ON FOLLOWING AND BREAKING INSTRUCTION
by Aditya H. Martodiharjo
Date: Fri, 23 October 2026
Time: 9 – 10.30PM
Location: SAM, Level 1, The Engine Room
Admission: SGD $10 (Ticketed)
The presentation of expanded cinema performances often depends heavily on the presence of the artist themselves. In situations where the artist is unable to accompany the work in person, they would write a set of instructions so the venue is still able to present the work.
When there are no instructions, the performance simply cannot happen. But what if those instructions are not merely functional? What if they are actually part of the aesthetic, part of the artwork itself? And how restrictive is the instruction manual for the performer?
In this programme, Aditya Martodiharjo will explore and investigate different approaches to creating and performing photochemical works, with a particular focus on how instruction-based practices can shape the presentation and performance of film.
The programme will include three performances on 16mm film projectors and 35mm slide projector
Performance 1: Man with Mirror by Guy Sherwin, interpreted by Aditya Martodiharjo using Instruction Manual by Teaching and Learning Cinema (TLC)
Performance 2: Horror Film 1 by Malcolm Le Grice, interpreted by Aditya Martodiharjo using Instruction Manual by Teaching and Learning Cinema (TLC)
Performance 3: Serene/Static by Aditya Martodiharjo, in collaboration with Rizki Lazuardi, SA3A, Mark Chua and Lam Li Shuen
Through these three performances, Aditya will explore the limitations, boundaries, interpretations, and possibilities of instruction manuals as part of film performance. By performing works through instructions rather than through the direct presence of their original creators, he examines how a performance can be transmitted, interpreted, and transformed through documentation, and how the instruction itself can become part of the work’s artistic and performative framework.
The performance for Guy Sherwin and Malcolm Le Grice’s works are presented in collaboration with Australian artist group Teaching and Learning Cinema (TLC), who document and archive performance methodologies so that ephemeral photochemical works can be reconstructed and re-enacted for future audiences.
The performances will be followed by an artist Q&A and discussion.
This programme is presented under the “Clusters” strand of YAM AT SAM (28 Aug 2026 – 31 Jan 2027), comprising expanded cinema performances by local and regional artists that extend the language of moving images beyond fixed screens, using projection, performance, sound and physical space.
Programme Credits
Organiser: Singapore Art Museum
Artist: Aditya H. Martodiharjo
Collaborators: Rizki Lazuardi, SA3A, Mark Chua, Lam Li Shuen, and Teaching and Learning Cinema (TLC)
Supported by: Objectifs Centre for Photography and Film
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GENERAL PROGRAMME INFORMATION
Administration Details:
•Programme Format: This is a free-standing programme.
•Electronic Devices: Mobile phones and all other electronic devices must be set to silent mode during the performance.
•Arrival Time: Please arrive at least 10 minutes before the performance starts.
Admission & Cancellations:
• Ticket Cost: SGD $10 per person.
•Cancellations: If you are unable to attend and need to cancel your ticket, please notify us via Peatix message or email at programmes@singaporeartmuseum.sg at least 48 hours before the programme begins.
•No-Shows & Refunds: Please note that refunds cannot be issued for no-shows or cancellations made less than 48 hours before the programme commences.
•Programme Changes: While every effort is made to ensure the accuracy of our programme information, changes are sometimes unavoidable. The Singapore Art Museum reserves the right to modify programmes without prior notice. For the latest updates, please visit www.singaporeartmuseum.sg or follow us on Instagram (@singaporeartmuseum).
Getting Here:
•By MRT: Alight at Cantonment MRT Station and take Exit 1. SAM is just a short walk from the station.
•By Bus: Hop onto any of the buses: 10, 30, 57, 80, 97, 97e, 100, 131, 145 and alight at bus stop no. 14061 (Opp Former Railway Station) along Keppel Road.
Accessibility:
Attendees with accessibility needs can reach us via the “Contact Organiser” function or email us at programmes@singaporeartmuseum.sg.
Photography, Audio and Video Recording:
Please note that there may be photography and/or video recording (audio and/or video) at the programme. By attending, you consent to your photograph and/or recording (video/audio) being used for future communications both online and offline by Singapore Art Museum for archival, museum-related publicity, and publications only.
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ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Aditya H. Martodiharjo is an experimental filmmaker from Indonesia who uses celluloid film as his primary artistic medium. Drawing from found-footage archives, his compositions employ techniques of cutting, pasting, and looping. He further manipulates the material through reprinting, drawing directly onto the film, or even burning it as it passes through a film projector. The manipulation of machines—and the way the eye perceives light and darkness—forms a major part of his artistic exploration.
He is also active in Lab Laba Laba, an artist-run film lab based in Jakarta, and works professionally as a film preservationist.
