Spinal Tap

Commissioned for the National Library Singapore (NLB), Spinal Tap, is a large scale mixed media installation presented during Singapore Night Festival (SNF) 2023. In Spinal Tap, the book spine is imagined as a portal which readers enter to immerse in literary worlds, seeking wisdom and fantasy anew. Paralleling to the spinal system of vertebrates, both serve as vessels of information and literal foundation for acquiring knowledge. The installation presents two humanoid silhouettes, engaged in silent reading, forming a written tapestry, woven with circulating ideas. Vein-like ropes embrace the silhouettes, imbibing them with potentiality, evoking notions of evolution and intelligence through the simple act of reading—a deeply human way of learning, filled with untapped potential for so much more.