Memories
This series presents found pieces of wire discarded on the roadside which I collected during my daily wanderings over one year. They are all leftovers from construction projects that are prevalent in the city. The building and tearing down action of renewal, continuous development, constant cleaning and clearing – the ever-changing landscape is a subject close to my heart having worked on such issues over the last 15 years.
The realisation that most of my found objects have had a common base in construction has also brought to focus the power of photography as a medium to transform. My working process can almost be described as clinical – the objects I find are usually brought home as they are with minimum manipulation to their structures. They are then laid against an identical support used for all objects and photographed. In this manner, I am using the camera at its more basic function which is to reproduce what the eye sees, and my presentation of the images on textured paper reduces the typical « photo » quality of the image.
This shift in perception is what I wish to draw the audience's attention to – you don't necessarily have to alter the object itself in order to give it presence.
As Zhuangzi said in the 4th century : « All existing things are really one. We regard those that are beautiful and rare as valuable, and those that are ugly as foul and rotten. The foul and rotten may come to be transformed into what is rare and valuable and the rare and valuable into what is foul and rotten ».
Chua Chye Teck