Constructing Futures
Dear Penang,
What price do we pay for the continuous development and never-ending economic growth?
I shot this work during the OBSCURA Photography festival in August. I’ve just received news of more deaths off Bukit Kukus, one of the sites that I spent a considerable amount of time in. More so even, Pulau Jerajek has also been slated for further development. The intention of my work has always been to link issues of development and construction to greater issues of politics and financing. I hope this work tries to draw some idea to how we think of developmental issues in Penang, Singapore (my home) and all around the world.
This work has been titled “Constructing Futures”, for all the different futures that people try to construct. The real question now is, which is the best future and how do we get there?
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This work would not have been possible with my help from my friends in Penang- Seng Chye, Anil, Salma, Andrew, Rexy and Rajes, support from photographic friends and mentors- Ian, Tom, Marc, Louis and more thanks to people at OBSCURA Photo Festival and Yale-NUS.
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The work has been shown at:
Metasis, Obscura Photo Festival, Penang, 2018
Metasis, Webb Gallery, Queensland College of Art, 2018
Accretion, Objectifs- Centre For Photography and Film, Singapore, 2019
Songs from the Nusantara, Beaut Festival, Brisbane, 2019
Streets of Hope, Singapore, 2020