An Anthology of Dwelling

This work began with the idea of dwelling on and within words—that is, the idea that a text can be something that lingers in a reader’s mind, and also a space within which a reader can linger. Each piece in this growing series features short texts that are special to my friends and acquaintances. Each person is asked to contribute a poem, passage, or quote that has stayed with them for a long time, or might even have affirmed or altered their perspective at some point in their life.

While I might not have an existing emotional connection to these texts, the meditative act of stitching them stretches the time and effort it takes to read them, simulating that process of prolonged resonance, that dwelling-on-and-within. The embroideries thus also represent spaces of empathy, created when one person shares a meaningful text with another. These spaces are opened to the viewer as well – the words are stitched at a very small size, requiring the viewer to come very close to it, establishing this intimacy with the text.

Click here to see the full documentation of the individual pieces in this series.

This series was first shown in the group exhibition Sewing Discord, which ran from 16 April to 29 August 2021 at Jendela (Visual Arts Space), Esplanade – Theatres on the Bay [Singapore].