Patron saints

Abstract

My project entitled ‘Patron Saints’ imagines modern conditions personified as fetish objects. It is inspired by Singaporean narratives and religious imagery. Research in local film and literature, and interviews conducted with relevant culturally-reflective individuals, revealed several recurring motifs and themes in the Singaporean imagination. The investigation reflects on how urban conditions have an impact on individual’s conscious, that manifest in different forms such as collective amnesia, alienation and claustrophobia, to name a few. These urban and psychological shed light on the development of the psyche of Singaporean society, and how people deal with it, such as escaping into the past by indulging in nostalgia, longing for the ‘good old days’ while lamenting about the uncertainty of the present at the same time.Patron Saints takes note of these indulgences, obsessions, fears and desires, by visually representing them as fetish objects, and elevating them to the status of mock-divine entities, as a ‘patron saint’. These symbolize empowerment of the conditions of society’s system and entrapment of the individual under that system. This report will function as a documentation of the processes, ideas and inspirations that went into the Patron Saints project.