Sign Read

1 photographic print(150x200mm), 29 sets of school desk & chair, each desktop with digtal photo frame and laser engravings, dimension variable, 2011

Screening

Sign Read was created as an epilogue to Sign (2008) and both were exhibited together specially for the M1 Singapore Fringe Festival 2011 under the theme as Something About Education But Not Exactly... It contemplates the meaning and value of education projected as stereotypes in a highly capitalistic mass society. It allows the confrontation of mainstream and marginal values in the light of violence-free humour. Installation view of Sign (video) and Sign Read Based on the 29 keywords from Sign, 29 flickering film footages were generated from Google keyword-searched images. A group of students were invited to the screening of these footages and were requested to pen down their responses. All manuscripts were compiled together according to the keyword and were laser-engraved onto the school desks, where a digital screen finally showed the footage of the corresponding keyword. Keywords: Happy baby, Beautiful girl, School exam, Tuition fee, Child abuse, Social isolation, Discrimination, Extra-marital affair, GST(Goods & Services Tax), Unemployment, Domestic violence, Mortgage, Superannuation, Stock market, Freedom, Global capitalism, Illegal immigration, Post-imperial nostalgia, Avian flu, Global warming, Intelligence agencies, Humanitarian disaster, Relief operation, Radicalism, Terrorist attack, Air strike, Ethnic cleansing, Rape and murder, Genocide mass grave.