2019. Commissioned by the Temenggong Artists-in-Residence, Singapore for Longings, 寄望, jiwa curated by Yueh-Siang Chang; and supported by the National Museum of Singapore. In consultation with geneticist Assoc. Prof Dr. Eric Yap, Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine.
A crosspole of three flags was erected on the grounds of 28 Temenggong Road, which was sited at the foot of Singapore’s historic Mount Faber. The three flags were visual ciphers, using the semantics of Morse code, for the title of the work. At the base of the crosspole was a mound of soil. The exhibition visitors were invited to mark the soil with a mixture of ink and the synthesised hybrid DNA, consisting of the artist’s Y-chromosome; DNA of the Chinese parasol tree (which the artist’s grandfather is named after); and an encoded text. At the end of the exhibition, the soil was returned to the land that it was taken from; a gesture of rooting oneself to the land.
SO-FAR . 8 June 2021
BIO:ART SEA:T (Southeast Asia Taiwan) . 24 July 2021