#on closure

[vilebird]

SACRIFICIAL LAMB

[sagessge]

On closures

Some things never totally end,you have to live with that soft lingering and that's okay,that's life.

Closure. No matter how much you seek or like it,it's something that only death can give,as dark or apathetic it sounds,it's the truth.

Life goes on,people change and move on. Everything changes,feelings linger but people change.

So accept the feelings and let people go.

Because those feelings are yours to keep,those people aren't.

[2honey2baby]

dreading the day where you don’t even cross my mind because that means that it’s truly truly over

[tinycasstles]

I think the hardest part is the not knowing. The complete cut off- the absolute silence. The emptiness that is no longer having someone in your life and their callous response. Not having someone in your life is difficult but it’s worse when they don’t even care that they’re no longer in it

[freeofchargeart]

On Closure

Lan Cheow Lee, one of the most spirited respondents at the CLOSURE Artists’ Dialogue Session, reviews the show in writing.

—

An audience member speaks about her views about the issues raised in the dialogue session.

At the exhibition Closure, one of the recurring concerns was of nostalgia, sentimentality towards that which once was but is no longer. Of particular interest was the set of found objects – everyday, household objects taken from the abandoned block and put on display beside the TV set at the show. I thought that was rather representative of a past-blasting trend around me recently: heritage trails around Tiong Bahru, pretty photographs of discarded objects showing up on Instagram feeds and Facebook albums, and a hardware store that doesn’t sell any hardware. 

Nostalgia is nothing new. To paraphrase Chumbawamba, we sing the songs that remind us of the good times, and the songs that remind us of the better times. As I look at the works, I also return to the question that the curators have brought to us: how do we deal with constant change? And so I look back at the works with more questions. What was the intention? How do they fit into the overall dialogue?

PeiLing responds

It is dangerous if the artist’s work lingers in the past, unable to see the future; that the onl y way we try to move forward is by attempting to reconstruct a history that does not belong to us. I suppose part of the nature of art is to establish meaningful dialogue, and there is a real danger that we automatically regurgitate emotions and responses. It is a danger of indulgence, that we become self-absorbed in the comfort zone of longing.

Sometime after the exhibition, I was reminded of the works of Chris Ware, cartoonist, illustrator, designer and ephemeralist. Much of his work deals with the past, of loss and longing, while his visual and literary styles both reference and pay homage to early 1900s American design. Here, I thought, was nostalgia well put to use, in word and image, as a stepping-stone to discuss timeless themes relevant to the everyman.

Art is part observation, part analysis and part discussion (and part craft, but we shall save that for another discussion), and most importantly, it deals, and it helps us deal, with the human condition. It may be tyrannically utilitarian of me, but I believe that to linger on the past is stagnation, but building upon these feelings will allow us to create and explore new and unseen avenues.

Ben Slater, moderating the event.

I just watched a video clip from our favourite art historian, T. K. Sabapathy about the impediments to local art, and he tells us: “Ultimately, when it comes to creative processes, whether you like it or not …… it is up to the individual.” Art is difficult. It is very heartening that despite insurmountable challenges (and I use the phrase for what it means in its entirety), the Free of Charge Artshow (FOCA) and the participating artists have taken things into their own hands and put up an exhibition worth your while. So to take a lesson from nostalgia, I see FOCA, and these artists, represent exciting times for Singaporean art and culture. With each step into the future they, and we, will grow as artists, curators and creators, and I am terribly proud that myself, and all of us, have the opportunity to be a part of this new unknown.

Boedi weighs in his views.

[b-wtie]

this is strange

all the time that i've known thomas i've been trying to get closure on whatever the hell i hope to find in our relationship

but when i sought it out in #hawk the closure came effortlessly. i am calm and accepting about it and i'm just excited to get to know this person and hang out and stuff and it's really, really exciting.

like

i love thomas

and i really like THIS boy, too

and it's like my relations with these two guys is making my life symmetrical and correct and it's just

calming for me

i will never wonder if #hawk will hate me for anything because we are what we are

and perhaps I will take that into what I know about thomas

we are what we are

and it will be okay