Lonely Vectors (2022)
Lonely Vectors presented a series of artworks and new commissions that draw our attention to the fault lines, choke points, exclusive zonings and infrastructural politics that characterise our global economy. Agricultural and irrigation channels, trade and shipping routes, economic zonings and migratory patterns are engraved across the surface of the earth, and are integral to our contemporary lives. Yet these lines and networks do not simply reflect a linear or smooth flow of goods around the world; they are also evidence of uneven distribution. Lonely Vectors was shown across multiple spaces, including local libraries and public hoardings, before returning to focus on the site of the logistical warehouse at Tanjong Pagar port.
The fact that the exhibition engaged with the site of Tanjong Pagar was important. It was the first group exhibition the museum put on following its move to the logistics and warehousing complex, Tanjong Pagar Distripark. Despite the significance of this move, the museum’s new home is not a permanent one. The lease on the port terminal at Tanjong Pagar is set to expire in 2027, and plans to move the entire port’s operation away from this prime location in the city are well underway. The fate of Tanjong Pagar Distripark is intrinsically tied to the port. Over months of research and conceptualisation, we constantly returned to the question of what it meant for us to occupy this liminal space.
The notion of vectors emerged as the exhibition’s central thesis. By this, we refer to the abstract yet directional movement of goods, labour, technology and elements that characterises much of the global logistical network today. The project was also conceptualised during the Covid-19 pandemic, so a key observation was how this free movement extended too to the flow of viruses, bacteria, microbes and germs.
The exhibition was conceived as a multi-site presentation. In addition to the presentation at Tanjong Pagar Distripark, Lonely Vectors extended to selected public libraries in Singapore. There, artist Chu Hao Pei presented Seeding Sovereignty (2022), an attempt to provide an alternative mode of seed distribution. The work takes the form of a seed library, and is designed to build on shared knowledge, affirm our mutual dependence, and reimagine different ways of organising ourselves. It emerges from the artist’s long-term interest in rice and its circulation within Singapore and Southeast Asia.
This was one of my first exhibition projects at Singapore Art Museum.
Participating Artists: Shu Lea Cheang, Chu Hao Pei, Tiffany Chung, Cian Dayrit, Ho Rui An, Ho Tzu Nyen, P7:1SMA, Bo Wang, Zarina Muhammad, Zachary Chan and Joel Tan, and Zheng Mahler.
Curators: Mi You, Kenneth Tay, and Joella Kiu.
Curators: Mi You, Kenneth Tay, and Joella Kiu.
Images: Singapore Art Museum