SERIES PREVIEW PART 3: The Overlay of Touchstones & Time

THE OVERLAY OF TOUCHSTONES & TIME 

As in the previous two posts, this is a sampling of images and text previewing my developing series in conjunction with the Raffles Bicentennial celebrations currently in progress and continuing through the end of 2019 in Singapore.  Refer to the previous posts for other image overviews of this project. All photos and original texts ©Rick Burnett Baker 

These four images are of benches on Coleman Street, adjacent to St. Andrews Cathedral. The text is inlayed in each bench.  I've then overlaid other Singapore images onto these bench photos. I felt that the message here is what we in the US talk about and what Singapore actually does. These images would represent the last four images in an exhibit of this series. 

"TO BUILD A DEMOCRATIC SOCIETY, BASED ON JUSTICE AND EQUALITY, REGARDLESS OF RACE, LANGUAGE OR RELIGION, SO AS TO ACHIEVE HAPPINESS, PROSPERITY, & PROGRESS FOR OUR NATION." 

Photos ©Rick Burnett Baker

Taken February, 2019. 

SERIES PREVIEW, PART 2 "The Overlay of Touchstones & Time

THE OVERLAY OF TOUCHSTONES & TIME
As in the previous post, this is a sampling of images and text previewing my developing series in conjunction with the Raffles Bicentennial celebrations that are currently in progress and continuing through the end of 2019 in Singapore. Refer to the previous post for the overview of this project. All photos and text ©Rick Burnett Baker

____________________

"Surrender is the spirit of trust, 

the loving touch of all known and unknown;

A communion of being." 

-RBB

____________________

"Pause for reflection and memory; 

forest and lake; stillness and breeze. 

Prayer, like the wind, is movement." 

-RBB

____________________

of every passing

we are 

fire and ash, 

water and stone, 

flowers and earth

we are

sons daughters

mothers fathers

of every

passing and ascent 

of night to 

day. 

-RBB

____________________

"We are most beautiful when we are not, 

for in that image is the seed

of all that behold 

beauty."  

-RBB

____________________

"We memorialize our veterans for being noble and brave. 

If ever humanity learns the greater lessons of war,

we will have truly honored them." 

-RBB

____________________

Image Notes: 

Image 1: Base photo is Masjid Sultan Mosque, Singapore. Overlay image taken on Muscat Street @Arab Street. 

Image 2: Base photo taken at Wei Too Fa Gong Taoist Temple, Pulau Ubin. Overlay image of the monks taken on Mosque Street, Chinatown. 

Image 3: Base photo taken at Sri Thendayuthapani Hindu Temple, Singapore. Overlay image taken at  Sri Mariamman Hindu Temple, South Bridge Rd. 

Image 4: Base photo taken on Smith Street. Overlay image of young tourist girl taken on Temple Street. 

Image 5: Kanji War Memorial. 

All photos and text ©Rick Burnett Baker 

Exhibit Preview: THE OVERLAY OF TOUCHSTONES & TIME

THE OVERLAY OF TOUCHSTONES & TIME
This sampling of images and text is a preview of a developing series in conjunction with the Raffles Bicentennial celebrations that are currently in progress and continuing through the end of 2019. All photos and text  ©Rick Burnett Baker.

____________________

A touchstone to the past is most often a house, school, building, or a place where we used to hang out with family or friends. Years later, when we return to any of those elements of our past, we are sometimes flooded with myriad emotions and memories.  One element of touchstones that we sometimes forget is that those memories were most often created, not simply by a physical structure or place, but by the people who shared those places with us. 

​

In Singapore, so many of the places that Singaporeans, expats, and visitors remember fondly have disappeared to the ever changing landscape of development and redevelopment.  This project will explore some of my personal touchstones, but also those that older Singaporeans remember, and younger generations never knew. 

This will be a photo narrative, in the spirit of the Raffles Bicentennial, spiced with commentary, quotes, and poetry!  This will also be a challenge to the younger generations of Singaporeans to create their own, new touchstones, keeping in mind that people will be the most cherished part of those new creations. 

____________________

"When we pull back the curtain of our inner child

we unleash the art of creating our future." 

-RBB

____________________

"I had designs on you. 

Paths were carved from every decade 

of emotion, a blueprint unfathomed.

I'm long past the dedication, ribbon-cutting, cornerstones; 

You are a time capsule, empty."

-RBB

Adapted from my 2014 poem, 'metropolis'. 

____________________

"We stand where heritage has drawn us. 

self is the gathered vision of history against uncertainty."

-RBB

Adapted from my 2013 poem, 'crossings'. 

____________________

Sometimes we create temporary touchstones..... 

 

(Love Locks @ Clarke Quay, Singapore

Text on image is an excerpt from my 2013 poem titled "milieu".)

Click on image to enlarge:

____________________

"We are view, we are days, we're the 

looking glass windows to unnamed futures." 

-RBB

Adapted from my 2012 poem, 'paths'

***

Image Notes: 

Image 1: Base photo taken at Singapore Art Museum (SAM) Waterloo S. 

Overlay image of “Superkid” is the side of a building at Heritage Chalet, Pasir Ris Park. 

Image 2: Base photo taken at Dakota Crescent Estate. Overlay image take at Chinatown Complex.

Image 3: Base photo is a stylized rendering of an applied mural in the pedestrian underpass near Boat Quay in 2013. The overlay is Raffles Statue, Empress Place. 

Image 4: Love Locks @ Clarke Quay. 

Image 5: Photo of Raffles Statue overlaid on an image taken at Marina Bay Sands.