Dawn Ng: Everything You Ever Wanted is Right Here
PUBLISHED August 24th, 2012 05:22 pm | UPDATED May 9th, 2018 03:13 am
Sometimes, I just don’t like art.
There. I said it.
It’s all the “…and this represents the enormity of that, the juxtaposition, and that colour there symbolises eternal suffering and…” sorry dude, you’ve lost me. While I understand that this may make me sound like an uncultured simpleton, the fact is that I want to be moved, more than that…grabbed by the scruff of my neck by art and filled with joy, awe and expectation. I like my art a little silly, I don’t want to be filled with a deep sense of despair that I’m looking into the darkest depths of a person’s tortured soul; no thanks, I’d like to jump onto someone’s imagination and ride to the stars – and if I happen to see a Care Bear while I’m up there, marvellous.
I’d not been long in Singapore when I casually encountered Walter, the ginormous rabbit. There in the middle of Bras Basah was a jaunty-looking inflatable rabbit, nonchalantly looking at me like, ‘yeh I’m cute…so what? move along lady’. I was an instant fan. Something about his playful, stubborn presence, there in amongst the office workers in suits and ties looking all serious and harried, it was so silly and so perfect.
I wondered about the kind of imagination that would conjure such an idea and wished I could live in that person’s head. Well, turns out, you can! Welcome to the world of Dawn Ng. It’s awesome in here.
With a new exhibition launching next month, you can step into Dawn’s world of imagination and playful rebellion. Everything You Ever Wanted is Right Here is a series of handcrafted photographic and typography-based collages of home. It’s a tongue-in-cheek visual documentary of present day Singapore, compiled over a 4-month period of photo-journalism and interviews with locals.
We had the chance to put a few questions to Dawn about her past and current projects, and to try to find out what makes her tick:
Hi Dawn, first let me just say I am a huge fan of Walter the ginormous rabbit. Please send him our regards. You said in reference to the Walter series that he served to help us see our city as children again, but a lot of your work conjures the same whimsical, joyful feeling. Are you channelling your inner child’s imagination?
Well, I have said this before. I am the biggest kid I know.
Why do you think it’s important for people to look at these familiar landscapes with a kind of new, child-like wonder?
I think there is so much beauty in the everyday and ordinary that is invisible to most people. It is important not to lose your sense of wonder about the simple things.
I read somewhere that Wonderland was one of your favourite projects…why?
Because it was spontaneous.
Once you’ve had an idea, do you ever filter it, or just go with the flow?
It’s a process of both.
Your Singaporean roots feature strongly in your work, do you feel a responsibility to bring across elements of Singapore’s culture?
I think people cannot help but be who they are. Where you come from or grow up plays a big factor. Singapore is part of me in a way that just simply is.
‘Everything You Ever Wanted Is Right Here’ seems to send a pretty straightforward message. What kind of reaction are you expecting? Does it reflect your perspective as a Singaporean who worked overseas and came back and how?
Everything You Ever Wanted is Right Here is a series of giant hand-cut photographs. It began as a 4 month project that involved both photo-journalism and interviews with locals. Though the work appears straightforward from the outset, each piece exists as both a statement and question to the viewer, bringing light to various social, economic and political tensions of our country. It might ruffle some feathers and tickle some bones. Regardless of being a Singaporean who has lived here and away for the past 10 years, Singapore is an endlessly fascinating country to me because of the tensions and idiosyncrasies unique to it.
Is your art getting a lot of love in Singapore? How do people respond, what kind of people respond, what kind of responses have you got?
That’s a funny question. You know what, I have no idea. It’s not the reason why I create. Surprisingly, to date I still get many emails from strangers, or they come up to me on the street and say, I love Walter. Or I love I Fly like Paper. I am sure these works have their fair group of detractors. Art always teeters this fine line between pure genius and pure bullshit. I have no wish to make work that is loved or beautiful. I measure my work’s success in it’s ability to spark discussion, question, argument, myth and story because you know it exists beyond itself in making people think or feel something.
What keeps you going, moving forward?
My obsession with the idea of who we are, where we are from, and what is it about the two that is worth remembering. Also my strong penchant for the weird and wonderful.
Turns out, I’m also a big fan of the weird and wonderful which makes me a big fan of Dawn’s work. I like her irreverent approach, the fact she doesn’t take it all so very seriously and the playfulness of even her most beautiful, poignant pieces. When local talent is as good as this, it’s easy to get behind it right?
Everything You Ever Wanted is Right here will run from 7th Sep – 24 Sep 2012 at the Chan Hampe Galleries Raffles Hotel, Arcade Unit #01-20/21 328, North Bridge Road, Singapore, 188719.
Written by Heh Zee
