Project Objectifs - Centre for Photography and Film etc., Singapore
The 2018 theme Let's Walk comes from the title of a series of striking street performances by eminent Singaporean contemporary artist, Amanda Heng. In her performance, she had members of the public join her in walking backwards along the streets with high-heeled shoes in their mouths, while trying to guide themselves with handheld mirrors.
Amanda created the work in response to a range of worrying trends she was concerned about in the late 1990s, and are still concerns to this day. In 1997, Asia had been hit hard with a financial crisis. Many people lost their jobs and businesses, but women seemed to be the first to get retrenched. Curiously and disturbingly, the beauty business did especially well at this time, as women were pressured to look better than their natural best. In Amanda's own words, "A lot of Singaporean women were 'upgrading' themselves, going to beauty salons, having plastic surgery and so on to keep their jobs. A woman's looks are still worth more than her abilities."
Fringe 2018 will be presenting a series of progressive works that voice the concerns of today. These explore themes of gender, beauty, inequality, injustice, economics, and more, in a variety of disciplines.
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