Scene 2: Building Blocks
See Also
The other works in Building Blocks.
Wear You All Night, Sarah Choo Jing
Making Chinatown, Ming Wong
A White, White Day
2017
Jeremy Sharma
Lightbox system mounted on a metal rack and horn speakers
Image. Sound. Props.
These are the basic components to any regular film.
But what if we separate these aspects and focus on each one?
Pulling each aspect apart, it highlights their respective individual functions. The second part of Cinerama is an exploration of the viewers’ experience in film. After making the motion picture itself, we question the usefulness of its devices; how they—lights, sound, props—each aid in the overall effectiveness of the video. Now, the cinema is becoming a tool to tell a greater story.
In this section, I will be focusing on the installation about lights—A White White Day by Jeremy Sharma.
Film
Across the screen formed by light boxes, a video is being broken down to just lights, shadows and abstract sounds, even though one can still vaguely make out what the screen is trying to show—the 1959 Singaporean production, Korban Fitnah[8].
Sharma draws us to this film not because of its content nor graphic display. The lights are the ones pulling us into the blurry images, and we are compelled to continue watching on because we want to figure out the actual plot.
Society
A clear memory and amnesia: opposites. The lights in this exhibition represent a clear day. Juxtaposed against a dark room to mimic a cinema, the blurred images signify some semblance of memory loss, where one can’t recall their past properly, even on the clearest days. Korban Fitnah is remembered for its depiction of Singapore that no longer exists. Its presentation in this exhibit shows how this Singapore has since been mostly forgotten. It felt painful to watch the film since I can’t see what is shown clearly; just like how it is just as painful to piece back our memory of olden-day Singapore when little of it still exists.
This leads to a greater narrative of the impact of Singapore’s rapid urbanisation[9]. We have progressed so far, but when we look back, we realise that what we left behind is no longer recoverable. Is development worth sacrificing our history? When we have finally decided to stop and retrieve our past, even if we try our best to remember, can we actually recall anything? Or is it too late?
