Sean Cham

Washing White (2020)
HD three channel video (80 minutes), performance artefacts

Exhibited at FIFTEEN, online (2021)

On February 6, 1819, Stamford Raffles signed a Treaty and ‘founded modern Singapore’. The next day, on February 7, Raffles left Singapore. He had left instructions for a fort to be built, and for the British troops to be dispatched on the island. A port city was to be established. In just 24 hours, the colonial official changed the course of the island’s narrative. 

Washing White is a durational performance of slightly more than 24 hours. The five acts in the performance are: Maintenance, Repair, Restoration, Renewal, and Alteration — terms borrowed from the conservation of architectural heritage, including buildings embedded with imperial histories.

In the same amount of time that Raffles took, I will attempt to undo and repair.

Stills from the durational performance.