Task: Find objects with stories and tell those stories through a shadow box as seen below

After completing my shadow box, this is the first look, I didn’t had the right equipment to attach the training wheels properly , and 2 candles made the work look abit messy.

 

After consulting my tutor, I made some amendments, first, it was the covering of all the scotch tapes which was visible on the outside using black paper (which could be seen below). Next, I drew some holes in the box and cable-tied the training wheels up the wall of the shadow box. I then removed one candle from the centre to draw more attention to the forms on the base of the box. After discussing with my tutor, I also realised the name holder being too literal, which I then changed to an empty name-holder. The base of the box was also covered with writing paper as suggested by my tutor, to reinforce the idea of an office and to distinguish from the other walls.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The entire shadow box talks about my life. It comprises the past, present and possible future of my life.

Starting from the left wall, it shows the day I was born. The object used here is the actual Chinese calendar on the day I was born which my parents had kept since then. I also printed newspaper articles of that faithful day.

The Central wall, which is the wall I wanted to draw more attention to talk about my childhood. The object used here is an old bicycle training wheel. The story here is as such, I was riding my bike as a young boy and accidentally fell and scratched my bike, I then decided to apply some medicated oil on my bike, thinking that it was ‘injured’, which I also proceeded to cover up the entire bike with the medical oil. Through this wall, I hoped to highlight the innocent mind as a young child, putting the ‘injury’ of the bike first, instead of my own safety. the cutting on the wall represents the cut on the bike, and the blank paper represents that the bike is hollow inside, and it doesn’t actually bleed, as what I thought as a child. I also splattered some red paint on the wheel, to show what I was seeing as a child (the bike is bleeding!)

The last wall talks about my teenage years. The object used here is ‘love letters’. The story here is that I was about 15-16 years old when our English teacher decided to promote the activity of writing letters, and came up with an ‘Angel and Mortal’ program where everyone is randomly assigned an angel and a mortal. Everyone is an angel and a mortal at the same time, and angels are suppose to write to mortals as motivation for the upcoming exams. Long story short, my angel posed as a secret admirer and started writing love letters to me everyday, when it came the day of the reveal, I realised all this time, my angel was a guy-friend, and it was a prank the whole time, which the whole class knew about it. The use of MacDonald fries holder is to depict the scene back then, and this was how our letter boxes looked like with letters inside. The letters are arranged in a way where the latest is the closest to the viewer, I wanted to give the viewer a hands-on experience of actually taking out the letters and reading them one by one, hence the design. The black splattered paint on the ‘letterboxes’ also symbolises the frustration I was experiencing back then as a 15 year old.

The last scene would be the base of the box, which shows the possible future of my life and is currently many Singaporeans’ life. Here, I’m trying to recreate an office desk scene. Hence the crushed papers and forms on the table. The candle symbolises burning midnight oil and the clock which is frozen at 12am also suggests the repeated activity of working overtime (OT). The forms on the desks are meal claim forms which represents OT as only when one works OT, can he claim meals from the company. The detailed documented notebook of the number of hours spent in office on the right of the desk, also symbolises the dread of working and the reason for working which is only for the money.

Suggestions and Observations by peers and tutor

The empty name holder suggests the idea that anyone can put their name into it which makes sense as many people are in that exact situation which is the dread of having an office life and through my work, anyone can insert their name in the empty holder and put themselves in this situation I’m depicting, reflect and possibly relate to what I’m showing here.

Another observation is that coincidentally, the MacDonalds fries holder further emphasise the dreaded office life, where many resort to fast food to settle their stomachs.

Through my work, I also hoped to highlight the common phenomenon experienced by many people where our childhood are full of colours and stories but once we hit adulthood and join the workforce, many of us tend to lead boring, monotonous and generally uninteresting lives.