I felt that my first visit to Queenstown was slightly unsuccessful in terms that I was too focused on the cats. I think I made the mistake of coming to the destination with pre-thought ideas in my head. In that way, I was fitting the ideas onto the place – making it unoriginal to the place.
I was just very fortunate enough to find lots of cats that day. What more when it rained that day when I visited it.
This time, I made sure to take pictures of the environment around me. To really immerse myself in what the town has to give me.
First off, I took pictures of what used to be one of the highest HDB in Singapore – Forfar House. Which I did not go the the first time I came here.
The place was relatively nicer and grander than a normal HDB.
The Queenstown MRT had a very distinct blue which I found very intriguing.
The stairs and hills I needed to climb to get around. It was very tiring and strenuous because I knew if I had climbed down, I would have to climb up again in a few more metres ahead of me. It was also stressful because I was getting tired and I started to strategise my routes and trying to form a map in my head, to find out what connects to what so I don’t walk in circles and I get my pictures.
I find this place specifically interesting. On the first floor u see ground. But on the second floor, you always see ground. And in this picture we see ground on both levels. This is because the building is set on a hill. It is very confusing to me.
The colours, patterns and geometry on the HDB is really interesting.
The winding roads… Can’t wait to photograph more of this circular roads.
These flower shaped hole kept recurring throughout the HDB. I only saw these in advertisements and on other forms of media but I never would have guessed I would meet upon these special holes here. They are truly original to Queenstown.
Finally the cats! These time I fed them cat food… most of them aren’t friendly and are more scared than ever… except the white one! Also less cats were out in the open because it wasn’t raining. But I know most of them are hiding in the drains.
IDEA
For the idea, I felt a bit stuck. Finding that balance between an original idea but still keeping the strong Queenstown identity and yet, trying to stray far from the tourist-y iconic places and features was hard.
To be honest, I left this assignment untouched. I did not even think about it, trusting myself that the idea and inspiration will come when it wants to. Â Then it hit me.
An original idea. It comes from me. Something out of honesty. Something I really felt and experienced. The answer was with me all along. I decided to go with the emotions approach and thought a poem would really suit and help me convey the feelings when I was there.
Straightaway I thought of the word “MAZE”. Being in a maze makes u feel lonely, lost, confused, anxious and but still hopeful.
Words like “fantasy” “reality or not reality” “out of the ordinary” “repetition” can be stemmed out from the theme MAZE.
The pictures above are some of my ideas to this fantasy lost world I described as Queenstown where logic does not exist. It had that royalty quality – shininess/the chrome material – but i also feel that it might not speak  out the right message.
This was my inspiration: a music video by Nikki Minaj where she had 3d chrome material/liquid coming out of objects and features in the video. I thought it really suited my idea of the illogical environment and something that confuses the viewer.
Another idea was to do kaleidoscope photography – an idea that will really show the reputation factor. Using a colourful kaleidoscope lens would also help the fantasy Alice in Wonderland vibe.
