GOING HOME (2013 -2014)
Conceptualizing the main character
While the project started out as a storybook, the story conceptualized during one of my classes in ADM (NTU). The pages were eventually presented as a part of an Art exhibition, hence the layout of how the story was conceptualized was changed to fit into the exhibition space.
Going home is a story on decision making. Originally intended to be a children's book on moral choices, the premise of this project focuses on that one split second where people either choose to take the long and often tedious way to get what they want or to take a short cut.
Viewers will realise after reading through the images that the short cut is filled with its own obstacles and in real time is actually no shorter than the long way home.
The exhibition was held at the Singapore Art Museum. One of the considerations was how each of the apprentice artist was given a very limited space for exhibition due to space considerations. However due to the narrative nature of my project, I wanted viewers to walk through the narration of the whole story so that there was a clear start, middle, end. With that in mind, I suggested the use of the main staircase of the building as a means to exhibit. In that sense by using an unconventional space I could have as much space as I wanted and since the main stair well was heavily used, the stair case naturally aided the direction of the narration of the story.
It all starts with the title :)
Museum goers were confronted with the story of Croc as they walk up the stairs to the second floor of the museum.
They are then confronted with a decision, to take the short cut or the long way home? What viewers would have realized is the idea that the fabled 'short cut' isn't really that short in length as compared to the longer way home. In truth, as the work was conceptualized, the number of pages that made up the long way home was actually equal to the short cut. The point of this work was to make viewers realized that while the short cut might have been the ideal choice at the start it might not have necessarily been the case after realizing how difficult the short cut was in comparison the longer way home. Although at the end of the work, regardless of which route was picked, Croc will still end up in bed :)
