Shifting Grounds: Human-Environment Relations in Volcanic Terrain

Black lava fields at the foot of Mount Batur, Bali, Indonesia. Photo by Ng Hui Hsien.

Talk & Lecture

Saturday, 13 December 2025
3:00 – 4:30pm
The Hall, NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore
6 Lock Road, #01-09, Gillman Barracks, 108934

Category
Programmes

Series
Residencies Studio Sessions

Theme
Communities of Practice

Topics
Coexistence, Community, Cultural Environment, Ecology, Ecosystems, History, Mythology, Nature, Ritual, Social Systems, The Geocultural, The Local and the Global

Regions
Southeast Asia

Shifting Grounds:
Human-Environment Relations in Volcanic Terrain

Saturday, 13 December 2025 · 3:00 - 4:30 PM

How do geological forces, local cosmologies, and policy frameworks converge and collide to shape life around an active volcano? This performative lecture by Ng Hui Hsien, STAR Artist-in-Residence, NTU CCA Singapore, and Yoonhee Jung, Senior Research Fellow, Department of History, NUS, delves into the complexities of human-environment relationships in and around Mount Batur in Bali, Indonesia. Drawing on research and lived experience, the presentation examines socio-economic shifts and the fraying of spiritual-ecological bonds intensified by the area’s designation as a UNESCO Global Geopark in 2012.

Through interwoven visual sequences, academic analysis, and textual explorations, the presenters show how artistic and scholarly perspectives diverge and intersect in interpreting this contested ground – and how Mount Batur acts as a sacred agent within local worldviews and ecologies.

Credits

Shifting Grounds: Human-Environment Relations in Volcanic Terrain is part of STAR Residencies – Cycle 1, a programme developed by NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore in collaboration with NTU Earth Observatory of Singapore.

Contributors

Ng Hui Hsien

Ng Hui Hsien

Artist-in-Residence

Singapore

Ng Hui Hsien (b. 1982, Singapore) works as an artist, educator, and curator. Through her artworks, she seeks to evoke stillness and wonder, especially towards our inner landscapes and the more-than-human world. Her work is informed by phenomenology, one that sees our bodies as sites of knowledge and one curious about our relations with the living earth. Ng has received solo exhibitions at Objectifs Centre of Photography and Film, Singapore (2023), Grey Projects, Singapore (2020-2021), Comma Space, Singapore (2020), and Reykjavík Museum of Photography, Iceland (2018-2019). Her work has been internationally exhibited at institutions and festivals such as Shanghai Art Book Fair, China (2019), Martin Parr Foundation, Bristol, UK (2018), the PhotoBangkok Festival, Thailand (2018), Obscura Festival of Photography, Penang, Malaysia (2018), Dali International Photography Festival, China (2018), and Athens Photo Festival, Greece (2018) among others. She holds a Master of Arts in Photography from University of the West of England and a Master of Social Sciences from National University of Singapore.

Yoonhee Jung

Scholar

Singapore

Yoonhee Jung is an urban geographer with an interdisciplinary background in Architecture, Geography, and Urban Studies. Her research investigates urban and regional sustainability in Asia, with a particular focus on integrating environmental and social dimensions of sustainable development. She explores the politics of nature and sustainability planning in Asian cities and regions, with an emphasis on environmental governance, climate change challenges, and social justice, to shape more equitable and resilient futures.

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