Ass & Dam

Ass & Dam comprises Nila Choo (Singapore), Tamarra (Indonesia) and Wong Mei Sheong (Singapore) who first met in Yogyakarta in 2013 as friends in a SITA Residency. Their creative collaboration began online with sharing of knowledge and experience, where they formed a sewing circle between Singapore and Indonesia. The Collective subsequently collaborated and made soft sculptures and fabric works featuring informed reproductive organs, in response to  ‘transphobia’ – which was discussed and investigated during a previous project. The Collective shared personal stories pertaining to the reproductive organs, through socio-sexual-philosophical musings, pondering societal attitudes and taboos associated with them.

Hybridity is present in every human being, including fluidity in expressions, based on reflections emerging from personal internal struggle, discovery, and acceptance. The artwork is inspired by the gender experience of Bugis culture in South Sulawesi, where transgenders are bestowed the power by their gods to advise the king. 

This artwork is completed during a one-time, on-site performance with the physical soft sculptures, entitled “Bongkar Pasang” by Tamarra, with the following statement:

“‘Bongkar Pasang’ is an expression that I used as a response as an intimate body acceptance and an identity representation in society. As a social creature, appearance or bodily presence is important, especially in relations to acceptance.

In some non-binary communities in Indonesia, many struggle with this conflict between physical body and spiritual entity, especially within their social circle where there is a mismatch between gender expression and biological conditions. As such, many Indonesian non-binary people reconstruct their physical bodies, especially the reproductive organs and breasts. Despite the effort to reconcile these physical and spiritual bodies, it does not position many non-binaries people as our equals as human beings. 

This performance response is a personal one of intimate body acceptance and struggle for socially-accepted form that is always challenged.”

The artwork is inspired by the musings of Wong Mei Sheong, a member of the Collective:

What is a woman? 

It’s a common enough ‘item’, half the human population has one. Yet, it’s rather curious that this versatile and ‘private’ part of the female body is hardly ever discussed!

Growing up without sisters, as ‘the only girl’ in my family, as a child, I played mostly with my brothers, and was described by others as a ‘tomboy’. As a pre-adolescent, attending an all girls’ school, I realised I was romantically and sexually attracted to both girls and boys. This hybrid gender identity persisted even after puberty. The onset of menstruation emphasised biological imperatives, underlying a vague awareness of gender fluidity.

As an adult, biological events loomed large: pregnancy, miscarriage, childbirth, vaginal delivery and Caesarean section, lactation and breastfeeding – all these (for me) were evidently and intensely ‘female, mammalian’ experiences.

I would admit that my body is biologically female, but my gender identity remains somewhat ‘fluid’ and my self is probably still ‘tomboyish’, in many ways.

Looking back, I was aware of many social influences urging the younger me to embrace feminine attributes, in sync with my inescapably female biology. However, I am now content to accept and explore the range of non-binary gender identity, as well as the experience and expression of hybridity.

Making vulva-inspired artefacts is for me an exploratory, meditative process, during which my hybrid gender impulses naturally fluctuate.

They wax and wane, wandering, uncertain and transformative.”

What is a (Wo)Man? 

The Collective shared personal stories pertaining to the reproductive organs, through socio-sexual-philosophical musings, pondering societal attitudes and taboos associated with them.