Plot of Land (2019-2020)
Digital prints, found objects, Javascript interface projection, pair of white gloves
Plot of Land investigates the production of historical narratives, by inviting audience members to participate in the act of writing history. The work displays found objects, photographs of these objects in-situ, and found images (from Google Street View), alongside a digital interface. Visitors are invited to select a pair of images from an on-site ‘archive’, display them on the wall, and fill in a prompt, which would then generate a text caption for their display.
In the context of urban redevelopment in Singapore, historical weight is ascribed to certain sites and buildings deemed important and ‘historic’, which then results in a chain of events — social media attention, media coverage, creation of documentaries and exhibitions, addresses in Parliament, before the buzz dies down. The same phenomenon has been observed repeatedly in the last decade, including Rochor Centre, Pearl Bank Apartments, Dakota Crescent, Sungei Road Market, and Golden Mile. Elsewhere in Singapore, buildings continue to be torn down, without the same fanfare. Why do some places disappear quietly without any trace, without any protest?
Plot of Land attempts to write the history of insignificant places. It does not reflect the history of a specific place, but the history of a place that possibly no longer exists. The work ruminates on the authority of historical narratives: Who gets to write history? Which stories get told? Which images get shown?
Exhibition Summary
- Exhibited:
- DECK, Singapore (2020)
- URA Singapore City Gallery, Singapore (2019)
Installation at URA Singapore City Gallery, 2019
Installation at DECK, 2020
In collaboration with Robin Roussel
Sean Cham 