Exercise Now and Fit a Standard Size Coffin Later #3

This video work is one of a series of five exercises associated with the artist's memory of his time in the military. The work engages with daily gestures and routines as artistic material. It was influenced by renowned Singaporean playwright Kuo Pao Kun’s 1985 play, The Coffin Is Too Big for the Hole, which discusses the death of diversity when Singapore was rapidly developing in the 1980s and 1990s, and the standardisation of many processes.

“In my case, it is a body that is too big for a standard coffin,” the artist reveals. “I just thought that it would be the follow-up to Kuo Pao Kun’s work... I am from the generation that is the product of this ‘standardisation’... I still see how that affects the way people think about themselves and others, as well as their general worldview.” Exercise is seen as a habit that is part of a sustainable lifestyle due to its long-term health benefits, but in this work, the never-ending tedium of this activity also represents the banality of contemporary society’s fascination with achievement and efficiency, this one-size-fits-all standardisation of individuals.