Stadium
Library
Highway
Peter Chen's "Perspectives from the Ideal City" features some stunning panoramic prints documenting what seems like a systematic demolition of unbelievably iconic pieces of Singapore's Post-Independence architecture, deemed by various policies to be of architectural unimportance, or overridden by a competitive market driven by practicality and money.
From the Artist's Statement: "However, one occasionally sees a momentary rupture in the fabric of the city as it leaves in its wake a physical presence that reveals itself through the fissure in its arithmetical logic. It is the intention of this research to capture the momentary isolation of such 'reveals' - urban slippages that betray the conditions of the capitalism where progress was unable to erase or assimilate."
I enjoy the idea of these spots being a kind of "urban slippage" - the same way I relate to the Singapore River being some kind of psychogeographical faultline. Through the demolition of such sites which have already etched into people's hearts and memories, even the empty spots where they used to lie still remain haunted for those who find meaning in spaces and memories; it is the punctum of the image. I am also glad that someone has taken the pains to document these places before the connection becomes more and more faint and the dots can no longer be connected between memory and place.
No comments:
Post a Comment