Opening & Panel Discussion "That Melted Snowman"

Opening & panel: Huzaifah Haaris and Iz Alexis on photography, sculpture, and what a melting snowman leaves behind. Sat Nov 21. Let us begin with land art, reflecting on the transience of temporary sculpture and its fated pledge to collaborate with nature; here, the sculpture surrenders itself to the whims of the weather — yet at this very moment, the intervention of photography bestows upon it a different, more enduring, statue-like vow. Here, sculpture and photography mutually constitute one another; even if everything is subsequently razed to the ground, the presence is entrusted to the life of nature, whilst the absence following its disappearance becomes a real intertextuality of the ‘moment of presence’ captured by the photographic lens—a literary reference and a resonance between different histories. From another perspective, photography itself has gradually developed its own sculptural vision—or, one might say, the practice of illusion—thereby awakening the ontological discourse from its slumber, attaching itself to photography as it stands as a living entity. Thus, we further contemplate, within the mutual constitution of photography and sculpture, the subconscious reverence or apprehension people harbour towards the body, as well as, on a more symbolic level, from which interventions and subconscious forces the ‘flesh and blood’ of photographic sculpture derives. “Rock Paper Scissors Shoot” is an initiative exploring the relationship between painting, photography and sculpture. Through a series of three one-week exhibitions and panel discussions, the project brings together two artists from different media backgrounds at Red Giant Project Space to explore the potential for narrative tension to emerge between these media, thereby re-examining the stereotypes, contrasts and associations that have gradually formed between them.