Intimate Apparitions is on display as part of the Singapore Biennale 2019 (ongoing until 22 March 2020), at Gillman Barracks (Block 9). But what Intimate Apparitions offers is a delicious contrast in how the loudest and most flamboyant of styles can hide within it, so much left unsaid about the lives of its practitioners. Perhaps a little too subtle, but there is a lot to be said about his choice to picture the faces and bodies of his drag collaborators in what could have been just a solitary assemblage piece.Īlessandro Michele, the creative director of Gucci, said of the camp aesthetic, “Camp is a beautiful word, it hides all the secrets of those who want to exist.” It is, of course, impossible to boil down the complicated and marginalised existences of drag queens into just one work of art. Khairullah Rahim has opted for a very subtle hand in creating layers of meaning by way of accessible glamour, opening up viewers to a community that they may not be familiar with. Here, I believe the photographs accompanying the installation, titled Intimate Apparitions (sightings) and made in collaboration with Taufiq Rahman, go a long way towards subverting the camp aesthetics of style over content. “For camp art is often decorative art, emphasising texture, sensuous surface, and style at the expense of content,” writes Susan Sontag in her essay, Notes on ‘Camp’. Only then did the contents of the installation finally come together for me. The photo was not placed at eye level, so I had probably overlooked it during my visit. I went home.Īs I reviewed my photos, however, I found myself stopping short at a photo of a drag queen putting on her garments. The photos were placed sparsely around the room, so it took some time for me to look through them all. In the next room, I stood to admire the series of photographs that accompanied the installation.
As a lover of maximalist aesthetics, the visual appeal was so satisfying.
A small disco ball gently swayed and danced above our heads. The greenery of the open windows behind us crept in as an extension of the garden-scape. Amongst the decor are several artful headpieces resting on mannequin heads, but upon closer observation, the sparkles and textures reveal themselves to be common items like spoons and brushes. It was incredible to see how the objects were being transformed and arranged to look like flowers, butterflies, and gazebos. We spent more than a quarter of an hour in the bright pink room, looking at the installation from high and low, puzzled and delighted at every turn. They littered the floor like small white and green flowers. “What kind of moulds are these? Is it for kueh?” my mom asked, pointing at the various moulds scattered on the ground.
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