I still can’t forget the faces of those high school girls in Singapore. They were listening to my story, and in the end of it one of them said she would never forget it. As part of Make Your Own Passport (2014) at Art Stage Singapore 2016, I recounted a story to the people who […]
Category Archives: hands-on thinking
I have just been officially initiated into The Order of Cartons. I have got the first cart that I am co-responsible for. I am excited. When I stepped out for water this evening I saw the lady in pink stripes. This brought me to a sentimental flashback session of seeing her dragging her cart down […]
Something hit and I had to take a distance from myself today. I saw so many jumbled emotions there, like if a firework had strings attached to each of its tiny explosions, each of its other ends tied to its source. It’s not that dramatic, but for the purpose of this entry it should be. […]
Thinking of my magnet and my razorblade today, I had a revelation. How they relate to each other is like what the fox said to the little prince. Being attracted so strongly to each other, but pulled back by the strings, they were held in place. As I was waiting to see whether their attraction […]
It’s been a year since last June. I’ve gone through a lot. I’ve learned quite a lot too. Or at least hopefully so. One of the deepest things I learned is that nothing can happen in an instance. This might sound obvious, but words are just words until you experience their meaning, real time. When […]
It is no other than movement in space, over time, that allows a change in perspective. From one point in space, at one point of time, you can see a smoothly curved line. You have the option to believe that that’s the only reality: that the line you’re looking at is smoothly curved. […]
“If you can write down your passport number without having to look at your passport,” the border police said smugly, “your passport is definitely fake.” What a training, I thought. Quietly, I felt sorry for him. The three other police were fully armed. They were at least twice my size. When they walked me – […]
Photo courtesy of Tobias Kraft, emailed to me by Jacob Birken.
Installation view of the Great Wallpaper series. Photo courtesy of Cemeti Art House/Sari Handayani. When I returned, she was still drawing. On the wall. Why, I asked her. Because it is a wall, she said. But why, I asked again. Because a wall is a construct that stands between this space, where we are, […]
Lure (2009) is a spatial installation using handmade miniature passports, handmade real-size passports, and a claw vending machine. The installation consists of two coherent parts — the Intro and the Main part. The Intro is a long line of colourful miniature passports that is composed along the exhibition space, analogous to Hansel and Gretel’s trail […]