Counter-Occupation: Chia Amisola and Herdimas Anggara

Counter-Occupation brings together artists Herdimas Anggara and Chia Amisola for an evening of performance and conversation presented in conjunction with Prototypes for Alternative Power, an online exhibition curated by Celine Wong Katzman for the Singapore Art Museum.

Herdimas will present RASUK in which familiar software platforms become sites of ritual occupation. Drawing inspiration from Aihwa Ong’s essay The Production of Possession, Herdimas proposes spirit possession—and by extension, hacking—as a practice of inhabiting and disrupting systems of technological and economic power.

Chia will present SQUATTING, a browser-based artwork that traces connections between cybersquatting, informal settlement, and land politics in the Philippines. Through a participatory exercise, audiences are invited to construct and upload their own digital houses, exploring how acts of occupation, improvisation, and world-building unfold across physical and virtual space.

Following the presentations, the artists will join Celine in conversation to address issues around occupation, improvisation, and resistance across technological and social infrastructures.

Registration through Asia Art Archive in America’s Eventbrite portal is required for all AAAinA programming. Suggested donation is $5. The minimum required donation is $1. Light refreshments will be provided. Programs begin promptly, so please arrive five to ten minutes early.