Labyrinths Labyrinths

Labyrinths

  • 2017

  • Jason Wee

  • Singapore

  • Stainless steel, galvanised steel, emulsion paint

  • Dimensions variable

Labyrinths comprises an assortment of fences that are exaggerated in height, length and finish. None of the fences are ‘complete;’ they appear oddly unfinished with shorn off corners  or are swallowed up by the ground. Zigzagging amongst and around the installation are lines of tactile paving, typically used to assist the visually impaired in their navigation of pavements. Morse code for a verse from the poem ‘Archipelago’ by Singapore-born Australian poet Boey Kim Cheng, it translates to: “the routes that led you from the coast of forgetting to this coast of remembering.” 

Visitors are welcome to navigate the mini maze whose handholds are symbolic rather than functional, and whose track paths are lined with traction that go against the grain. Truncated in form and composition, Labyrinths resembles an unfinished puzzle, one that metaphorically speaks of the structural complexity of Singapore’s engineered society.

Image courtesy of Yavuz Gallery