The Enigma of Arrival

"Diasporas are always categorised by various forms of absence." - John Akomfrah

The Enigma of Arrival is a curatorial project consisting of three artist commissions and a workshop. Borrowing its title from V.S. Naipaul’s novel, it delves into the intersections of time, identity, and diaspora, reflecting the enigmatic nature of settling into a new time or place. Challenging linear time, this project explores the fragmented nature of diasporic experience, where memory, nostalgia, and rebirth intertwine in a haze of past and present.

Featuring commissioned works by Joshua Woolford, Rieko Whitfield, and Duong Thuy Nguyen, a synergistic blend of audio-visual, sculptural, and collaborative media is presented. Woolford’s peacefully if we can, forcibly if we must narrates a personal perspective within an unfamiliar landscape. Questions of the untold are manifested through a communication between Woolford’s dual-screen display and Whitfield’s Diasporing Terrains – an audio-visual installation resulting from an intimate workshop, redefining the concept of diaspora. Meditating on ideas of memory, belonging, and adaptation, this is framed by Nguyen’s We, Now, Here, There, Together, a sculptural display exploring diasporic communities and their ancestral ties.

We invite visitors to engage with the dynamic and multifaceted nature of diasporic existence.

Mark your arrival, feel the absence.


Curators: Ahwa Habeeb, Clara Lai, David Tomlinson, Hannah Dowling, Sylvia Tan, Qinle Jin, Yuying Chan

Exhibiting Artists: Joshua Woolford, Rieko Whitfield, and Duong Thuy Nguyen.

Photographer & Videographer: Wenxuan Wang