Fyerool Darma is an artist based in Singapore. He draws on an extensive visual vocabulary from popular culture, archival material, literary references, the Internet and the artist’s lived experiences. Engaging actively with object and material experimentations, his installations often incorporate elements of imaging, sculpture and digital or time based media.
The main place I've seen dinosaurs feature in your work is in your previous exhibition at Yeo Workshop, l♠nd$¢♠pΞ$, where you included a dinosaur colouring sheet on the back of the exhibition handout. Can you tell me about the colouring sheet and what animated dinosaurs have brought to your work?
It grew from an intention to just play. The exhibition l♠nd$¢♠pΞ$ was an exercise or several exercises from conversations, sharing, and playing with curator Dr. Karin Oen. We didn't exchange readings but we shared gems in the forms of sounds and music, through which we tried to find a vibe we could play around with. That was when I was much more aware of the changes in my understanding of certain visual metaphors. For instance, I think of dinosaurs as patterns with several codified meanings. I think everybody has their own ideas of what the word “Jurassic” or “prehistoric” means, much like how some outside Southeast Asia have preconceived ideas of the Southeast Asia landscape. It's almost revealed as another prehistoric layer. From that perspective, are we then the dinosaurs, and how do we move out of that misconception?
The inclusion of dinosaurs also came from a pure moment of wanting people to see something that’s not in colour and prompt an urge to draw on it. But I think everybody just loves dinosaurs. We tested it out on audiences as an invitation for them to grab and use it as material of their own. This was also soon after the pandemic lockdown measures were eased, and there were many sensitivities around interactive works. It felt like the lockdown created a stop or a pause, but also a phobia around the things that we touch. This was a way for us to respond to the landscape of that period.
