In Tanpa Bayangan Mu (Shadowless), artist Boedi Widjaja revisits his long-standing relationship with Bras Basah Complex — also known as 书城, the “City of Books.” A site bound to memories of familial reunion and separation, it was where the artist and his father would meet during the latter’s brief visits to Singapore.
Across the pages of a Chinese-classics–styled book, the artist repeatedly traces the figure of a one-armed swordsman, accompanied by the sentimental lyrics of a heartbreak song. The near-identical drawings — akin to a memory loop of a single event — evoke the gestures of longing and return. The accompanying 41-second video, played in reverse, shows the book’s pages slowly unflipping — as if undoing time itself. Together, image and words form both a tender and melodramatic lament for separation: from a loved one, and from a place where memory persists like an afterimage.
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