Performance Lecture, Phantom Cities

浮城幻影：界 | 面

Phantom Cities: The Far Side of the Inter | Face

Venue: INSTINC Space, 39 Keppel Rd, #03-10 Tanjong Pagar Distripark, Singapore 089065

Opening Reception: 11 December 2025 (Thu.), 5:30PM–8:30PM

Exhibition Duration: 11 December to 14 December 2025, Wed-Fri, 1PM-7PM. Sat - Sun, 1PM-6PM

Special Events:

12 December 2025 (Fri.), 1PM-7PM: Special Screening

13 December 2025 (Sat.), 3PM-5PM: Performance Lecture: A pedagogical and performative presentation in moving images.

14 December 2025 (Sun.), 3PM-4PM: Guided Tour

Spirit, spectre, shadow, et al, words to describe ‘phantom’. In another denotation, it also means illusion, fantasy, and mirage.

Phantom Cities: The Far Side of the Inter | Face is a co-produced exhibition by artists Elaine Wong (@miss_elainewong) from Hong Kong and Urich Lau (@urichlau) from Singapore – living and working on both sides in this vacillating state of plurality in urbanity and singularity in canonical cultures.

The project is an extension from an ongoing dialogue between the artists, who have been engaged in collaborations and cultural exchanges since 2016. In their respective praxis, the artists have been making artworks through recording, documenting, cataloging, and digging up chronicles, narrations and myths of Hong Kong and Singapore.

Organised by @Instinc_space

Supported by Hong Kong Art Development Council

Disclaimer: The Hong Kong Arts Development Council supports freedom of artistic expression. The views and opinions expressed in this project do not represent the stand of the Council.

Phantom Cities (@phantomcities) is an on-going cultural exchange project between Hong Kong and Singapore. Check out @phantomcities for more information.

About Artists

Elaine Wong

Wong lives and based in Hong Kong. She received her Master of Fine Art (Creative Media) from School of Creative Media, City University of Hong Kong in 2019 and holds a Bachelor of Arts (Fine Art) degree from Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) University. With a background in painting, she explores and unveils the manifolds of daily encounters and inner conditions. She regards her practice as an investigation of the potentials of art beyond representation, its relation to sensation, documentation and experience. Her interest in the experiential quality of works leads her to engage in experiments with videography, sound and installations.

Her works have been shown in Hong Kong and internationally; including the Lisbon Art Weekend (2022), Singapore Art Week (2021), Art Basel (2021), Hong Kong International Photo Festival (2020), Hong Kong Heritage Museum (2018), Hong Kong Visual Arts Centre (2018), Oi! Street Art Space (2017), EXIS Korea (2017), and Poland Szczecin European Film Festival (2017). She was one of the selected artists for 1a Space’s Emerging Talents in Contemporary Art (2020), Art-Uni-On (AUO) Artist Mentoring Program (2017) in Korea, and was awarded a scholarship from Hong Kong Art Centre to attend the Culture, Graphic Design and Fine Arts program in New York School of Visual Arts (2013).

Elaine currently teaches in Hong Kong Baptist University’s Academy of Visual Arts, Lingnan University and Hong Kong Design Institute. She is also the founder of Altermodernists, an independent art group that is devoted to the documentation of artists ’creative processes and promote visual arts in Hong Kong.

Urich Lau

Urich Lau is a visual artist, independent curator, art educator, based in Singapore, and a co-founder of INTER–MISSION and Hothouse. Graduated with a Master of Fine Art from Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology in 2004, he is a Senior Lecturer at LASALLE College of the Arts, University of the Arts Singapore.. Focusing in video art, photography media art, his has presented works in Singapore and internationally including Argentina, Australia, Austria, Canada, China, Cyprus, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines, Poland, South Korea, Serbia, Taiwan, Thailand, Ukraine, United Kingdom, United States and Uzbekistan. Exhibitions include Art Electronica 2024, Ukrainian Biennale of Digital and Media Art 2021, Open Possibilities (NTT InterCommunication Center, Tokyo, 2020), Pyeongchang Biennale 2017, the 7th Geumgang Nature Art Biennale, Singapore Biennale 2013, VII Tashkent International Biennale of Contemporary Art and the Sovereign Asian Art Prize in 2014, 2016 and 2019 in Hong Kong.
Curatorial projects include Negentropic Fields (National Gallery Singapore, 2020), SUPER–TRAJECTORY (Tainan Art Museum, 2019 and ArtScience Museum, Singapore, 2020), Sim Lim Square Art Residency (Singapore Art Week 2018), METAGRAPHY (DECK, Singapore, 2017 and MEME Space, Taipei, 2017), Seoul/Singapore Open Media Art Festival 2015 (Gillman Barracks, Singapore, 2015 and Seoul, 2017); The Third Print (Total Museum of Contemporary Art, Seoul, 2014); Videologue (Institute of Contemporary Arts Singapore, 2012); Videology (The Substation, Singapore, 2008).

About INSTINC Space

Founded in 2004 by artist Yeo Shih Yun, INSTINC is a leading artist-run institution based in Singapore. With a distinguished presence in the arts ecosystem, INSTINC diligently sustains the growth of contemporary art through exhibitions, residency programs and curations. Their esteemed Artist-in-Residence program has cultivated invaluable regional and international networks since 2009. INSTINC is celebrated for producing immersive, large-scale exhibitions that encompass installation, new media, performance, painting and sculpture, showcasing the diverse range of artistic expressions.

Notable collaborations include partnerships with renowned brands such as Volvo and Guinness, further demonstrating INSTINC's commitment to fostering cross-disciplinary exchanges. Moreover, INSTINC takes immense pride in organising the highly anticipated INSTINC D:Art Festival 2022, generously supported by UOB Bank and the NAC start fund.

INSTINC continues to foster creative individuals and collective practitioners by establishing a platform for cross-disciplinary exchanges with their relocation in Tanjong Pagar Distripark. With expertise in exhibition curation, commissioned works and brand alliances, INSTINC endeavours as a vital presence in the cultivation of contemporary art.