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behind-the-scenes and MORE about 

Sweetly, Sweetly

  
Sketch-Up of the Installation Idealisation for Sweetly, Sweetly. Selecting colours and embellishments for the money sash (财带Cáidài) Prepping the preserved and artificial flowers for the installation. Over 100 bouquets of preserved and dried flowers were selected for the installation. Onsite prep and installation together with my floral artist and collaborator. Some of the onsite troubleshooting to conceal the cables and wires. Ensuring that the carpet was cleaned and maintained well throughout the exhibition. Here with "Desire is Dead" curator, Dr. Adele Tan and OH! project coordinator. It was an intensive 2-day set-up with the organiser and exhibition designers. Final clean-up before the opening. Testing of lighting and the sound art accompanying the work before the public opening.



sweetly sweetly
2023- Ongoing
1573
12945
Prize
 Preserved and dried flowers, feathers, tassels fringes, money sashes (财带Cáidài), artificial flower garlands, a mic stand and sound.



“Sweetly, Sweetly" is a follow-up to "Smile Till Tears Run Into Your Eyes"(2021 -ongoing), which delves into the structures of pleasure-seeking vis-a-vis pleasure fulfilment. The title is taken from Teresa Teng's Chinese song title, 甜蜜蜜Tiánmìmì (1979) translated to English. The works examines the commodification of desire and labour in the pleasure industries and the paradoxical relationships navigating happiness and pleasure-seeking/fulfilment within capitalistic structures. The installation specifically looks at KTV (Siam Dui) hostesses, who are often labelled by a money sash for the price of securing their company. As a result, they become totems and objects of pleasure. The works also looks at the male gaze and the capitalistic structures that facilitate various modes of desire fulfilment, and the motivations behind it.

In “For the House; Against the House: Desire Is Dead” group show during the Singapore Art Week 2023, the “Sweetly Sweetly” works presented three mixed media works that consisted of preserved and dried flowers, feathers, tassel fringes, money sashes (财带Cáidài), artificial flower garlands, a mic stand, and sound. The money sashes feature numbers that refer to coded romantic love phrases in Mandarin, while the sound art is a distorted blurry version of 甜蜜蜜Tiánmìmì.

"Sweetly, Sweetly" continues to examine happiness as a social construct that is usually defined by the patriarchy. It questions the grip and types of ownership that one has over another when exchanged in various social economies.





Still-life Photos from “Smile Till The Tears Run Into Your Eyes“