Installation view of To Turn at Mary Porter Sesnon Art Gallery, 2024
Single-channel video installation, single-channel directional speaker
Dimensions variable, UHD, 12’11”
To Turn is centered around the idea of disorientation, inspired by Sara Ahmed’s Queer Phenomenology. Revisiting a personal experience of navigating the tropical jungles of Singapore during army training, the work gets lost in (rather than investigating) the messy affairs of spatial and sexual orientation.
The artist proposes disorientation as a gesture that resists neat binaries and fixed positions by deviating from straight lines and set paths. The secondary forest, as a site charged with colonial history and military forces, becomes an unlikely space for subversion and ecological diversity, full of queer potential.
The second iteration of the project was exhibited at Künstlerhaus Dortmund (Germany), which included a full wall photographic mural. Installation images below:
Installation view of To Turn at Künstlerhaus Dortmund, 2025
Single-channel video installation, single-channel directional speaker
Dimensions variable, UHD, 12’11”
Installation photography courtesy Daniel Sadrowski
Installation view of The Wild at Künstlerhaus Dortmund, 2025
Photography mural
Installation photography courtesy Jens Sundheim/Künstlerhaus Dortmund
The Wild
The Wild consists of photos taken during walks in the tropical rainforests of Singapore while making To Turn. The photos' subsequent (dis)organisation and presentation are inspired by Jack Halberstam’s Wild Things.
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2025 © Lee Chang Ming