Henry Tan
Artist in Residence
Affiliation: NYU Abu Dhabi
Education: BA Chulalongkorn University
Research Websites: Center for Genomics and Systems Biology
Research Areas: Stem Cell, Memory, Bio Electricity, Geopolitic, Consciousness
Henry Tan, member of FREAK Lab Thailand, metaPhorest Japan, and 2024 resident artist at CGSB, NYUAD, Tan explores the boundaries between life and simulation. He investigates how emerging technologies like synthetic biology, mixed reality, brain stimulation, and artificial intelligence blur the lines between the real and the simulated. His work delves into how life adapts and negotiates with a constantly changing environment, shaped by factors like climate change, geopolitics, and geoeconomics. Tan uses sleep as a prism to understand and investigate life, society, culture, and technology. He creates installations, performances, songs, and architecture for people to rest and reimagine their perceptions through sleep and dreams.
Summary of Research
Pillars of Creation is an interpretation of the four-armed god of creation, Brahma, embodies the cyborgian nature of the present human being. Today, our bodies are transformed by technology that operates on us, in us, and with us. Tan’s Brahma sculpture holds aloft in each of his four hands a symbolic artifact, variously representing knowledge, as a DNA printer and synthesizer; cosmic energy, as a clinostat and brain organoid on a chip; time, as a a “dementia” tourbillon clock; and finally sacrifice, as a cultivated yeast or bacteria. Each of these objects tell a story about the future that human society is crafting for itself–will we become gods or machines?
How to Explain Sleep to Robot Cock?
Sleep, a universal human experience, holds a remarkable duality, being both deeply personal and yet universally relatable. It is a sacred time for our bodies and minds to rest, rejuvenate, and repair, playing a vital role in our physical and mental well-being. In the relentless and often alienating world of late capitalism and the 24-hour convenience society, we find ourselves bombarded with an incessant influx of stimuli and demands. As individuals, we are interconnected within a larger collective, an intricate ecosystem that binds us together. It is within this context that we bear witness to the unraveling fabric of our environment, the deteriorating climate, and the ever-shifting landscapes around us. The Incubus Robot, an awe-inspiring manifestation of a new breed of non-human entities, emerges as both a messenger and a harbinger, carrying profound messages and warnings about the impending future. With their ethereal presence, they navigate effortlessly above the slumbering bodies, gently imparting tales of cybernetic hibernation to the sleepers, immersing them in a world of surreal wonders and thought-provoking narratives
This groundbreaking project draws inspiration from the rich literary tapestries woven by Franz Kafkain “The Hunter Gracchus”, the conceptual brilliance of Joseph Beuys’s “How to Explain Pictures to a Dead Hare”, and the captivating insights of Apinan Poshyananda’s “How to Explain/Art to a Bangkok Cock”. By amalgamating these influences, we embark on a prismatic journey, exploring the interplay between sleep, late capitalism, climate-change ecology, and the enigmatic realm of the non-human.
Young Eel
Young Eel project, Henry combines lab-grown meat, brainwave sound, and light to stimulate sleepers and transfer consciousness and memories into cloned bodies, raising questions about aging society and “environmental” concerns for human and eel populations.