Zihan Loo
(First Name, 子涵 pinyin: zĭ hán, Last Name, 罗 pinyin: luó)
b. 1983, Singapore, based in Brooklyn, New York City, U.S.A.
Education
2019-2026
PhD Candidate, Performance Studies
University of California, Berkeley, California, U.S.A.
Dissertation: Etiolated Conduct: More-than-human Performativity with/in Singapore
Committee: Shannon Jackson (Chair), SanSan Kwan, Colleen Lye
2017
Master of Arts, Performance Studies
New York University, Tisch School of the Arts, New York City, U.S.A.
2011
Master of Fine Arts, Studio Practice (Film, Video, New Media and Animation)
The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A.
2009
Bachelor of Fine Arts, Digital Filmmaking (with a minor in Drama and Performance)
School of Art, Design and Media, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.
Selected Academic Awards
2025
Outstanding Graduate Student Instructor Award, GSI Teaching and Resource Center, University of California, Berkeley.
2024
Conference Travel Grant, Graduate Division, University of California, Berkeley.
2021
Graduate Student Travel Grant, Society for Cinema and Media Studies Conference, AF&M SIG.
2018
EWJ Gateway Fellowship, International House, University of California, Berkeley, U.S.A.
Performance Studies Emerging Scholar Award, New York University, Tisch School of the Arts.
2017
Post-graduate Arts Scholarship, National Arts Council, Singapore.
2011
James Nelson Raymond Graduate Fellowship, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
2010
Trustee Full-Tuition Merit Scholarship, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
2009
Valedictorian, School of Art, Design and Media, Nanyang Technological University.
Selected Arts Awards
2017
Best Multimedia Design, M1-The Straits Times Life! Theatre Awards, Singapore.
2015
Young Artist Award, National Arts Council, Singapore.
2009
Best Script, 1st Singapore Short Film Awards, The Substation, Singapore for Threshold.
2008
Nuovo Sguardi Award, 23rd Turin GLBT Film Festival, Turin, Italy for Solos.
Solo Exhibitions and Performances
2019
Catamite, Centre 42, M1 Singapore Fringe Festival, Singapore.
2017
With/Out, commissioned and presented by Esplanade Theatres on the Bay, Singapore.
2016
50/50, Judith Wright Centre of Contemporary Arts, Brisbane, Australia.
I Am LGB, commissioned and presented by the Singapore International Festival of Arts, Singapore.
2015
50/50, Theatreworks, Singapore.
Lecture, This Way, Victorian College of the Arts, Melbourne, Australia.
From the Periphery to the Core, Les Bernardes, Salt, Catalonia, Spain.
With/Out, Centre 42, M1 Singapore Fringe Festival, Singapore.
2012
Cane, The Substation, M1 Singapore Fringe Festival, Singapore.
Archiving Cane, The Substation Gallery, Singapore.
Marking Cane, Defibrillator Gallery, Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A.
Group Exhibitions
2022
Myth Makers: Spectrosynthesis III, Tai Kwun Contemporary, Hong Kong.
2017
The Making of an Institution, NTU Centre for Contemporary Art, Singapore.
The Case of the Osmanthus Flower Jelly, Hessel Museum of Art and CCS Bard Galleries, Annadale-on-Hudson, New York, U.S.A.
2016
Untimely Encounter, Alternative Space Loop, Seoul, South Korea.
Fault-lines: Disparate and Desperate Intimacies, Institute of Contemporary Arts, Singapore.
2015
President’s Young Talents, Singapore Art Museum, Singapore.
STRICT, La Carbonera, Girona, Catalonia, Spain.
Paradis Sans Promesse, FRAC des Pays de la Loire, Carquefou, France.
2014
Notes on Performance, Objectifs, Singapore.
Names, Texts & Trouble, The Substation Gallery, Singapore.
2013
Ghost: The Body At The Turn Of The Century, Sculpture Square, Singapore.
No Approval, Grey Projects, Singapore.
2012
Singapore Survey: New Strange Faces, Valentine Willie Fine Art, Singapore.
Still Building: Contemporary Art From Singapore, S.S.A.S, Bandung, Indonesia.
2011
Currents: From Singapore, in Macau, Ox Warehouse, Macau.
R.I.T.E.S (Rooted In The Ephemeral Speak) #6, Goodman Arts Center, Singapore.
Manhood: Masculinity, Male Identity and Culture, Helen Day Art Center, Vermont, U.S.A.
Abject Systems: Artists Who Love The Unlovable, Studio Bibliothèque, Singapore.
Singapore Survey: Imagine Malaysia, Valentine Willie Fine Art, Singapore.
Shiftchanges, Defibrillator Gallery, Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A.
Magnetic Affinities & Altered Relations, Outer Space Studio, Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A.
Tender Exchange, Next: Invitational Exhibition of Emerging Art, Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A.
Touch then push or pull and maybe nothing, Defibrillator Gallery, Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A.
Sexier, Zhou B Art Center, Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A.
aWay, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A.
