A Dissection Of ......
2013-2017
Born in Taiwan and living in Singapore since she was 16, Lavender only realised the deep-seated dualities in her identity in adulthood. On one occasion, she witnessed a mass protest against foreign immigrants in Singapore. For the first time, she felt a palpable sense of exclusion. The people in the protest suddenly seemed alien to her and her perspective of her own identity shifted. She became more acutely curious of the people around her, some of whom she had known for years.
She sought to understand them better by focusing on their memories, their stories, by asking a seemingly mundane question: “What's your favorite hawker food?” With each telling, the emotional or non-emotional attachments would slowly be revealed. Through the process of ‘dissecting’ a favourite dish, Lavender was able to understand in-depth this group of islanders, to whom she’s proud to belong.
(Lavender Chang is now a Singapore Citizen.)
