Malayan Orchid
is an installation-based artwork centred around a collaborative graphic novel written by Rafi Abdullah with art by Tristan Lim. Held at STARCH, Singapore.
Malayan Orchid (re)introduces — by way of reference — histories of political and cultural silencing in the colonial, post independence, modern and the zeitgeist; and is suggestive of the speculative as an outlet for revising the course of history. Fumbling through speculative fiction, autobiographical truths, half truths, ‘hard truths’, and lies, the work is an attempt at revising revisionism. The cover features the title of the work embedded as the comic panel gutters — a consequence of the sequential comic panel format — reinforcing the narrative by placing attention on the ‘gaps’ of storytelling. (Credits — Story: Rafi Abdullah; Illustrated art: Tristan Lim)
Form & Agency
is a solo exhibition by artist Brandon Tay that explores the materiality of the digital. Presented on three stacks — the physical, the virtual, and live simulation components — the visual identity echoes the verticality of the stacks with a custom typeface and code logic. Shown in Yeo Workshop, Singapore.
The experimental variable typeface, As above, so below with elongated ascenders and descenders is capable of forming ‘vertical ligatures’, not with lateral letters but across lines of texts through stems of letterforms. This verticality is reflected through the placement of texts on edges of walls in the gallery space; of thresholds between spaces. Vertical ligatures challenging the linearity of languages; of words in lines; of thresholds between symbols and meanings. (Credits — Curator: Rafi Abdullah; Exhibition design: Amirul Nazree, set up w/ Nghia Phung; Website design and build: w/ Bảo Anh Bùi; Exhibition Photography: Jonathan Tan)