2010
Stories of Relativity, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A.
Moving-Image Screenings
2011
2nd Singapore Short Film Awards, Singapore.
2010
7th Singapore Short Cuts, National Museum of Singapore.
1st Experimental Film Forum, Singapore.
2009
14th Pusan International Film Festival, Pusan, South Korea.
ExiS (Experimental Film and Video Festival), Seoul, South Korea.
2008
10th Deauville Asian Film Festival, France.
5th Singapore Short Cuts, National Museum of Singapore, Singapore.
Frameline32, San Francisco LGBT Film Festival, San Francisco, California, U.S.A.
NewFest, New York LGBT Film Festival, New York, New York, U.S.A.
22nd London Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, London, U.K.
2007
AFI Festival, Los Angeles, California, U.S.A.
21st Singapore International Film Festival, Singapore.
12th Pusan International Film Festival, Pusan, South Korea.
Teaching Experience
Instructor (Independently Designed) - University of California, Berkeley
Spring & Fall 2025
Come Again? Reenactments as Embodied Research - Reading and composition course with a focus on methodology.
Fall 2024
Queerealia: Archives and the Pleasures of Objecthood - Reading and composition course.
Spring 2022
Transnational Archives - Reading and composition course.
Teaching Assistant - University of California, Berkeley
Spring 2023
Thinking Through Art and Design: Video Art, taught by Shannon Jackson & Greg Niemeyer.
Ecological Aesthetics, 200-level graduate seminar taught by Shannon Jackson.
Fall 2021
Dance in American Cultures, taught by SanSan Kwan.
Teaching Assistant - School of the Art Institute of Chicago
Summer 2011
Abandoned Practices: Summer Performance Institute, a summer intensive led by Matthew Goulish, Lin Hixson and Mark Jeffrey.
Spring 2011
Theory into Practice Graduate Seminar, taught by Gregg Bordowitz, with visiting artists Andrea Fraser, Paul Chan, Glenn Ligon et al.
Media Practices: Moving Image, with Frédéric Moffett and Shellie Fleming.
Fall 2010
Directing Actors for Film and Video, with Melika Bass
Teaching Experience in Singapore
2020
External Examiner, Fine Art Diploma Program, Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts.
2018-19
Instructor, Media Arts, Fine Art Program, Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts.
BFA Dissertation Supervisor, School of Theatre, LASALLE College of the Arts.
2012-2014
Instructor, Media Arts, Visual Arts Department, The School of the Arts (International Baccalaureate Diploma).
2011-13
Lecturer, Time-based Media, Foundation Year, School of Art, Design and Media, Nanyang Technological University.
2012
Lecturer, Introduction to Film Studies. Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information. Nanyang Technological University.
Lecturer, Digital Media and Visual Arts: The Moving Image, Visual and Performing Arts Department. National Institute of Education.
Academic Presentations
2025
Presenter - Camouflaged Choreographies: Sexual and Ecological Dispossession of Tanjong Rhu, Performance Studies international #30, Fortaleza, Brazil.
Working group participant - Generational Solitary-Solidarity and Parrhesiatic Performativity in Seelan Palay's "32 Years: An Interrogation of a Mirror", Association of Theater Research conference, Denver, Colorado, U.S.A.
Presenter - "All Look At Me": Visceral Pleasures of Objecthood in Kink.com's Club Dragon, Society for Cinema and Media Studies, Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A.
2024
Visiting Scholar - Abandoned Practices, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A.
Presenter - "All Look At Me": Model Minority Masochism in Gay Fetish Pornography, Association of Asian American Studies Conference, Seattle, Washington, U.S.A.
2023
Presenter - The Intimacies of Obscenity, Intimate Collections: Artists Archiving Sex in the Asian Diaspora, University of California, Berkeley, California, U.S.A.
2021
Co-presenter - "I am the people": Performing solitary resistance as anti-authoritarian populism, Performance and Populism Conference, University of California, Berkeley, California, U.S.A. Co-presented with Jason Luger.
2020
Presenter - Refusing Pragmatic Resistance: Queer Presence As "Counter-Conduct", Singapore Studies Junior Scholar Seminar, Academia.sg.
2019
Presenter - Queer Objects: An Archive for the Future, Archives, Libraries, Museums and Special Collections (ALMS) conference, Berlin, Germany.
2018
Presenter - Skin/Leather/Hide: The Tactility of "Lecture, This Way", Queer Legacies, New Solidarities conference, Deakin University, Melbourne, Australia.
Presenter - Sensing "Brother Cane": Counter-Conduct and the Exhaustion of Self, Association of Theatre in Higher Education conference, Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A.
2013
Presenter - Remembering (Brother) Cane: A Performative Dialogue, Performance Studies international #19, Stanford University, Palo Alto, California, U.S.A.
Professional Practice and Service
2024-25
Hadidi Graduate Student Researcher (with Professor Shannon Jackson), University of California, Berkeley, U.S.A.
