Dance of A Humble Atheist
An existential journey of semi-abstract imagery inspired by the filmmaker's personal ruminations on death, spiritual faith, nature and the cosmos. From the funeral of a dying being, a wondrous cornucopia after life, to a phosphoric revolt of consciousness.
This film is created entirely via frame-by-frame animation, using digital scans of over six hundred individually sculpted ceramic reliefs produced at Pinch Ceramics Studio (Singapore).
The film's soundtrack features improvised music by Dharma (from Singapore band The Observatory) on electric guitar, effects and objects, and Hun Ping on ceramic percussion, recorded at Black Axis (Singapore) and mastered by Victor Low.
-
Toh Hun PingDirectorCovets Of An Outsider, Cartographer Mapping Scarscapes, Unconcealment of the Aftermaths, Athlete
-
Tricia LimProduction Advisor (Ceramics)
-
DharmaSoundtrack (Electric guitar, effects and objects)
-
Hun PingSoundtrack (Ceramic percussion)
-
Victor LowSoundtrack (Mix and Mastering)
-
Toh Hun PingWriter
-
Toh Hun PingProducer
-
Project Type:Animation, Experimental, Short
-
Genres:Abstract, Experimental, Animation
-
Runtime:17 minutes 30 seconds
-
Completion Date:January 10, 2019
-
Country of Origin:Singapore
-
Country of Filming:Singapore
-
Language:English
-
Shooting Format:Digital
-
Aspect Ratio:16:9
-
Film Color:Color
-
First-time Filmmaker:No
-
Student Project:No
-
EXiS (Experimental Film and Video Festival in Seoul)Seoul
Korea, Republic of
July 24, 2019
Korean Premiere
International Competition -
Image Forum FestivalTokyo
Japan
September 18, 2019
Japanese Premiere -
Bogotá Experimental Film FestivalBogota
Colombia
August 13, 2019
South American Premiere
Official Selection -
DOBRA - Festival Int'l de Cinema ExperimentalRio de Janeiro
Brazil
September 26, 2019
Official Selection -
Singapore Shorts '19Singapore
Singapore
August 11, 2019
Official Selection -
Singapore Art WeekSingapore
Singapore
January 19, 2019
Singapore Premiere
Official Selection -
Festival Accès Asie (KLEX à MTL)Montreal
Canada
May 10, 2019
Canadian Premiere
Official Selection
Toh Hun Ping (b. 1978, Singapore) is a video artist, experimental filmmaker and film researcher. His video works explore and express themes of mental instability, alternate realities, resistance and existence. He employs experimental moving image-making methods from film-scratching, bleaching photographs, merging materials (mud, meat, nails) with video stills, to stop-motion animation with ceramic reliefs. The works have been presented in exhibitions and film festivals in Hong Kong, Singapore, Paris, Seoul, Taipei, Albuquerque, Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok.
As a film researcher, he is investigating the history of film production in early-mid 20th century Singapore and has served as researcher-writer and video editor for projects organised by The National Museum of Singapore and Asian Film Archive (State of Motion). He also started the Singapore Film Locations Archive, a private video collection of films made in and about Singapore, and runs a website about the intrigues of old Singapore film locations (sgfilmlocations.com).
The film 'Dance Of A Humble Atheist' expounds on personal questions about death, faith, the possibility of the afterlife, the natural world and the problems surrounding what is consciousness. The choice of the material and medium – ceramics and film – underlines the tension between permanence and ephemerality; between the persistence of the larger natural world or the universe, and the mortality of individual beings; between the enduring presence of fired ceramics (they decompose geologically slowly) and its utilisation as the “form” of an ephemeral moving image (of which the media, eg. celluloid film, light and digital formats, are often associated with notions of decay and impermanence). The work is also a meditation on time – that frames in the film (each lasting for fractions of a second) are laboriously sculpted, fired and digitally scanned over time; the virtual moving image is rooted by a long and layered process of preparation and mark-making by hand.