Reserved

Double channel video

9:00 minutes (played in a loop)

2006

The city has come to halt. A State dignitary is about to arrive. Traffic is blocked to make way for the unhampered movement of four luxury vehicles. School children with crumpled paper flags in hand wait patiently to wave at the passing motorcade. An anxious reception committee of officious bureaucrats paces up and down a red carpet. In an endless loop, the entire city awaits the arrival of a nameless VIP, who comically – and poignantly – like Samuel Becket's Godot, never actually arrives.

“Realized with high-quality photographic images, the work shows in 9 minutes how the inhabitants of a hypothetical city prepare for the arrival of a presumed head of state. The close-up shots of school pupils attempting to neatly line up and the city's blocked traffic indicate the paralysis of a system awaiting a leader, a lucid allusion to all forms of dictatorship and submission.”

- Sonia Campagnola, From Singapore to Gwangju, FLASH ART, Jan-Feb 2007

This video was commissioned by the Singapore National Arts Council for the Singapore Biennale in 2006.