Singapore Biennale 2008

Who is Family - Rachel Goh (2008)

Installation

Video & Photography

When I first set my eyes on the family portrait of the artist's family, I got fascinated.

A family of five, looking happy, smiling brightly into the camera. They all looked close to one another and the daughter had her arms placed over her father and mother. They looked happy to be with one another, taking a photograph. As I continued looking through the other family portraits, I giggled.

The family members had swapped positions and clothes in a clockwise manner and got a set of five new family portrait taken.

The artist of the installation, Rachel Goh, is a Singaporean who has been working in advertising as a copywriter for ten years, had completed a foundation year at the Chelsea College of Art in London. That was all that she and her family could afford for her art education. A valuable lesson that she learnt at art school was the practice of documenting the making of an artwork. It is from this practice that Goh has produced a rather remarkable video as part of the work, which is being shown in the Singapore Biennale 2008.

The full work consists of six photographic family portraits and a video. Goh decided to reconnect with her two siblings and parents especially her father, by proposing that the family re-enact the poses, and demeanor of a family photograph taken twelve years ago that has been placed in Goh's home, above the television, for a long period of time. They swapped positions and clothes in a clockwise manner and had a set of five new family portraits taken. She placed a video camera at the shooting corner, and took down everything they did during the shoot. She also commissioned the same photographer who took the original photograph to shoot the new portraits.

Whenever Goh visited home, she'd stare at the family portrait, and find it unnerving. She always wondered if they could ever capture that kind of intimacy seen in the photograph, and that if they ever had that kind of intimacy between themselves.

She has mentioned before that, for her family to accept the fact that she has to leave for London to study art, is really hard. Her parents, especially her father, had his misgivings. Therefore, when she returned to Singapore, she had a lot of mixed feelings. She was glad but wondered how her parents would see her when she felt like a new person. Then, she thought that it might be a good time to take another family portrait as a way of marking a new chapter. She tracked the photographer who had taken that original family portrait for them and found out that he was still in the same place, same little studio.

They took another portrait. And Goh insisted in taking more portraits in the same pose, but different people doing it. She left the video camera in a corner, running, to record everything, and the work came out.

Personally, I feel that Goh has definitely learned that she had to improve her relationship between her family members. This has also made me feel that I should cherish my family members more and learn to appreciate them. She believed that her family only agreed to take the portraits that way out of respect for a newly returned 'artistic' daughter. Despite that, it showed support in one way or another towards their daughter or sister. They must have been really proud to see Goh's public exhibition of her work. The family portraits have shown that they are still close to one another as they are a family.

Photo credits:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/teohyc/3023996429/in/photostream/