Boundaries and Belonging (2017)

When we discuss a place or country, we will usually judge the credibility of their voices

based on the general society's norms or whether that person lives there. But this kind of

judgment or perception can be prejudicial and hegemonic and cause the disappearance of

certain perspectives and voices from the minority group. Boundaries and Belonging is the

result of having a conversation between the artist with some Malaysians who lived and

worked in Singapore for more than 20 years.

The most attractive factor is the unintentional montage of their perception of their

homeland in their narrative. Their perception is based on their childhood memories of the

place. For the artist, memories are not the main issue, but does that mean the place is

without change or development within two decades? Or are the Malaysians living abroad

actually out of touch with their homeland? In a way, the montage of facts & realities is also

one of the realities of Malaysia. On the other hand, it also means that most of us are still

accustomed to responding to social issues through fragmented memories and impressions.

Boundaries and Belonging intimated as a newspaper interface named "The Native Daily" is

not just an aesthetic or visual strategy approach but also an attempt to echo the medium

itself as an intermediary to receive and convey information in the pre-internet era. The use

of "native" in the newspaper's name also intentionally encounters various interpretations

between the body and place under different cognitive and geopolitical frameworks. In our

general understanding, the word "native" usually will be associated with the aboriginal

people, but in the context of Malaysia, the so-called aborigines are not purely the issue of

race but full of various political considerations. In a way, playing with the ambiguous

reading of "native", the artist is attempting to explore and redefine the new relationship

between body and place.