Rizki Lazuardi is a visual artist and independent film programmer based in Bandung, Indonesia. He works with moving images and its aspect of materiality and institutional power. Lazuardi’s works and programs have been a part of festivals, museums and off-spaces, among others Image Forum Tokyo, Museum MACAN, Berlinale, WORM Rotterdam, and Singapore Biennale. Lazuardi is a member of film laboratory collective Lab Laba Laba and initiated a moving image platform PALAPA. He studied film and time-based media at HFBK University of Fine Arts Hamburg.
Nazrin Ramlee, aka SA3A / NZSDLX, is a multidisciplinary musician, designer, and experimenter of mediums. Expressing his fascination with audiovisual cultures and interpretations through his sampling of contemporary and indigenous forms to create new impressions. Striking a sense of equilibrium between chaos and order.
He co-founded Jaringan Records as a project devoted to experimenting with and pushing avant-garde sounds and circuitry. He’s currently focusing on a polystylism project while he looks for his next opportunity.
Mark Chua (b. 1992) and Lam Li Shuen (b. 1996) are a filmmaker-artist duo based in Singapore, working across film, expanded cinema performance and installation. Their practice explores the intersections of histories, materialities and existential anxieties through speculative fiction and multimedia stagings.
They are the founders of artist-run film lab Film Nerve, focused on handmade film experimentation as well as resource and knowledge sharing.
Chua and Lam regularly present 16mm expanded cinema performances using self-modified 16mm projectors retrofitted with microcontroller systems. They have performed at international platforms including Berlinale Forum Expanded (Germany), EXiS (South Korea), EX!T (Taiwan), Videoex (Switzerland), and Painting With Light (Singapore). They also release music as the art rock duo ARE.
Their films have been screened at major international festivals, including the International Film Festival Rotterdam (2023, 2024), New Directors/New Films (2023) presented by MoMA and Film at Lincoln Center, BFI London Film Festival (2021), and Clermont-Ferrand (2026).
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ABOUT OUR COLLABORATORS
Lab Laba Laba is a Jakarta-based film laboratory initiative comprising filmmakers, visual artists, programmers, archivists, scholars, and film enthusiasts. They extensively work with photochemical material and other physical media to disseminate knowledge about the film production technology and its sociopolitical entanglement. In 2015, Lab Laba Laba kicked off their first major exhibition in the abandoned facility of the State Film Production Company of Indonesia. Lab Laba Laba’s work and program have been presented in Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival, Berlinale Forum Expanded, Short Film Festival Hamburg, and Museum of Modern Art Ljubljana.
Teaching and Learning Cinema is an Australian artist group led by Louise Curham and Lucas Ihlein. For more than 20 years, TLC’s creative project has centred on making historical Expanded Cinema performances available for audiences to experience in the present. Their work is immersed in archival research, oral history, and inventive re-enactment, and seeks to promote the survival, continuity, and longevity of embodied live art. TLC’s current project experiments with the creation of Users Manuals and the potential use of synthetic DNA as a medium for long term data storage, using Malcolm Le Grice’s expanded cinema piece “Horror Film 1 (1971) as a case study.
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ABOUT YAM AT SAM
YAM AT SAM is a programming collaboration between the Singapore Art Museum and artists Mark Chua and Lam Li Shuen of the artist-run analogue film lab Film Nerve. The collective will present a series of live performances, hands-on workshops, and regional screenings focused on analogue photochemical experimentation and expanded cinema.
The project takes the taro (yam) plant as a central thematic motif, drawing parallels between the physical medium of analogue film and plant growth—both being slow, organic processes shaped by light, time, and collective labour. Embracing an incubation model, the series emphasizes open experimentation, shared artistic labour, and community-constructed knowledge.
YAM AT SAM is conceptualised with three strands: Clusters, Rhizomes and Orh Nee Screening Nights.
Clusters presents expanded cinema performances by local and regional artists that extend the language of moving images beyond fixed screens and traditional boundaries of cinema, using projection, performance, sound and physical space. This strand draws from the roots of live analogue film projection, steeped in DIY ethos and grassroots initiatives.
Rhizhomes presents workshops that introduce handmade analogue filmmaking and techniques, in collaboration with guests from regional artist-run film labs and collectives. With this strand, knowledge-sharing and community-building are conceptualized with the horizontality and multiplicity of rhizomatic structures, where learning is open and non-hierarchical.
Orh Nee Screening Nights presents special screening programmes of films and moving image works, largely never shown in Singapore before, made with analogue film and photochemical processes. The programmes include works by contemporary artists and newly restored prints. This strand is conceptualized around the celebratory dish Orh Nee, as a celebration and communing around moving image works hand-made through the labour and care of working with film material.
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Singapore Art Museum opened in 1996 as the first art museum in Singapore.?Also known as SAM, we present contemporary art?from a Southeast Asian perspective for artists, art lovers and the art curious in multiple venues across the island, including a new venue in the historic port area of Tanjong Pagar.
SAM is building one of the world’s most important public collections of Southeast Asian contemporary art, with the aim of connecting the art and the artists to the public and future generations through exhibitions and programmes. SAM is working towards a humane and sustainable future by committing to responsible practices within its processes.
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