HOW DO I REMEMBER (2021)

TEXT INSTALLATION AT LINKWAY BETWEEN 144 & 145 PaSIR RIS ST 11

What happens when a street disappears? What if its name is no longer uttered; no longer of use? What remains? What exactly is lost? How will I remember you is a text installation that invites viewers to reflect on these questions. The installation presents 17 street names in Pasir Ris that have been expunged and removed from the street directory over the years. Like many other estates across the island, Pasir Ris has witnessed its share of re-roading and land transformation. Moving beyond the act of presenting these names to invoke nostalgia, or to impose a shared collective memory, this new work seeks to prompt the viewer to consider how we might construct and retain personal memories. How might we remember streets, places, people when the traces we rely on for remembering, such as their names, are themselves no longer uttered, no longer of use?

Exhibition

11 Mar to 11 Apr 2021: ‘The Story of a Place is in Its Name’. Arts in Your Neighbourhood: Pasir Ris

This Time (2021)

TEXT INSTALLATION (IN TWO PARTS) WITH ACRYLIC SHEETS AT BISHAN-ANG MO KIO PARK

Conceptualised during the 2020 ‘circuit breaker’ lockdown period, 'This Time' reflects on our heightened sensitivities toward time, distances and proximities. The artwork features two sets of texts on both sides of the bridge near the Riverside Gallery.

THIS TIME APART / THIS DISTANCE TOGETHER
LONGING FOR THE SKY / REACHING FOR THE SEA

Within the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, the texts speak to a time where we are held apart, yet share a sense of longing together. Looking beyond, the texts are a reminder of life’s uncertainties, desires, and hopes. As a site-responsive artwork, the texts work with the elements of the surrounding environment, such as the apartment blocks, the river, sky, and trees. When encountered together, they suggest a dynamic and perpetual connection to the rest of the city and beyond.

Exhibition

22 Jan to 6 Jun 2021: ‘Re-written: The World Ahead of Us’. National Arts Council Public Art Trust commission.

YOU WILL NOT FEEL THIS WAY FOREVER (2021)

TEXT INSTALLATION IN BUS SHELTERS. DIMENSIONS VARIABLE. (SET OF 3)

Set plainly within the confines of the ubiquitous bus shelter advertising display, this text work appears stealthily in three different iterations and locations along the #175 bus route; prompting reflection on notions of impermanence and change, and on the poetics of everyday public spaces. Considered with the elements found at each site, the texts may be read as an objective campaign statement that suggests encouragement and affirmation; an incantation of hope and wishful thinking; or as a reminder and warning of a volatile and ambiguous future.

Exhibition

21 Jan to 3 Feb 2021: ‘Bus.Stop.Art’. Curated by Amelia Abdullahsani and Merryn Trevethan.

STILL BUILDING (2020)

Text projection on THE Padang Atrium Canopy OF National Gallery Singapore.
19.5 x 25m

‘Still Building’ speaks to the ideals of the National Pledge, to the site (of the Padang, and of the former Supreme Court and City Hall which now houses the National Gallery) and to National Day itself. Its ‘prismatic’ form reminds us that the ongoing work towards justice and equality needs to include diverse voices and perspectives.

The work responds to 'Bumi Hangus' (1987), a painting in the National Collection by artist Wong Hoy Cheong who in turn was inspired by W.S Rendra’s poem of the same title. We see the painting and the poem it references as a meditation on loss and sacrifice amidst the search for justice and belonging. Our work adapts Wong’s prismatic palette to reflect the facets and complexities of building a democratic society.

Exhibition

23 Jul to 30 Aug 2020: ‘National Day Light-Up’. Organised by National Gallery Singapore.

WHERE DO STORIES BEGIN/WHERE DO STORIES END (2019)

COLLABORATION WITH MICHAEL LEE.

TEXT INSTALLATION (IN TWO PARTS) WITH LED ROPE ON CAVENAGH BRIDGE.

A two-part, text-based and site-specific installation that invites viewers to consider the notion of history as a series of layered stories that unfold and fold into one another perpetually. The two parts of the title prompt us to reflect on what we know (or what we think we know) of Singapore’s founding history, and to consider how stories in history are always purposefully framed with specific beginnings and ends. Who decides on where a story starts and ends? What more could we learn from other perspectives yet to be heard or explored? How do we begin to tell our own stories—of ourselves, of places, people, and things that surround us; and what would their endings be?

Exhibition

28 Jan to 24 Feb 2019: ‘Bridges of Time’, Commissioned by i Light Singapore: Bicentennial Edition. Production supported by National Arts Council.

There are those who stay/there are those who go (2016)

Installation with text (IN TWO PARTS) on aluminium composite panels, 240 x 420 x 60 cm (each)

This work examines the idea of 'staying' and 'going' as two perspectives of a single decisive moment. Two walls, cladded in mirrors and placed face-to-face, are in conversation as well as confrontation with each other, uncovering various prismatic and layered readings into the nature of choice, attachment, separation, and loss. In relation to its site, that of the former National Library, the work calls for a reflective inquiry into how we transform our spaces, and the memories we entwine with these spaces.

