THE BODY IS
OUR GREATEST
GROUNDING
Bart Seng Wen Long works primarily with photography and moving images. Their practice draws on uncanny scenes of fetishisation, confabulation and meditation. Currently a Kone Foundation grant awardee, Bart is co-curator of Kawaii Agency.
BP: Hey Bart, thanks for sharing your work with us. So much of it seems to explore the connections between the production and effects of desire. Can we start there? Can you tell us something about the role of desire and fantasy, in alternative world creation.
BSWL: Fantasy is an impetus for creativity, I think. It asks what is a desirable alternative to what we have right now, but what's cool is that the materials used in desire's construction of a fantasy comes from the 'real world', the current reality. In a way, this keeps us tethered to the world, and through fantasy or roleplay, we can process our experiences and the world in a polysemous way.
How much of your work is about the body and how much of it is beyond the body?
Sometimes I would forget that the body is so central to my work. I think the ambitions of my work is oftentimes too lofty, with lots of abstract themes being explored, but all that is only possible through keeping grounded. And the body is our greatest grounding. In my work, bodies are activated through direction and choreography, and I try to leave its meanings up to the viewers.
As a sexy artist, how do you deal with censorship? Is it a massive issue for you?
I think yes and no. There are significantly more forms of censorship where I come from compared to the UK, so I am quite used to thinking of censorship as a material. This also includes social censorship, where you can predict what are the possible social reactions to your work. That too becomes a material to work with within the work.
I understand restrictions often feel unreasonable when imposed on, but I believe life, and the will to make art, can overcome it and in its overcoming, finds purpose.
I really love this film called A New Love In Tokyo. I think it's so sexy and so profound. Everything about the film, from the visuals to the acting to the sexuality, is deliciously erotic.
So, tell us who else is sexy.
What’s the deal with some people hating on “erotic art”?
Puritanism.
Where is the line between porn and art? Is there one? Why are some people concerned with it?
I think porn is cool and art can be any aesthetic experience you encounter, but I struggle to simply think of porn as an artform. I think you can watch porn and suddenly have an aesthetic response to it which resembles an encounter with an art work. But I have a feeling it occurs very rarely, because porn is meant to fulfil your expectations to the maximum, and art tries to do the opposite of that.
Thank you Bart Seng Wen Long.
Born and bred in Singapore, Bart Seng Wen Long is an artist currently based in London.
Working primarily with photography and moving images, my practice draws on uncanny scenes of fetishisation, confabulation and meditation.
@antibart
www.antibart.com
With an approach to artmaking that stems from mistranslation across contexts, materials and cultures, Bart is interested in the cracks that reveal a neglected interconnectedness between desires, its production and its consequences.
They are currently a Kone Foundation grant awardee, and were previously selected for Dazed x Circa’s Class of 2021 and a Tour de Moon film grant. Along with Juliusz Grabianski, they are co-curator of Kawaii Agency. Their work has been featured on SHOWstudio, the Wrong Biennale, Female, It’s Nice That, and Dazed.