Topography of Breath
Pat Toh
Singapore
Pat Toh in collaboration with Andy Lim
Production Support: ARTFACTORY
Residency Support: Dance Nucleus (Singapore)
Joseph Nair
About the CREATION
Topography of Breath evinces a different mode of mastery over our bodies: sports culture, and the intense focus on endurance and productivity. Structured to resemble high intensity interval training, Pat Toh maps the corporeality of exhaustion on a kinetic terrain of muscularity and breath. The body is a document of one’s life, the politics of its own being, its desires, conflicts and ideals. In Singaporea where economic performance forms the national identity, the body becomes a form of human capital to be disciplined for constant growth.
One’s physical endurance and prowess parallels the capitalistic society that demands faster, longer, stronger performance from its subjects; the measure of neoliberal resilience. This work was first commissioned by Asian Film Archive for State of Motion: Rushes of Time as part of Singapore Art Week 2020. Developed over residences with Dance Nucleus. It has since performed at cont·act Contemporary Dance Festival (Singapore), NDA International Festival, Hong Kong Dance Exchange (H.D.X) and CROSS Festival (Italy).
Pat Toh (b. 1981, Singapore) is a performance maker whose practice centers working on, with and about the body. Her work unfolds at the intersection of theatre, dance, and the live arts, and looks to social and personal lived experiences as points of departure. A Shell-NAC Arts Scholarship recipient, she holds a Bachelor of Dramatic Arts (Acting) from the National Institute of Dramatic Arts (Australia), and a Masters of Arts from the National Institute of Education (Singapore). She has presented at the Asian Film Archive’s State of Motion, The Substation, the M1 Fringe Festival, and the Esplanade Theatre Studio. Her work Pretty Things was nominated for Production of the Year, Best Director and Best Ensemble in Singapore’s Life! Theatre Awards (2012).
IG: pattohling
Pat Toh
Marvin Tang