Excerpts from an online discussion with artist collective, PURE EVER, on the occasion of their exhibition, “PrayPal” (10 April–10 July, 2020).
PURE EVER is an alliance of people whose goal is to provide visibility for under represented or emerging creatives across all vectors of political, social, and creative interests. The five-member artist collective aspires to find commonality and collective foresight through nuanced and intense forms of art making; one that hopefully occupies a more generous spirit of collaboration, creativity, networking, and solidarity making.
“PrayPal” represents the first instance that PURE EVER is showing together as a singular collective. Inspired by a witchcraft store in Peninsula Shopping Centre, the show frames the occult as a medium for understanding the threshold between the physical and spiritual, investigating our notions of humanity at large. Although the exhibition opened at I_S_L_A_N_D_S just as the lockdown was issued in Singapore to mitigate the spread of Covid-19, the artists found certain ways to migrate the viewing experience online. For these online appearances, PURE EVER frequently showed up as avatars within IMVU (an online metaverse and social game platform), adding a new level of performativity and interaction in relation to their interest in exploring social realities vis-a-vis digital spheres. The show is subsequently being extended to 10 July.
Below, we share some images and reflections from the artist talk held via Facebook livestream (18 April).
PURE EVER (clockwise from centre): Raigo Law, Rifqi Amirul Rosli, Hilary Yeo, Elsa Wong, Zhiyi Cao.
“Our working structure begins with a brainstorming session and hearing everyone's point of view. This becomes an exchange of techniques and experiences because all of us are from different practices – we trained in various subjects, so we learn together and if we’re interested in doing anything, we share and combine materials and techniques that we could work with.
That being said, the difference that we experience is definitely quite beneficial in the sense that because individually, we might not have the kind of resources that would be available to us as a group, for example, financial resources, and also, you know, creative resources. Like I think a lot of times we just help each other out, like with whatever we're making as much as we can individually. And that contributes to the collective production and creation at the end of the day.
We just really want to be transparent about how we get to know other artists and creatives to work with, how we prioritise this personal understanding rather than simply basing it on conceptual similarities for doing a project together. Not that we completely discard these other factors. But yeah, it often begins with a social relation and then it grows into something more conceptual.”
IN HIGHER COMFORT by Raigo Law (@auminaes)
Handmade accessories, staged portraits, mixed media assemblage
“These pieces venture into ideas of self creation and recreation within the digital sphere, stretching the limits of digital narcissicism on an online social networking platform such as Instagram. People post all sorts of things like selfies, cam shots, 'outfit of the day,' for example. How I carry out this work is more or less on based on my personal experiences, understanding or in a way confronting the distorted image of an 'online narcissist'... with a twist of fantasy roleplay, which is why you can see some of my personal affects and staged portraits on display. So, here I'm channeling the persona of a spiritual medium, performing rituals and blessings onto trinkets, claiming that I've transferred higher energies to the products that I've made. I employ Instagram as a spiritual conduit that connects my self-promoting content to an online audience, who mirror my desire for an inordinate amount of self-assurance. I'm also thinking about online auctions selling spiritual talismans like jade beads, magic oil, holy water... one thing I've realized about this idea of gifting money in return for your deepest desires and unattainable wishes, is that it becomes oddly transactional.”
A Sheathed Stinger by Rifqi Amirul Rosli (@rkisn)
Stoneware, clay, pigment
“So I was just looking at images based on rituals and core beliefs around the world, and also looking at decorative forms of religious art across various cultures, mostly from a Southeast Asian context. A lot of these designs possess what you might call 'flourishes,' deriving a lot from the natural world and the belief that everything has a spirit. And the first object I was drawn to was this Sufi talisman, which is quite common among Muslims here. I think it's quite an alternative belief system too, often manifesting as diagrammatic drawings placed above doorways and shopfronts as a form of protection. They include a lot of writings, even Quranic text and calligraphy. So many of these traditional arts, from Buddhism to Islam, derive from animistic beliefs in some way or another, something larger than our mortal selves. You could say some of these sharp, tapered pieces might carry a kind of feral sensuality, but also an element of something lethal, poisoinous even.”
As Goddesses & as Demons by Hilary Yeo (@highlary)
Wall text, poem, and embellished gloves
“‘When all is hostile the only way out is to transcend’ – that is maybe a radical mantra, something for this time that we are in, you know? To me, the realm of the occult and spirituality is just one of the ways that we can think about how we can do that, how to dissolve the human project. How we can think of it as dealing with the locality of issues we face day to day, especially now, as they are being amplified. It's a way to think about how we're connected to all these larger networks, and how they’re connected to the local as well as the global affective structure. And when we eventually do come out of this, we can't just allow for things to go back to the way that it was. We have to assert a larger-scale ambition, one that not only transcends our current hostile state, or our physicality, but also to transcend... systems that we never thought could have been disruptive..
In recent times, we've had to stretch our imaginations and embrace a new kind of life – what productivity means, what art means, what everything means. We’ve had to re-evaluate all of that. If something invisible, completely microbial and non-human can have such a profound effect on our lives – on the economy, our social structure, basically our humanity, then it is quite pressing that we look into the importance of all these other sites, whether physical or spiritual, how it speaks to our narratives of being.”
Knock Knock, Who’s There? Goo, Goop, Goob, Goon, Goof by Elsa Wong (@yo.k3)
Wax, cement, metal wires, hooks
“I’m setting the scene for a magick ritual, looking at the types of objects that are present in such practices. Like how candles are an essential element in various rituals, different summons, wishes, and spells, and during these moments, the candles are lit up and the aura of the flame becomes quite significant. Many mainstream (and alternative) beliefs, religions, and rituals coexist in our society. And I want to create this idea of a huge melting pot, a sense of our wants and desires bubbling over, leaving behind strange molten wax effigies in its wake. Also on the ground here is a collage-slash-painting of different themes and ideas, pictures that we found and collected from our 'mood board.' So my process is very much like creating fashion images or installations for storefront design. These works hold centre within the space as a grounding element for the overall presentation – creating an overarching narrative, based on visual cues from each of our pieces.”
Sun in D, E, M by Zhiyi Cao (@colloquial_damage)
Acrylic on canvas paper
“My ideas about Sun Ho and the occult is the fact that legitimate beliefs could have certain occultic beginnings. Storytelling tropes that dabble in the esoteric, mystical and supernatural, until they become internalised as logic with time. Which also made me think about resilience.. why do certain cults and occult practices withstand the test of time so well? Sometimes it’s because of how well-hidden they are, while others, are popularised and naturalised into mass culture. Perhaps dissemination also plays a huge role in the categorisation of cults and occult behaviours – if it is performed by the majority, chances are, they wouldn’t be considered deviant. And I locate Sun Ho at the nexus of the Pop and the Religious, crystallised into a mass occult operation. But I would like to access this from a neither a political nor economic point of view, but rather from an aesthetic point of view, which is why I chose to make a murals of this 'idol' or this 'figurehead.' She is, after all, a figure of belief to her community.”