EDUCATION KIT | ARTIST FOLIOS
DEBBIE DING
SINGAPORE / UNITED KINGDOM
Shelter, 2016
DEBBIE DING
Shelter, 2016
EDUCATION KIT
ARTIST FOLIOS
THE ARTIST
THE IDEA
Debbie Ding (b. 1984, Singapore) is a visual artist and
Debbie Ding conceptualised Shelter from the idea
technologist who lives and works between London
of the household shelter found in many Singapore
and Singapore. She graduated with an MA in Design
public housing units. She started thinking about
Interactions from the Royal College of Art (London)
the room, which she finds peculiar, after reading
in 2015. She reworks and reclaims formal, qualitative
Bachelard’s Poetics of Space, which examines how
approaches to collecting, labelling, organising and
one’s understanding and organising of the image of
interpreting clusters of information – using this to
the world is influenced by one’s childhood spaces.
open up possibilities for alternative constructions of
Ding’s works often show her interest in constructing
knowledge. Ding uses prototyping as a conceptual
or reconstructing narratives around various physical
strategy for artistic production, progressively exploring
traces and histories, especially in her works created
potential breakthroughs and dead ends faced by amateur
under the pseudonym Singapore Psychogeographical
archaeologists, citizen social scientists and machines
Society. By extracting this space from its usual location
(programmed to perform roles of cultural craftsmanship)
(in a HDB flat), Ding seeks to highlight the importance
in the pursuit of knowledge. Her works take the form of
of this space and to spark discussion.
reconstructions and computer-aided investigations into
urban, archaeological and historical ambiguities.
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DEBBIE DING
Shelter, 2016
THE ARTWORK
Replica of household shelter: plaster on cement-fibre
board, plywood, steel, ceiling light fixture and paper
240 × 290 × 170 cm
Collection of the Artist
Singapore Biennale 2016 commission
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Image courtesy of Singapore Art Museum
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OBSERVE AND DISCOVER
GUIDING QUESTIONS
1. Take a walk into the installation. How different does
SUGGESTED ACTIVITIES
A. Imagine that you have to stay in the artwork Shelter
the room feel or look compared to a normal room?
for 24 hours. What additions would you make to the
artwork to make your stay more bearable? Would
2. Shelter is a life-size replica of a typical household shelter
you exclude the artist’s additions?
in Singapore houses, mandatory in all public housing
units since the law came into effect in 1998. Does your
DEBBIE DING
Shelter, 2016
Sketch out the ideal version of Shelter for your stay.
home have one? If so, what do you use the household
shelter for?
B. Find out more about this unique architectural1
feature of Singapore homes. Some websites you
3. Search for an image of the household shelter online.
can refer to are:
Compare its features with those of Shelter. What are
•
www.scdf.gov.sg
some of the changes the artist made to this room?
•
www.hdb.gov.sg
What message is the artist trying to convey through
•
www.bca.gov.sg
these additions?
You can also find out about the different ways home
4. In some houses, this room is used as living quarters
owners make use of this space or try to creatively
(mostly for live-in domestic helpers). Do you think the
conceal the existence of the shelter. Start a project
room is suitable for use as a bedroom? Why or why not?
amongst your classmates who live in homes with
this feature. Document the bomb shelter in each
5. The siting of an installation is an important part of
home and display the photographs side by side to
its presentation. Shelter was originally intended to be
note the similarities and differences in how different
placed outdoors, but the artist felt that the room’s
families use / decorate / conceal this shelter.
lack of ventilation and exposure to harsh weather
conditions would dominate the viewers’ thoughts,
leaving little opportunity for conversation about
the artwork. Shelter was subsequently housed in a
museum – indoors – instead. Do you agree with the
decision the artist made? Why or why not?
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1
Architectural: Relating to or constituting buildings.
FIND OUT MORE
UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL
BIOGRAPHY
Debbie Ding’s blog. Open Urbanism. Retrieved
Debbie Ding. (n.d.). Debbie Ding: About. Retrieved
September 7, 2016, from http://openurbanism.
September 7, 2016 from http://dbbd.sg/bio.php
blogspot.sg
ARTWORK
DEBBIE DING
Shelter, 2016
Debbie Ding. (2015). Debbie Ding: Works. Retrieved
September 7, 2016 from http://dbbd.sg/works.php
Adriaens, M. (2013, February 5). Debbie Ding shows
at “Engaging Perspectives”. Retrieved September
7, 2016 from http://culturepush.com/2013/02/05/
debbie-ding-at-engaging-perspectives-new-art-fromsingapore/
SEA ArtsFest. (2014, October 8). SEA ArtsFest
2014 – Hold Infinity in the Palm of Your Hand with
Debbie Ding & Patrick Tantra. [Video file]. Retrieved
September 7, 2016 from https://youtu.be/
BN-W5Btc7Ho
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ABOUT SINGAPORE BIENNALE 2016
AN ATLAS OF MIRRORS
AT ONCE, MANY WORLDS
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FROM WHERE WE ARE,
HOW DO WE PICTURE THE WORLD ­—
AND OURSELVES?
Humankind has always devised ways of seeing
beyond sight. Two such instruments are the map
and the mirror, which make visible more than
just physical terrains. While the atlas – a book of
maps – locates where we are and charts where
we want to go, the mirror shows us to ourselves,
sometimes unreliably, and in curious ways.
Through an exploration of the literal and
metaphorical characteristics of atlas and mirror,
An Atlas of Mirrors reveals artistic perspectives
that arise from our migratory, intertwining
histories and cultures, particularly in Southeast,
East and South Asia.
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ABOUT THE ZONES
NINE
CONCEPTUAL
ZONES
The main title of the Biennale is woven through nine
• MARGINALISED & FICTIVE HISTORIES
‘conceptual zones’, or subthemes, which locate each
•PSYCHOGEOGRAPHY
artwork in particular curatorial contexts. These zones
• ‘WHAT IFS’
shape the flow of the Biennale experience, like chapters
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in a book or sections in a poem. Like the title – ‘An Atlas
National consciousness may be buttressed by official
of Mirrors’ – which is built on the relationship between
history, yet its foundations are often built on marginal
a collective noun (“an atlas” as the collective noun) and
stories. On the lawn of the National Museum of Singapore,
what is being thought of ‘collectively’ (“mirrors”), these
an imagined-in-Singapore ship-whale-sculpture rests,
zones are conceptually themed along specific collective
recalling the Indian fin whale skeleton that used to hang
nouns and what they hold together for contemplation
in that museum decades ago; nearby, in its rotunda,
and experience. Artworks located within each zone
hangs an ode to the marginalised – a ‘world’ of cooking
resonate on many levels, and at the same time, all nine
pots suspended, purposeful and poignant; and out
zones coincide, intertwine and reflect each other along
on the green where the now-demolished old National
the conceptual continuum of ‘An Atlas of Mirrors’ as
Library once was, stands a sentinel pair of mirrored
a whole.
‘walls’, remembering.
Each zone represents concepts, ideas and ways of seeing
Reimagined from unusual perspectives, marginalised
as explored in the 58 artworks and projects.
histories and fictive micronarratives seek the cracks in
the landscape of memory, and find the gaps in history
between individuals, communities, nations and regions.
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All works are © the artists unless otherwise stated. Information correct at the time of publication. All rights reserved.
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