Dis/placement: 6. Institute of Contemporary Art, Singapore 2010

“Mother Tongue,” the first aspect of the series, is a performance piece created for the opening exhibition. The speaking boxes with stands will remain as sculpture through the duration of the exhibition in the gallery.

As the spectators gather, they are confronted by 10 box structures mounted at eye level on separate stands, from five to six feet in height. Each box has an opening in the middle of the front plate, through which performer’s mouth will show while speaking, and right below the opening a resin casted tongue is protruding. The identity of the performer will be concealed to the audience behind the draped speaking stand.   

The 10 performers take position, each at their respective box. The first performer expresses his/her hopes and wishes in a loud and clear voice and in his/her native language. The other performers follow, one-by-one, accordingly. Spoken languages will include English, Hokkien, Mandarin, Hindi, Tamil, Korean, Malay, Spanish and Myanmar.

By the end of the last performer, all performers begin to speak simultaneously, so that the messages turn into some indecipherable sounds, allowing the audience only to feel the sentiments without understanding the actual words, without reference to human physical reality except the tongues and voices from the anonymity of their presence. The performance will last about 15 minutes.