3456
Medium : Performance Installation - Acrylic Puzzles, Mirrored Table, Light The Grad Expectations, Ngee Ann Kongsi Galleries, 2025
In the quiet act of fixing, absence takes form. Rooted in the Buddhist philosophy of sunyata, each gesture reveals presence in emptiness, where repair becomes reflection and impermanent fragments trace becoming. Audiences are invited to participate, gently addressing social alienation through shared focus and quiet connection. 3456 explores simple gestures in performance as tools to address social alienation. Transparent puzzle pieces become metaphors for interdependence, where meaning emerges through connection, echoing sunyata’s teachings on contingent, relational existence.
3456 examines the potential of simple gestures in performance art as tools to address and combat social alienation. The performance approaches the act of fixing through the lens of sunyata, the Buddhist concept of emptiness - a recognition that all things are contingent, interdependent, and lacking inherent selfhood. Transparent puzzle pieces in 3456 represent fragments of the world: on their own, they are incomplete and indeterminate, but in relation to one another, they begin to form patterns, coherence, and meaning.
The puzzle becomes a metaphor for the interdependent nature of existence, where identity and understanding arise not from isolation, but from connection. As these pieces come together, the process of the performance serve as a medium for meditative repair.
The act of fixing was adopted in 3456 as it is commonly psychologically perceived as a positive gesture, resonating with the positive intentions of alleviating social alienation. By using puzzle pieces in the performance, the material becomes a medium that invites repetition. With repetition, the act of fixing then cultivates a sense of calm and subtle emotional repair at a subconscious level.
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As the puzzle takes shape on a mirrored table, the reflection of the participants also emerges, suggesting that the self is shaped by interaction and intention. What begins as a scattered field of fragments becomes, through collective action, something momentarily whole. A soft projection of
Image of audiences participating in the performance installation
light is cast onto the mirrored surface, introducing a layer of shadows reflected on the wall. These shadows become an extension of the process, bringing forth an alternate perspective to receive 3456, allowing the audience to engage not only with the physicality of the work, but also the visual unfolding of the process.
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3456 was exhibited and performed throughout the entirety of The Grad Expectations exhibition at the Ngee Ann Kongsi Galleries. The work was awarded the Lim Ai Fang Art Prize in 2025 and it is currently acquired by the Woon Brothers Foundation. 3456 was also featured on FEMALE magazine in July 2025's issue, titled "The Look of Success".
Images courtesy of LAYDIIO