OPEN AIR SCREENING SERIES PRESENTS:

THE ONUS IS ON ME, 2025
Dual-projection Installation by Hiya Singh

FREE Screening OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
PUBLIC RECEPTION AT THE MONO NO AWARE LEARNING LAB AT 7 PM
SCREENING WILL BEGIN AT 8 PM on FRIDAY MAY 30TH until Dawn SAT MAY 31st ** OPENING NIGHT RECEPTION **
CLOSING NIGHT Dusk on SAT MAY 31st until Dawn SUN JUNE 1st

OPEN AIR SCREENING SERIES presents 16MM films on LOOP visible from a distance from dusk until dawn.
72 ROCKWELL PLACE, Brooklyn, New York 11217 - Between BRIC Media Arts Center & BAM Rose Cinemas.
FULL DETAILS BELOW * Any & All donations to benefit FOOD NOT BOMBS Bed-STUY via suggested donations at a sliding scale.

PROGRAM INCLUDES

THE ONUS IS ON ME, 2025 ( DUAL CHANNEL 16MM Color Film, Silent, 4 Min)
“The Onus Is On Me” is a three-channel 16mm projection installation that re-imagines the title as a tactile, embodied experience. The piece abstracts language through in-camera title design on 16mm, employing a monologue that explores perception and escapism. Traditional elements of title design—language, typography, and motion—are used within the frame to emphasize the directionality and physicality of speech. The construction and motion of the type are personified: a custom variable typeface swings from left to right while a marquee animation replicates the rhythm in which words are read and absorbed. The dramatic reading adopts a monologue, a literary device grounded in the body. The protagonist, who dreams of acting, is dissatisfied with how they are perceived. They believe favorable impressions derive from the onlooker’s psychological bias, as if no one projects onto them. Escapism becomes the coping mechanism, symbolized by abstract silk-screened frames in the middle channel, contrasting with the side channels (traveling mattes) that represent reality through horizontal, pulsating typographic movements.

Hiya Singh is a filmmaker, photographer and graphic designer based in New York, NY. Their work aims to capture and explore the self in a playful and essentialist way. Working with both analog and digital media, they use celluloid to create visual narratives that embrace humor, repetition, and the lack of control.

With this series we ask that each presenting artist identify a non-profit they wish to bring attention to and support through this screening. Hiya has selected FOOD NOT BOMBS Bed-Stuy Chapter. Foot Not Bombs is a worldwide movement made up of autonomous groups who believe that food and the other necessities of life are rights, not privileges. So they give food away and eat it ourselves. They are not doing charity but community, solidarity and celebration. 

Please consider making a donation to support these efforts.

OPEN AIR SCREENING SERIES:
The OPEN AIR SCREENING SERIES allows for 16mm film projection viewing with social and physical distance guidelines in place. 16mm film prints are projected, on loop, from dusk until dawn. Each artist receives an honorarium to support their practice and a new print of the work struck at MONO LAB. Each artist is asked to select a non-profit for a portion of the proceeds to benefit, a donation will be made in their name. And, YOU the audience are invited to enjoy the work, take part in the conversation and we ask that you consider making a donation as it directly supports the artist and the organization with which they share concern. This screening series is supported by the New York State Council for the Arts (NYSCA).