Physical landscape of Singapore islands have seen tremendous change over five decades of independence where many feel the disconnect with places regarded as home. In trying to find familiarity amidst the change, photographic articles as memory artifacts are reconstructed and interwoven to form new narratives indicative of their locations at the time. By drawing reference to the sea as a constant, these new narratives localises the artifacts by the present shoreline in hope to make the past less foreign.
These narratives are not a literal recollection of the islands or the coast, but a meditation on the ebb and flow of time and the clarity of human memory. Through this exploration, the artist seeks to embark on a journey to understand the nature of belonging.
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About the Artist
Juria Toramae (b. 1983, Thailand/Singapore) was born in Morocco, raised in Egypt and Thailand, and educated in Malaysia and Singapore. Having lived an itinerant childhood, her practice explores themes of identity, memory and place. Her work often employs photography, artifacts and extensive archival research.
For Temporality, she constructed a series of visual narratives from photographic artifacts indicative of their place of origin through memory-mapping. Temporality had its debut during Noise Singapore’s The Apprenticeship Programme Exhibition in 2013 at 8Q Singapore Art Museum. In 2014, she was awarded an irememberSG Fund for a collaborative project, Points of Departure, which is an extension of Temporality. For Points of Departure, she further conceptualised multi-layered narratives of coastal and island life in Singapore that weave the past and the present through images, words and sound.
During her time in Malaysia, she has co-written two plays, Eight Ways to Lighten the School Bag and Oh My God, presented by the Kuala Lumpur Performing Arts Centre (KLPac). In 2008, Oh My God was nominated for Best Original Script at the 7th BOH Cameronian Arts Awards.
She currently lives and works in Singapore.