I look forward to seeing two contemporary works of video art by Singaporean artist Sarah Choo Jing. One, a three-panel panorama video, is titled Art of the Rehearsal. The other is Art of the Rehearsal: Portrait Series. At the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, Portrait Series will be displayed at the beginning of the exhibition. Upon entering, the first thing one encounters is three dancers, reflecting the Chinese, Malay, and Indian threads of the artist’s cultural identity. Each of them is preparing to perform, readying costumes and applying make-up, something at once intimate, routine, and ritualistic. Then one makes their way through the entire exhibition of 120 works of art, photos, videos, posters, sculptures, relief work, and finally at the end, the large three-panel video is presented as a final abiding image. It shows an imagined Singapore cityscape in which the dancers appear and disappear and dance, revealing layers of culture and ethnicity. The exhibition concludes with a lingering question about the elusive nature of dance and its ability to carry complex identities. This living and contemporary way to frame the show is delightful, and even humble before the great mystery of dance.