2022-23
Graduate Student Representative, Department of Theater, Dance and Performance Studies, University of California, Berkeley, U.S.A.
2022
Presenter and Facilitator - Seven Bodies and the Talking Sea, workshop with art practice students at Chiang Mai University, Thailand, curated and organized by Esther Lu, Taiwan.
2021-22
Graduate Student Delegate - The Graduate Assembly Representative for Department of Theater, Dance and Performance Studies, University of California, Berkeley, U.S.A.
2019
Roundtable Panel Discussant - Asian Dramaturgs' Network Conference, Singapore.
Participant - Pro Helvetia Seminar for Emerging Artists, Taipei Arts Festival, Taiwan.
2018
Participant - Northwestern University Summer Institute in Performance Studies, Evanston, Illinois, U.S.A.
Participant - Doctoral Theater Students' Association Conference, CUNY, New York City, New York, U.S.A.
Panel Respondent - Association of Asian Studies Conference, Washington D.C, U.S.A.
2017
Participant - Landing 2.0, Gibney Dance Center, facilitated by Miguel Gutierrez, New York City
Presenter - Movement x Archive x Performance 3.0, Live Art Development Agency, London
Participant - Summer School #0.5, Performance Studies international #23, Hamburg, Germany
2016
Presenter - Field Meeting Take 4: Thinking Practice, Asia Society at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York City, New York, U.S.A.
2014
Presenter - Materiality, Performance, and the Spectator, Singapore Art Museum, Singapore.
Presenter - Shifting Dialogues III Symposium, University of the Arts, Helsinki, Finland.
2013
Presenter - Shifting Dialogues II Symposium, University of the Arts, Helsinki, Finland.
Panelist - Performance: To Be Reviewed, Asia Art Archive, Hong Kong.
2011
Artist Presentation - 24th Singapore International Film Festival, Singapore.
Curator & Organizer - Graduate student presentation of the films of Apichatpong Weerasethakul at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (Filmmaker in attendance), Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A.
2010
Presented Toshio Matsumoto's Funeral Parade of Roses at Queer/Art/Film, IFC Center, New York City, New York, U.S.A.
Artist Residencies
2016
Artist-in-Residence, NTU Centre for Contemporary Art, Singapore.
Artist-in-Residence, The Substation, Singapore.
2015
Artist-in-Residence, Victorian College of the Arts, Melbourne, Australia.
Artist-in-Residence, Les Bernardes, Salt, Catalonia, Spain.
Artist-in-Residence, Hangar.org, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain.
Artist-in-Residence, FRAC des Pays de la Loire, Carquefou, France.
2013
Associate Artist Research Programme, The Substation, Singapore.
2012
Artist-in-Residence, The Unifiedfield, Granada, Spain.
Theatrical Design
2020
Multimedia Design, Miss British, commissioned as part of The Studios series by Esplanade, Theatres on the Bay, Singapore. Directed by Felipe Cervera.
2009-2016
Multimedia Artist, The Necessary Stage, Singapore
Collaborator and designer for video, live-feed and moving-image elements in devised theatre productions.
Production history includes:
Manifesto (2016) - co-production with Drama Box, Singapore. Won “Best Multimedia Design” at the M1-Straits Times Life! Theatre Awards 2017.
Past Carin’ (2009) - International collaboration with Australian artists. Staged in Melbourne, Australia and Singapore.
Crossings (2012) - International collaboration with Croatian artists. Staged at Esplanade, Theatres on the Bay in Singapore and National Theatre in Croatia.
Gemuk Girls (2008 and 2011) - Won “Production of the Year” in the Straits Times Life! Theatre Awards 2009. Staged in Singapore and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Frozen Angels (2008 and 2009) - “Special Mention” in the category of “Best Multimedia Design” at The Straits Times Life! Theatre awards 2010. Commissioned by the National University of Singapore Arts Festival and restaged at the National Museum of Singapore.
Selected External Artistic Contributions
2018 & 2024
Performer (Performative exercise), Re:collection, by Alexandra Pirici, NTU Centre for Contemporary Art, Singapore & SFMOMA, San Francisco, U.S.A.
2020
Performer (Theater), Lost Cinema 20/20, commissioned as part of The Studios series by Esplanade, Theatres on the Bay, Singapore. Directed by Brian Gothong Tan.
2014
Performer (Dance), Retrospective by Xavier Le Roy, Theatreworks, Singapore.
2012
Lead actor (Theater), A Language of Our Own (男男自语), Singapore Arts Festival, Singapore. Directed by Casey Lim, written by Chay Yew, translated by Robin Loon.
2011
Performer, The Precession by Mark Jeffrey and Judd Morrissey. Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A.
2008
Lead actor (Theater), Bondage (上身不由己), by Drama Box, Singapore. Directed by Danny Yeo.
2007
Lead actor in independent feature film, Pleasure Factory (快乐工厂), premiered at the 60th Cannes Film Festival. Directed by Ekachai Uekrongtham.