1 Singapore Fringe Festival in 2012, where he presented Cane, a performance that re-enacts and investigates Josef Ng’s Brother Cane.

Credit source: M1 Singapore Fringe Festival 2015