Exhibition

27 Oct 2016 to 26 Feb 2017: ‘An Atlas of Mirrors’. Commissioned by Singapore Biennale 2016. Production supported by Kelvin Ang, Jimmy Chua, Ho Hui May, Bervyn Lee, Nicholas Song, Juliana Tong, and Singapore Management University

the weight of a pause builds with the gravity of silence (2016)

inkjet print face-mounted onto acrylic glass with aluminum composite backing,

photo print 50 x 72 cm, text print
50 x 30cm, displayed 15cm apart

This work examines the notion of a pause - its nature, purpose and effect. Here, text and image relay a sense of rest as well as anticipation; a moment between ‘nothing is happening’ and ‘anything can’.

Exhibition

21 to 24 Jan 2016: Presented by Mizuma Gallery at Art Stage Singapore 2016, Marina Bay Sands Convention Centre, Singapore

DISTANCES UNFOLD with
the Speed of time (2015)

Archival inkjet print,
photo print 80 x 120 cm (unframed),
text print 80 x 160 cm (unframed)

This set of photo and text prints examines the various distances and proximities we experience and navigate — from the physical, to metaphysical, to the emotional. Entwined in this sense-making is our reading of time, and how we perceive, and are shaped by its flow.

Exhibition

25 Sep to 25 Oct 2015: ‘What It Is About When It Is About Nothing’. Curated by Michael Lee. Mizuma Gallery, Singapore

Locus (2012)

single-channel video with sound, 2m 39s

“Locus” brings together a selection of photographs from the duo’s ‘Spaces in Between’ project, which explores transient spaces in Singapore. Included in the montage are stills of the ordinary (a car park, a bus stop), alongside the monumental (a now-demolished national stadium); punctuated by elegiac chimes and texts, contemplating the act of photographing as a means of remembering and forgetting.

Screenings/Exhibitions

21 Oct to 10 Nov 2015: ‘Urban:ness: Encountering the City’. Curated by Mukta Ahluwalia Bedi. Dubai Community Theatre and Arts Centre

9 to 17 June 2012: ‘Drive’, a presentation of films curated by Kent Chan. 3rd Experimental Film Forum, The Substation, Singapore

Scala (2011)

single-channel video with sound, 3m 22s

“Scala” viewfinds the escalator in various states; meditating upon the seemingly endless chug of time, and an 'end place' that eludes us. Handheld, and coupled with fragments of found sounds and an original score, the film attempts to convey the strange delight and fear of being both stilled and moved by an unstoppable force.

Screenings/Exhibitions

13 to 16 Sep 2012: ‘Pulau (Back in the Closet)’. Curated by Ezzam Rahman. The Substation, Singapore

31 July to 3 Aug 2012: ‘Pulau’. Curated by Ezzam Rahman. Kulturhuset, Stockholm

5 May 2011: ‘Eternity’, a presentation of films curated by Victric Thng. 2nd Experimental Film Forum, The Substation, Singapore

Interland (2008)

single-channel video with sound, 5m 3s

A rooftop carpark stands empty and ready, like a stage awaiting its spectacle. Captured in one take, 'Interland' explores the passage of time and light, and invites the viewer to meditate on that singular, unrepeatable, and uncontrollable moment – when night forwards into day.

Screening/Exhibition

9 to 17 June 2012: ‘Drive’, a presentation of films curated by Kent Chan. 3rd Experimental Film Forum, The Substation, Singapore

Terminus (2008)

single-channel video with sound, 5m 42s

The void deck is a public space unique to Singapore. Its ubiquitous presence, under each public housing block, serves as a poetic reminder of the disconnect and dualities that exist in our modern cityscape: It is a space where neighbours meet, and avoid one another; a place to breathe, but not to linger; a view into the emptiness that surrounds us; and a blank slate for the imagination.

Screenings/Exhibitions

29 Sep 2016  to 15 Jan 2017: ‘El espejo enterrado’, 3° Bienal de Montevideo. Curated by Alfons Hug. Palacio Legislativo del Uruguay

20 Nov to 13 Dec 2015: ‘Contemporary Art Next Door’, a survey exhibition presented as part of Titian Budaya cultural festival. Curated by Tang Fu Kuen. White Box @ Publika, Kuala Lumpur

25 Sep to 25 Oct 2015: ‘What It Is About When It Is About Nothing’. Curated by Michael Lee. Mizuma Gallery, Singapore

31 Aug 2008: ‘Place’, ROJAK 12. Organised by FARM. The Substation, Singapore

21 Aug to 20 Oct 2008: ‘Time’. Curated by Susie Wong. TickleArt, CityLink, Singapore

Absence (2008)

single-channel video with sound, 7m 34s

A housing block sits quietly on Banda Street in Chinatown, remarkably untouched by the redevelopment projects at its doorstep. A silent visitor arrives to explore its corridors and walkways - to observe, to compare, and to document the spaces she wandered through as a child. In her attempt to make a record, and recall what is already absent, she anticipates the loss that is to come.

Screenings/Exhibitions

24 Apr to 19 May 2015: ‘Vernacula_’. Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, Singapore

11 July to 30 Sep 2008: ‘Digital Homelands’. National Museum of Singapore