Memory Portals

I’ve been fascinated by the idea of a map that could only be officially identified as being the true “artistic work” of its author by being disputably “inaccurate”. The speed at which Singapore develops and changes all the time also means that our maps are always in the process of becoming outdated and inaccurate; as roads and places that were once real cease to exist in reality although they remain in our memory.

In 2010, I made an interactive map installation of the Singapore River that would require the participation of the audience to complete the work. The audience is invited to contribute their memories of the Singapore River to a large hand-drawn map of the Singapore River, regardless of whether the memories are real, partially real, or imaginary. Over 1700 stories were collected and this was most recently exhibited with Singapore Art Museum in April 2021, along with 200 selected stories.

The work is a visual extension of my 2010 work. Two glowing “doorways” or portals stand on the lawn of the Asian Civilisations Museum, representing a view into alternate fantastical realities of the Singapore River, drawing on and reinterpreting the textual material collected from the work Here the River Lies.