"Primary 1" -Dawn Yiu

Overview of the Exhibition: 

  

(Ticks&Crosses:Babies on the table)

When I just step into the exhibition room, the first thing I saw was naked plastic toy babies holding either a green tick or red crosses in their arms placed on school tables. To me, the tick and crosses on each baby represents if they starts off well as child, and whether their parents put a right mind of education and contributing to the society in their minds. I think that the artist (Jemina Yong) is trying to convey the message of the importance of education and contributing to the society to us. 

(Going on to the pictures) 

Walking to my right, there were a few pictures hanging by the wall , one of them was a picture of a body of an Indian girl. She was clothes in different ethnic groups of clothing. To my left there was a picture of a 'multiracial' food where different ethnics' foods formed to combine as one. From my point of view, I think that Jemina Yong is trying to use these pictures to represent Singapore, to convey the message to us that Singapore is a multiracial country where different ethnics group can live as one harmoniously. 

There was also a picture on the right wall where a girl was sitting alone in the canteen sipping her drink, her eyes were bore and she looks really lost and to my left was a picture of a young girl who is skipping a skipping rope in the courtyard all alone. I think that this picture depicts isolation and loneliness. This picture reminded me of when I just started Primary school. As a primary 1 school girl, everything to me was strange and I did not know anyone at all, and most of the the time we just played and ate alone. I think that Jemina Yong is trying to tell us that each of us encounter the same problems (not just being isolated or alone but also other problems)through the phases of life and even though we are different in each of our own ways, there is always something in common that we Singaporeans go through/share. 

On the same wall on my right is a picture of buildings in Singapore and a woman being camouflaged in the picture. Her face is being shone by a bright light hence enabling me to see the picture of the woman easily. From my point of view I think that the purpose to have the light shone on the lady's face and have the picture to be taken in a way that the lady is standing right in front of the building is to let us think that it is because of what we have contribute to the society that is why Singapore is a prosperous country and so i think Jemina Yong's is trying to tell us that we should work hard and contribute to the society the best that we have to make Singapore a better place.

After browsing through the pictures, I watched a video and the seats that I sent on, the tables have words written on them. Each table a different stimuli linking to the video that we were about to watch then. There was a blonde lady using sign languages to 'speak' to her child. The words that and sign language that she showed was flashed on the screen. " happy baby, beautiful girl, school exam, tuition fee, child abuse, social isolation, discrimination, extra marital affair, GST, unemployment, mortage, stock market, freedom, global captilism, illegal immigrations, post imperial nostalgia, avian flu, global warming, intelligence agencies, relief operation, radicalism, terrorist attack, air strike, rape and murder, genocide mass grave" At first when I was watching this video i did not understand why is the  mother showing these to her child when she is still so small, but after that I realise that the mother is actually trying to prepare her child for the world that she is going to grow up in. 

Before that was also a video about the importance of sign languages. There was an Asian and Western lady plus a little girl. The girl know how to use signs. And so as every sign languages that the Asian and the little girl demonstrates for us, the meaning/word of the sign language would flash up on the screen. However, the Western lady communicates through her facial expressions. For example, when the Western lady shows the little girl a certain facial expression or a nod the little girl seems to understand what the lady is trying to tell her.

Letter to a Character of a picture 

(To the girl skipping alone in the basketball ground):

Dear girl, what are you doing all alone in the middle of the basketball ground? Are you feeling social isolation? Is  this your first year of primary school? Do not worry , all these would eventually pass and you would make lots of friends even from different ethnic groups. You would learn about their cultures and traditions from them, and they too can learn about yours. Do not let anything distract you from your studies, a few crosses in life is actually okay, so as long as you do not do the same mistakes but learn from them, and yes, we do not know what the future  awaits for us but what we know is that when you grow up you can contribute to the society and make it a better place for us to live in. 

Dawn. 

Discuss one photo in depth:


While I was browsing through the exhitbitions, two pictures(inter-linked) had caught my attention.

The first picture's title was "What do you think would happen to our country part 1".The pictures depicts 3 girls, each of them holding a green tick each. In the background is construction workers building the road. 

The second picture's title was  "What do you think would happen to our country part 2". The picture depicts 3 different age group of children holding red crosses in their hands, standing beside a boy who seems like he is doing his work halfway, yet he is lying on his homework sleeping, this picture was taken at the void deck. 

There is a huge contrast between this two pictures. I think that Jemina Yong is trying to let us be aware of things happening around us. "What do you think would happen to our country?" was a question that she  posted to us. It seems like the ticks and crosses in these 2 pictures determines the future that Singapore is in hold of .  In my opinion, she is trying to let us know that with people like the boy in the 2nd picture our country would not prosper well and that also linked to the babies that were on the tables whether their mindset was set to contribute to the society and knowing the importance of education or not.

As for the picture with children holding dolls in their hands and the picture with a family reading books together, I feel that as we grow older we should learn to grow up and be independent as we are not young children anymore but going to be adults who should return something back to the society.


- Education in Singapore
As a student I think that studying in Singapore is a very privileged thing ,as in Singapore, we can learn about different races ethnic group and can experience living together harmoniously together without any racism remarks. Moreover, when we are doing our social studies it is easier to understand each others' culture more easily. 


-Idealism vs Reality 
Although Singapore may seem to be a perfect country without any blemish, but in reality, as an individual we still have a lot of things to learn from each other to make this country a better place to live in. 


- Globalism vs Nationalism 
I think that Singapore is a prosperous country , and because of our achievements as an individual, we have made Singapore proud and many other companies from other countries has been greatly influence by us and hence they want to have trades and business with us.