Words Ros Woodham
Sarah Choo Jing takes a multidisciplinary approach to photography, video and installation works, using contemporary scenes to capture a multitude of private perspectives. She is especially interested in voyeurism and the viewpoint of the flâneur.
Choo, born in Singapore in 1990, completed her MFA at the Slade School of Art in London in 2015 and returned to live and work in Singapore. She has been the winner of several awards, including the Moscow International Foto Awards (2015), Perspectives 40 under 40 Award (2017) and the Gold Award in the PX3 Prix de la Photographie Competition (2019). Most recently, she was shortlisted for the Audemars Piguet Art Commission for Art Basel 2020, and she clinched the 3D Interactive Award for the Lumen Prize for Art and Technology 2021. Her works are in both private and public collections around the world, and she has exhibited in London, Paris, Korea, Finland and the US.
The winning image, Not From Here, is a digital composite of hawker centres in Singapore that recalls a pre-pandemic world of unrestricted social interaction, overlaid with images of socially distanced city life. Thus, present-day individuals juxtaposed with those from the past seem to be in silent communion with each other, while Choo adds a new layer of interpretation through assemblage and photo-realistic painting. The image presents an eerie yet intimately nostalgic scene that prompts the viewer to question its authenticity.
- ‘Sarah Choo Jing photography: Not From Here’ is published in Anthology Volume 20. Read more features from this volume or buy it now.
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