Imaginarium: Into the Space of Time

Two handymen sweep trash for 12 hours, indicating the time as they go. Creating and erasing sections of the clock, minute by minute, they tell the time through a highly physical and labour-intensive process. Their seemingly meaningless effort is actually carefully calculated and precise. This artwork is part of the artist’s ‘Real Time’ series of four 12-hour films, in which people’s actions, rather than traditional clocks, present the passage of time. How would you measure the passing of time?

Inspired by the imaginative play of childhood where you can be anyone, anywhere, the artist has included references from pop culture and his childhood memories in this detailed and colourful illustration of Singapore’s landscape. Can you recognise some of them?

In a room designed to reference the chamber of a camera obscura, you are invited to peer through peepholes on the walls and crank the mutoscopes to be transported back to the past or be propelled into the future. For the artist, time is a space for memory and illusion, and he has created an immersive installation through the exploration of old and new animation devices. Because of how our brains retain an image within a split second, animation devices make meaning through movement and visual memory.

Through a field of motion-activated fiber optic lights, the artwork invites visitors to visualise their impact on the environment, and the role they play in determining our future.

Inspired by connect-the-dots books of her childhood, the artist suggests how decisions made at each stage of life can make a difference to the final person. Eventually, the lines on our faces reveal how much wisdom we have gained through experience, time and grace.