around and about

Around and About presents Aurora’s new body of work, an ode to minor, innocuous observations. Across Aurora’s collection of observations in this exhibition, a set of persistent overtones emerges. In attempting to categorise them: First, curiosity. Not towards an object or a particular site of interest, but for a break from routine; in the usual methods of drawing, in the most effective commuting path, in ways that have become “too known.” Therefore, hers is an observation propelled by the drive towards the unknown: unknown objectives and an unknown endpoint. The unknown comes before the discovery, and curiosity comes before walking. Second, walking, is the facilitator for purging the known to make room for new thoughts, in Aurora’s own words, to engage in an experience that is “low intensity, high exposure.” Exposure is the equaliser that keeps walking, as an activity, fair if not neutral. In her walks, she is just as exposed to stimuli as the stimuli are to her. She is sheltered from others and stimuli, by way of road bends, elevation and terrain difference, just as some stimuli remain obscured to her through the same means. Aurora introduces the concept of visibility and obscurity as an argument that, indeed, those are necessary elements in the act of observing. “If you are seeing everything, it might be that you are seeing nothing.” By the law of human existence as a three-dimensional object, there instantly becomes a ‘verso’; the unseen hind; then, through walking, there is a continuous veiling and unveiling of visuals in front and behind us. And by the rules of opacity, the eyes may see only as far and as clearly as light permeates. Partial obscurity–or synonymously partial visibility–compels observation, causing a desire to find something out, not to solve anything per se, or to plunge into any consequential act, but simply to satiate the innate and humane drive as curious beings. Third, objects. In her walks, knowing how observation, curiosity, and desire tend to trigger each other, Aurora is bound to encounter an object that intrigues her. One shall imagine that her mind is a museum with a solid ethics committee trying to determine possible accession of artefacts. The objects that end up in her works then are free ones: wild, feral, or lost. Ones that are not free, or uncollectable, she replicates with video, paper-folding, painting, sculptures, and other means. Since it does seem inconsequential to her whether an object is real or a replica as long as it is registered, her audiences should not have to concern themselves with such matters as well. Lastly, simulation. Realness, again, is not Aurora’s main concern because presenting genuine material-makeup is not her intention behind incorporating said objects. Rather, because of an inkling that her journey of observing can only be transferred experientially. The exhibition itself guides the audience into an exercise of observing with intention, where sometimes there is an unavoidable confrontation with obscurity, elevation, distance, and scale. At the end of the day, what she invites her audiences to do is to observe for the sake of observing, using the method of walking. While urging the audience to engage in such an activity may seem aimless or self-absorbed, it instead becomes an inquiry into who—or what—currently holds agency over public attention, and whether it is now being force-absorbed en masse into serving interests that work against their needs, dignity, and selfhood. And thus, Aurora’s fixation towards observation becomes important. At first, to habituate oneself back into being perceptive instead of being constantly engaged with, and then, to reclaim agency over where and when one holds their attention. Third, objects. In her walks, knowing how observation, curiosity, and desire tend to trigger each other, Aurora is bound to encounter an object that intrigues her. One shall imagine that her mind is a museum with a solid ethics committee trying to determine possible accession of artefacts. The objects that end up in her works then are free ones: wild, feral, or lost. Ones that are not free, or uncollectable, she replicates with video, paper-folding, painting, sculptures, and other means. Since it does seem inconsequential to her whether an object is real or a replica as long as it is registered, her audiences should not have to concern themselves with such matters as well. Lastly, simulation. Realness, again, is not Aurora’s main concern because presenting genuine material-makeup is not her intention behind incorporating said objects. Rather, because of an inkling that her journey of observing can only be transferred experientially. The exhibition itself guides the audience into an exercise of observing with intention, where sometimes there are unavoidable confrontation with obscurity, elevation, distance, and scale. At the end of the day, what she invites her audiences to do is to observe for the sake of observing, using the method of walking. While urging the audience to engage in such an activity may seem aimless or self-absorbed, it instead becomes an inquiry into who—or what—currently holds agency over public attention, and whether it is now being force-absorbed en masse into serving interests that work against their needs, dignity, and selfhood. And thus, Aurora’s fixation towards observation becomes important. At first, to habituate oneself back into being perceptive instead of being constantly engaged with, and then, to reclaim agency over where and when one holds their attention.