Peripathetic: Notes on (un)belonging
Cher Tan
NewSouth: 2024
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One morning in 2020, I wore a T-shirt to prank my mother. I was about to cast my first vote in a general election. The shirt declared: “ABUSE OF POWER COMES AS NO SURPRISE”. My mother was horrified and implored me to get changed. I did.
In Singapore, you don’t get much say in how you’re read. In line at the polling booth, I amused myself by imagining how I would have explained my insolence to a faceless authority figure. It’s actually a Jenny Holzer, from her Truisms series? I got it at the Royal Academy of Arts gift shop for £30 along with a David Shrigley mug, with a big poodle on it, that’s supposed to be microwave safe.
Holzer’s text-based work is designed for sloganeering. You can buy versions of the shirt I got from a variety of online retailers: printed on demand from Amazon, a US$205 Off-White™ re-release of Virgil Abloh and Jenny Holzer’s collaboration to raise funds for Planned Parenthood, and one where the text is layered over a black-and-white skull graphic. The product listing doesn’t credit the illustrator or even Holzer. The web store’s meta description promises apparel from “the deepest cult and counterculture cuts”. Over 160 shirt designs are available in two colours.
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