“In pursuit of meaning and satisfaction, we are led to grant the aura of life to things
and to drain in from people: we personify objects and objectify persons.
We experience alienation from ourselves as well as from others.
We best comprehend ourselves as social entities by looking at photos of ourselves,
assuming the voyeur’s role with respect to our own images;
We best know ourselves from within in looking through the viewfinder at other people and
things. “
- Martha Rosler
In her recent work, Choo seeks to reflect upon issues of social alienation and isolation
through potential narratives in Everyday scenes. In attempt to reflect upon the function
of the void deck in public housing in Singapore, the resulting image acts as a
documentation of individuals ocupying the spaces.
Incorporating documentary footage taken in various public housing estates around
Singapore, these otherwise independent tableaus were spliced together to form an
unravelling panorama. Each individual featured in the piece was filmed in his or her own
discrete space, as the immediate architectural surroundings make clear, but every scene
occurs in the void deck of an apartment block, with the disconnected footage then sutured
together to achieve the desired effect. The composited panorama ultimately exists as a
non-space; an accumulation of fragments over time.
Sarah Choo Jing (b. 1990, Singapore) is known for her interdisciplinary approach to photography, video and installation. Her work depicts identifiable moments and characters within contemporary urban society suggesting a plethora of private and often solitary narratives. The artist is concerned with the gaze of the flaneur, voyeurism and the uncanny.
Choo lives and works in Singapore.
Awards 2018 Shortlisted for Aesthetica Art Prize, United Kingdom
2018 Nominated for Singapore Young Artist Award, National Arts Council, Singapore
2017 Honorable Mention, Art of the Rehearsal, International Photography Awards (Special: Digitally Enhanced category), New York
2017 Perspective: 40 under 40 awards, Perspective Global, Asia
2017 Top 30 shortlist, The Sovereign Art Prize, The Sovereign Art Foundation, Southeast Asia
2015 Jury Selections, Arts Division, 19th Japan Media Arts Festival, Japan
2015 First Place, Moving Images, Collage, Moscow International Foto Awards, Russia
2015 Second Place, Moving Images, Overall Category Winner, Moscow International Foto Awards, Russia 2015 Bronze Award, Special Category One Eyeland Photography Awards
2013 Winner, Kwek Leng Joo Prize of Excellence in Still Photography Award, Singapore
2013 Photographer of the Year (Professional, Fine Art Category), 4th Pollux Awards, The Worldwide Photography Gala
Awards in Europe
2013 First Prize, 33rd Annual College and High School Photography Contest, Photographer’s Forum, Santa Barbara, USA 2013 First Prize, ICON de Martell Cordon Bleu Photography Award, Singapore
