Bua Cek / 破傘蕨
Diploma exhibition, 2024
Dipterus conjugata, or Bua Cek as it is called in Singapore, is a species of fern whose lineage dates back millions of years and is currently classified as critically endangered on the highly urbanised nation-state. According to a 2009 report, “the remaining extant populations of Dipteris conjugata all occur within the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) training areas in the Western Catchment Area and Pulau Tekong” along coastal cliffs which are restricted from public access and thus fortuitously protecting them.1 Pulau Tekong is the second-largest of Singapore’s outlying islands and has been used exclusively as a training base by the Singapore Army since the 1990s. It houses the Basic Military Training Centre where most newly enlisted recruits undergo a two- to three-month initiation into the regimented discipline of military life. The Mandarin Chinese name for the fern is 破傘蕨 (literally “broken umbrella fern”) and its large fronds are used as umbrellas in the highlands of Mindanao in the Philippines.
Images: Exhibition view, Bua Cek / 破傘蕨, June 18–30, 2024, Sculpture Studios, Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, Austria
Trailer: Bua Cek / 破傘蕨, 2024, HD video, 1 hr 3 min
As part of PARCOURS. FINAL WORKS 2024, Academy of Fine Arts Vienna
Postulating these ferns as silent witnesses to the militarisation of civilian bodies and underscoring the irony of their unintentional conservation by the military, Bua Cek explores normalised constructions of masculinity and their tacit expression camouflaged within the matrix of mandatory military service through the materiality of sculpture and translocation of context and memory, concerning itself with tactical notions of shelter, protection, affordance, tribulation, acclimatisation, assimilation, affirmation, visibility, vulnerability, and agency. Against a precipitous backdrop, 破傘蕨 traces a familial history that draws into kinship generations of militarised bodies with these prehistoric ferns, inviting the viewer to bear witness to the temporal, spatial, and visual regimes that remain etched in the body and society at large.
1 Lok A. F. S. L., Ang W. F., and Tan H. T. W., “The status and distribution in Singapore of Dipteris conjugata Reinw. (Dipteridaceae),” Nature in Singapore 2009, no. 2 (August 2009): 339–45.
Bua Cek / 破傘蕨
Diploma exhibition, 2024
Dipterus conjugata, or Bua Cek as it is called in Singapore, is a species of fern whose lineage dates back millions of years and is currently classified as critically endangered on the highly urbanised nation-state. According to a 2009 report, “the remaining extant populations of Dipteris conjugata all occur within the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) training areas in the Western Catchment Area and Pulau Tekong” along coastal cliffs which are restricted from public access and thus fortuitously protecting them.1 Pulau Tekong is the second-largest of Singapore’s outlying islands and has been used exclusively as a training base by the Singapore Army since the 1990s. It houses the Basic Military Training Centre where most newly enlisted recruits undergo a two- to three-month initiation into the regimented discipline of military life. The Mandarin Chinese name for the fern is 破傘蕨 (literally “broken umbrella fern”) and its large fronds are used as umbrellas in the highlands of Mindanao in the Philippines.
Postulating these ferns as silent witnesses to the militarisation of civilian bodies and underscoring the irony of their unintentional conservation by the military, Bua Cek explores normalised constructions of masculinity and their tacit expression camouflaged within the matrix of mandatory military service through the materiality of sculpture and translocation of context and memory, concerning itself with tactical notions of shelter, protection, affordance, tribulation, acclimatisation, assimilation, affirmation, visibility, vulnerability, and agency. Against a precipitous backdrop, 破傘蕨 traces a familial history that draws into kinship generations of militarised bodies with these prehistoric ferns, inviting the viewer to bear witness to the temporal, spatial, and visual regimes that remain etched in the body and society at large.
1 Lok A. F. S. L., Ang W. F., and Tan H. T. W., “The status and distribution in Singapore of Dipteris conjugata Reinw. (Dipteridaceae),” Nature in Singapore 2009, no. 2 (August 2009): 339–45.
Images: Exhibition view, Bua Cek / 破傘蕨, June 18–30, 2024, Sculpture Studios, Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, Austria
Trailer: Bua Cek / 破傘蕨, 2024, HD video, 1 hr 3 min
As part of PARCOURS. FINAL WORKS 2024, Academy of Fine Arts Vienna