Cardboard as Currency

 

 

Cardboard as Currency is a photo essay that looks at the social invisibility of cardboard collectors within an old Chinese neighbourhood in Singapore, exhibiting that compassion fatigue is endemic in the developed world. Social issues in Singapore are abound, but also well hidden - at first glance, the country is wealthy, tidy and well organised. This photo essay communicates the relationship between people and place, and shows a generational shift in social responsibility and shows differing attitudes towards the social issues of homelessness, an aging population, family responsibility and social welfare. 

Selected photographs are exhibited at the Institute of Contemporary Arts, Singapore from February 15 - 26 as part of the Cities and Their Thesis exhibition.

Urban Camping

“The city is seen imaginatively as the heart of contemporary darkness [...] a jungle of brick, stone and smoke, 
with its greedy predators and apathetic victims, its brutal indifference to either communal value or individual feeling."  
  Nochlin, L. (1971) Realism. Penguin Books : London

In a failed attempt to get away from the city over Chinese New Year, Molly and Chad pitched a tent in the alleyways and carparks of Tiong Bahru Estate. Naming their adventure Urban Camping, and armed with a camera and two iPhones, Molly and Chad shot a series of dissociated holiday snaps, capturing the isolation they experienced, alone in an abandoned suburb.

Why do we live in cities so full of life and possibility, yet feel so alone? Artist Edward Hopper explored these themes through his realist paintings. We are faced with the antithesis of city dwelling – a feeling of disconnection, isolation and aloneness that accumulates as brooding sentiments of anti-urbanism.