moment

moment
2013
Commissioned for Singapore Biennale 2013
Site-specific installation at National Museum of Singapore
Supported by Singapore Artists’ Fund

moment is a site-specific installation that is part of the artist’s continual pursuit of a deeper meaning of self in response to the world she lives in. We seem to forget what is important to us. We stop connecting with our surroundings, the people around us, and our inner selves. Ultimately, our existence in this world is temporal and all will come to an end. How then does one find oneself in this changing world?

Handcrafted from closed-cell polyethylene foam, this landscape-like spatial sculpture reacts to the ambient ultraviolet light sources. The glowing installation embodies humans' instinctive nature to make and create. In moment, the hand underscores the intention of making – hope, meaning, memory, connection…

Sited in an open-plan gallery alongside Crystal Palace by Ken + Julia Yonetani and Unsubtitled by Nguyen Trinh Thi, moment provides a quiet counterpoint to the highly visible and audible social commentaries expressed by the other two artworks. Obscured from view as visitors first enter the gallery, moment reveals itself after the viewers’ eyes adjust to the darkness, inviting them to take a closer look and wander into its depth.

Photography by Caleb Ming

The subtle green glow of the luminous foam sculptures is intensified when captured on a digital camera. The phenomenon is due to the reaction of phosphor pigments on the foam sculpture to the surrounding ultraviolet light [Black Light] sources.