orientations : a room of small gestures (2003)
An installation of cotton candy, cotton candy machines and styrofoam beads
The Substation Gallery, Singapore, 2003
The gallery walls were painted in vertical multi-coloured strips. A cotton candy machine and 1,000 individually labelled cups of cotton candy were installed at the left side of the gallery. A low wall separates the right side of the gallery to create a ‘swimming-pool’ like area. The height of this wall enabled an adult of average height to peek over into the ‘swimming’ area. A staircase enabled access into and exit from this ‘swimming’ area that was filled with white Styrofoam beads to the height of 80 cm.
During the course of the exhibition, 100 cups of cotton candy were given away each day. Visitors were treated to the cotton candy and invited to play in the ‘swimming’ area of Styrofoam beads. Visitors also discovered that there was a window inside the area, hidden just beneath the beads. This window offered a view of the exterior of the gallery and, at the same time, also enabled people outside the gallery to peep into the pool.
Upon exiting the pool and walking across the gallery, styrofoam beads would fall from the visitors’ bodies, eventually covering the gallery floor.