BIG BIG small small
2026
‘One fine day, you arrived exactly like you were supposed to…’
Set in a black‑box theatre, BIG BIG small small is a 40‑minute immersive sound performance that synthesizes music, theatre and sculpture. Created by performer Joanna Dong, composer Chok Kerong and visual artist Dawn Ng, the genre‑defying work dissolves the boundaries between recital, ritual and installation.
Video by Kenneth Lee. Music: 'Food for Thought', by Chok Kerong.
In a darkened soundscape, sound becomes choreography, and looming celestial sculptures speak, while compositions in English and Mandarin meditate on our interconnected relationship with the cosmos, the self, and others across a single human life.
At its core, BIG BIG small small is an ode to the law of polarities articulated in the Tao Te Ching —being and non‑being, soft and hard, light and dark, action and non‑action. The sound sculptures enact these tensions through paired, overlapping analog shapes; frozen shards of calligraphy ink, dyes and Indian ink are set to bloom and bleed across raw wood, their slow melting and staining forming a visual counterpoint to the sculptures’ emitted sounds.
The result is a ritualized, multi-sensory encounter —where form and formlessness, scale and fragility, time and disappearance reverberate.
Installation of 'BIG BIG small small', 2026. A sound + sculpture performance presented at the School of the Arts, Singapore - Studio Theatre, on the 6 and 7th June 2026. All photos: Jovian Lim.
‘One fine day you left exactly like you were supposed to…’