Memory Portals
11 Jan–3 Feb 2022
All day
Asian Civilisations Museum Green
Artist Debbie Ding draws inspiration from her 2010 work, Here the River Lies, to create Memory Portals.
In Memory Portals, two glowing doorways stand on the ACM Green representing alternate, fantastical views of the Singapore River. These portals visually reinterpret the textual dataset collected by the artist for her 2010 work, Here the River Lies, which included an interactive map of the Singapore River that required the participation of the audience to complete. The audience was invited to contribute their memories, real or imaginary, to the large hand-drawn map. Over 1700 stories were collected. These stories have been re-interpreted as layers of memory, fantasy, and storytelling in Memory Portals. Find out more about the stories here.
The installation is located at Asian Civilisations Museum Green, which is not accessible by wheelchair.
Debbie Ding (DBBD.SG) is a visual artist and technologist whose interests range from historical research and urban geography to visions of the future. She reworks and reappropriates formal, qualitative approaches to collecting, labelling, organising, and interpreting assemblages of information. She uses this to open up possibilities for alternative constructions of knowledge. Using interactive computer simulations, rapid prototyping, and other visual technologies, she creates works about map traps, lost islands (like Pulau Saigon), World War II histories, soil, bomb shelters, and public housing void decks.
