Artists Statement

Theme: Pacific Rim. Venue: Container Culture: Singapore Container. Venue: South Hall. Curator: Gunalan Nadarajan

This work deals with the recent free trade agreement between Singapore and the U.S.A., which has been a source of tremendous optimism and grave concern among a variety of people, depending on which side of the free-trade issue one is on.
One of the elements that Singapore has had to give in on is that of the import of chewing gum. The FTA problematized the ban on the import of chewing gum imposed by the Singapore government in the late 1980s. Given the fact that this has been one of the most conspicuous and controversial policies of the Singapore government, it is no surprise that this move has aroused several political sensitivities. It is fascinating how this ban on chewing gum has unfavorably positioned Singapore internationally. Today, Singapore still upholds the ban on the import of chewing gum but in a provision of the FTA has given in to the limited import of therapeutic chewing gum (e.g. nicotine gum).
In this work, we seek to problematize the notion of free trade by reflecting on the ways in which it brings deeper cultural and political differences to the forefront. Toward this end, our video installation is composed of interviews with Singaporeans who are asked to express their views about the FTA, free trade, U.S. imports and their cultural meanings (liberal values, consumer lifestyles, etc).
Placed on the floor of a 20-ft container shipped from Singapore to the U.S.A. is a blob of chewed-up gum approximately 10 ft in diameter. Embedded in it are two TV screens showing the interviews and a number of symbolic objects. The installation will allow the audience to move around and look at the two TV screens, which are mounted horizontally, at a comfortable height, as well as at the other embedded objects. The items in the heap, placed at different positions and angles, will consist of a variety of everyday objects caught in various degrees of contact with the chewing gum. The interviews will be interspersed with video clips of 1980s coverage of the chewing gum ban in Singapore as well as other video snippets.

• Shirley Soh (SG) is currently an artist based in Singapore after previous careers in TV journalism and publishing. Trained in ceramics, she has also worked in other media, mainly installations, using living vegetation, soil and other materials. Her work deals with the conundrums of human subjectivity in culture-nature discourses. She has participated in several art exhibitions in Singapore, Malaysia and Switzerland, where she was an artist-in-residence through the Artists-in-Labs project.
• Margaret Tan (SG) is an artist based in Singapore who works with a wide range of media. Her works have been showcased both locally and internationally in exhibitions such as Nokia Singapore Art 2001, Singapore Art Museum; From My Fingers: Living in the Technological Age, Kaoshiung Museum of Fine Art, Taipei; and ISEA 2002 (Oral), Nagoya, Japan, among many others. Tan has been artist-in-residence with programs such as the Cyberarts and Cyberculture Initiative, University Scholars Programme, National University of Singapore and Artist-in-Labs Project (Swiss Centre for Electronics and Microtechnology, Alpnach), University of Applied Sciences and Arts Zurich, Switzerland.