Peace Agency (2022), in collaboration with Cynthia Delaney Suwito and Woong Soak Teng (@peaceagencysg)
Site-specific installation, commissioned for the Singapore International Photography Festival 2022
Site-specific installation, commissioned for the Singapore International Photography Festival 2022
Peace Agency (2022) is a site-specific commission that responds to Peace Centre, a multi-use shopping complex that was established in 1973. The Centre is currently undergoing en-bloc dialogues and was selected as an exhibition site for a large arm of the photography festival. Our approach to site-specificity veered towards facilitating a nuanced, embodied experience instead of treating photographic images as monuments or spectacles (as is commonly done in photography festivals). Drawing heavy influence from the DIY, kitschy visual vernacular of businesses in Peace Centre, we transformed a vacant commercial unit on the second floor into a participatory installation that is a simulacrum of waiting areas and wellness services – two key types of spaces found in the building.
The “service” provided by our “agency” lets audiences experience and examine the act of waiting, and hopefully discover a bit more about themselves. The idea of waiting was primarily inspired by the Centre's impending disappearance and the general state of buildings in Singapore: it is as if buildings here inherently know to expect a quick death. The unprecedented disruptions like lockdowns and quarantines during early waves of Covid, coupled with political and economic uncertainty from events during the pandemic, were additional motivators for landing on the theme of waiting. These large external events reminded us of the lack of control we often default to while waiting.
There are two major sections to the installation. After receiving a queue number from the receptionist, audiences are ushered to make themselves comfortable in the waiting area provided. The walls of the waiting area are sparsely populated with framed prints of off-white textures photographed within Peace Centre. These mimic motivational and inspirational posters or wall collaterals that are commonly found in the offices of small businesses. Hanging discreetly on a metallic newspaper rack is a handful of broadsheet publications. Mimicking newspapers, these broadsheets contain a large survey of around 50 waiting rooms in Peace Centre, systematically documented from the first to seventh floor. These images provide glimpses into other units of the building that may otherwise go unnoticed. Other objects such as a fish tank with no fish and a clock with the wrong time are placed to create a subtle oddness; we anticipated that this slight strangeness or humour would elicit more awareness of the act of waiting.
Once their number is called, audiences enter the final room at the end. This room is completely visible from the street due to wall-sized glass windows; this is especially obvious in the evening. It is designed to mimic the experience of meeting a consultant or therapist, except that the care provider is a desktop computer with a self-activated video exercise. A gentle nod to the rise of tele-health apps and services during Covid, audiences are invited to select one out of three modules on the screen. Each module focuses on a different aspect of waiting: 1) mindful awareness of physiological sensations during a wait, 2) reasons for waiting for another person or place, and 3) confronting inaction and action in the face of global unrest. Audiences are posed a series of questions for each module and are encouraged to jot down their responses on a postcard from a nearby wall. The images on these postcards are a continuation of the prints in the waiting area; they are textures photographed from all sorts of surfaces within Peace Centre. They serve as abstract imprints of change in Peace Centre and also as small souvenirs. A selection of postcard responses can be found at @peaceagencysg.
The “service” provided by our “agency” lets audiences experience and examine the act of waiting, and hopefully discover a bit more about themselves. The idea of waiting was primarily inspired by the Centre's impending disappearance and the general state of buildings in Singapore: it is as if buildings here inherently know to expect a quick death. The unprecedented disruptions like lockdowns and quarantines during early waves of Covid, coupled with political and economic uncertainty from events during the pandemic, were additional motivators for landing on the theme of waiting. These large external events reminded us of the lack of control we often default to while waiting.
There are two major sections to the installation. After receiving a queue number from the receptionist, audiences are ushered to make themselves comfortable in the waiting area provided. The walls of the waiting area are sparsely populated with framed prints of off-white textures photographed within Peace Centre. These mimic motivational and inspirational posters or wall collaterals that are commonly found in the offices of small businesses. Hanging discreetly on a metallic newspaper rack is a handful of broadsheet publications. Mimicking newspapers, these broadsheets contain a large survey of around 50 waiting rooms in Peace Centre, systematically documented from the first to seventh floor. These images provide glimpses into other units of the building that may otherwise go unnoticed. Other objects such as a fish tank with no fish and a clock with the wrong time are placed to create a subtle oddness; we anticipated that this slight strangeness or humour would elicit more awareness of the act of waiting.
Once their number is called, audiences enter the final room at the end. This room is completely visible from the street due to wall-sized glass windows; this is especially obvious in the evening. It is designed to mimic the experience of meeting a consultant or therapist, except that the care provider is a desktop computer with a self-activated video exercise. A gentle nod to the rise of tele-health apps and services during Covid, audiences are invited to select one out of three modules on the screen. Each module focuses on a different aspect of waiting: 1) mindful awareness of physiological sensations during a wait, 2) reasons for waiting for another person or place, and 3) confronting inaction and action in the face of global unrest. Audiences are posed a series of questions for each module and are encouraged to jot down their responses on a postcard from a nearby wall. The images on these postcards are a continuation of the prints in the waiting area; they are textures photographed from all sorts of surfaces within Peace Centre. They serve as abstract imprints of change in Peace Centre and also as small souvenirs. A selection of postcard responses can be found at @peaceagencysg.