Name: Where Ink Tides Meet | Ritual Performance Lê-cture with Việt Lê
Start: 2025-11-01T14:00:00+08:00
Location: 1 St. Andrew’s Road, Singapore, Singapore 178957

$Where Ink Tides Meet | Ritual Performance L\u00ea-cture with Vi\u1ec7t L\u00ea$

Where Ink Tides Meet | Ritual Performance Lê-cture with Việt Lê
Sat 1 Nov | 2pm - 3.30pm | National Gallery Singapore, Supreme Court Wing, Level 5, Glass Room | Free, registration required: https://www.nationalgallery.sg/sg/en/talks/Where-Ink-Tides-Meet-Ritual-Performance-Lecture-with-Viet-Le.html
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From the interplay of shadow and light to meditation on samsara and Buddhist ideas of attachment and escape, this ritual performance Lê-cture (a play on the artist’s surname) by artist and writer Việt Lê offers an alternative framework for engaging with the works of artists Lee Hock Moh and Nguyễn Minh Thành, as featured in "Where Ink Tides Meet".
Blending performance, ritual and critical inquiry, Lê invites audiences to reimagine ink, spirituality, and non-binary embodiment as transformative modes of healing and connection. The lecture includes a live demonstration by Bin Vương, a Hà Nội-based master spirit medium of the Vietnamese indigenous shamanistic tradition known as the Mother Goddess religion, which is recognised by UNESCO as an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
The event concludes with a conversation between the artists and Patrick Flores, Chief Curator at National Gallery Singapore.
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About the Artist
Việt Lê is an artist, writer, curator and Professor Emeritus at California College of the Arts. Lê’s creative and critical practice focuses on sexualities and spiritualities—the physical and the metaphysical. Their hybrid projects spanning experimental film, ritual performance, painting, installations, and text, all oriented toward healing.
Focused on Global South indigenous shamanisms and knowledge traditions, Lê's non-profit foundation SEA sạ seeks to share resources and wisdom among artists, healers, and researchers. Rooted in Southeast Asian cosmologies, Lê continues their training and practice as a Vietnamese indigenous shaman-monk through various mediums. Their book "Return Engagements" received the 2023 Outstanding Book Award in Media and Visual Culture from the Association of Asian American Studies.
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About "Dalam Collection: Where Ink Tides Meet"
Showcasing over 50 new acquisitions and other ink artworks from Singapore and Southeast Asia, "Where Ink Tides Meet" explores the fluid and evolving nature of ink art, tracing its transformations across different generations, geographies, and artistic dialogues. Moving beyond conventional narratives, the exhibition examines how ink—deeply rooted in tradition—continues to be reinterpreted, exchanged, and expanded in meaning.
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