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From Shells to Totems

 

The process of restoring the deteriorating objects while preserving their existing condition

 

We found these objects on a journey through magnificent landscapes. We brought them back, and we find ourselves on another journey, once again through magnificent landscapes, landscapes etched on these metal shells, traversing across space and time.

These headlamps served out their purpose as functional parts of a vehicle and as significant appendages to the symbol of prestige the automobile in its heyday represented. Now old and defunct, their reality enters another phase as they are left in the open junkyard for years to come. Working with these found objects is a profound insight into the forces of nature at play. The effects of the weather on the deteriorating metal worn out through the accumulation of time is an irreversible and irretrievable passage. 

 

Thus began a rigorous process of uncovering, restoring, probing, wondering and naming them, that eventually transformed these abandoned shells into totemic objects. Sorting them out from an anonymous pile of rusty wreck and individualising them, these shells in their restored state under a polished coat of lacquer, become spellbound with new narratives emerged from their histories, unravelling through layers of textures and colours. 

 

Detached from the body it used to serve, the conical object reclaims its form, at the same time reconstructing its identity. Function dissolves into the auric, transcending its own state becoming timeless and therefore Death Proof.

 

also a a microcosmic journey across an other universe

The relentless physical process of smoothening every bit of unevenness means one has to track the entire surface of these metal shells, until all terrains are explored and rough areas flattened. Revisiting them again and again, each time a new trip, each trip new findings. Soon these trips begin to have an effect on the mind, body and soul. The mind becomes meditative, the body strained, and the soul senses a rarefied encounter, an unusual finding of beauty in these seemingly unruly layers of paint, rust, peels, scratches, dents, dirt, mould, that has accumulated with age. These etchings of time rendered by the elements.

 

Scanning across the surface and at the same time drawn into the details, it is a stupendous moment between savouring and devouring, between a wild dance and esoteric knowledge. In this sublime flurry we begin to examine and adore these as art itself. In this sense, this is not a creative process of making in as much as it is one of revealing. The journeys across these microcosmic landscapes have made art out of these objects and the art in turn brings forth the artist.

 

The rigorous working on these battered shells becomes delightful days where we come across creatures we recognise or imagine, as stories begin to form through these markings, some we see again and again, some flashing by and are gone. The odd camel with red lips, the silver royal poodle, the savage soldier with flag and mask, crossing the yellow seas, new creatures of the marshland and the stone sky.

 

Jasmine Chen, 2015

 

Jasmine Chen and a part time team worked on restoring the gang of 84 headlamps (in batches of 12, 36, 36) over a period of 20 months, on and off, and were completed in December 2014. They were given names and made their inaugural show in December 2015 in Singapore.


John Osborne, Alex Mann, Lim Wei Ling, Velu, Amin, Syazreen Mazlan, Adilah Abdullah, Hasnani Azman, Choo Min Min.

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