Go to Boon Lay Place Market and Food Village at non-peak hours, better still, during spring cleaning days and keep a lookout for the pigeons; if you are (un)lucky, you might witness them being culled in broad daylight.
Significance:
I see uncanny parallels between the perceptions of pigeons—often vilified as contagious disease carriers, resulting in the constant monitoring of its copulation—and mainstream representations of marginalised identities. Our bodies are constantly navigating and code-switching between guilt, shame, and desire while under surveillance in a hostile environment.
This instruction considers the intertwining relationships between bodies, object, community, and the quotidian. It examines the veiled lived conditions of the communities in Boon Lay, Singapore, where I live. A considerably large segment of the residents in the neighbourhood are working class. Here, surveillance is glaringly heightened, and the balance between safety, privacy, and autonomy is often precarious. While many associate light (visibility) closely with notions of safety and security, there are also lights which are cast upon some more intensely than others.