ennui
June 21, 2021Hi! I’m showing work here:
ennui is part of a body of images that manifested from months of long morning walks, in a bid to make sense of my restlessness and disenchanted state of being.
The free-flowing fabric symbolises a state of surrender to the ineluctable flux of life and circumstance, whilst being tethered by an anchor.
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Our body’s circadian rhythm is an unfathomable thing. Was stricken by bouts of insomnia for the longest time but 2021 had new plans for me. It decided that I should get out of bed at 6 or 7 am every morning. Frustrated, I could have been (who wouldn’t want to sleep in more!!!) but with an extra 2 hours to my day, I decided to go on morning walks instead. I didn’t want to be cooped up at home, or in bed, restless and mad at the world for throwing me this spanner.
These walks did me some good. It gave me time to think. It cleared my head for a bit. Prob gained some knowledge from the hundreds of podcasts I’ve listened to, and it was refreshing to be out there before everyone else. Cool, quiet mornings on the walk up; familiar strangers on the way back, made even better with the glow of the soft morning light.
As a photographer, I’m pretty sensitive to the quality of light and how it reflects/bounces off different surfaces. Most days during golden hour, I’d find myself looking out for this. Eventually, I started making some images with my phone.
This process of photography was spontaneous and unpremeditated. I would only whip out my phone from my pockets whenever something caught my eye. It could be anything from the soft shadows of vines creeping behind the tarpaulin, the tortoise that took forever to cross the road, to the canvas crisp yet being gently blown in the wind. And oh, the interesting blend of colors on weathered bark.
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The theme of this exhibition is ‘invisible’, and it was birthed from Buangkok Potters’ initial outreach with a group of APSN students. APSN is a school providing special education for students with mild intellectual disability. Our friends at Buangkok Potters shared about how ‘normal yet invisible’ this group of students were in mainstream society. I’m not doing justice to their project with my second-rate explanation, but you could always slide in their DMs to ask more or come see the works of the kids at the show!
How I decided to interpret this theme for and through my work, I leave it to you to make educated guesses. Share with me if you’d like, I’d be happy to hear your thoughts.
Just as an extra note:
· Experimented with printing images on fabric and mulled quite a bit about form vis-à-vis space. This series is antithetical to my usual photojournalistic work, a lot more introspective and contemplative. Pretty pleased with how ‘random’ images coalesced to form this triptych.
· Also! Made some merchandise, in the form of a scarf, with 2 of my fave weathered-bark images. They come in an edition of 8 (more exclusive than the BTS MacDonalds thingamajig), and measures 1m in length. All proceeds from the sales of scarf goes back to serving a group of marginalized individuals/families we reach out to in Cheng San, championed by the X-team. X-team is a non-partisan volunteer group consisting of friends, ex-offenders, good looking folks, aunties (not me!!), seed funded by my cool illustrator friends Jackie & Nat from 8EyedSpud last Dec. We do weekly home visits to some vulnerable and isolated seniors, keep up with youths falling back in school, hang out with adults who need a little bit of help in life. All profits from purchasing a scarf, at $120, goes back to supporting the efforts of X-team and makes a small little difference in the life of someone I guess :)
Say hello or throw me some questions at bernicewsf@gmail.com :D