Temporary Press

CORPUS is a 3D-printed work that takes the form of a single-edition book, conceptualised, designed, and printed by graphic designer Darius Ou. This eponymous publication is a publication of that original work — a photocopied, bootleg-like reproduction that is also designed on its own terms. As a word that means both a dead body and also a body of text, CORPUS is a response to the overmentioned “print is dead” catchphrase and questions what this means for non-traditional printing practices like 3D printing. Does “print” here refer to the method or material? Would a 3D-printed book then be considered dead even before it has a chance to live?

The essays in this collection are the author’s contemplations on Singapore through the lens of food. They are as much about men who enjoy cooking as they are about women who are expected to cook. They are also about Singapore and its identity and development. Some of the things it surveys include Zi Char menus, Home Economics curriculums, unassuming kitchen/cooking tools for making signature dishes, and local food or recipes.

Seatings are not necessarily chairs, in the way they do not always have legs or a backrest, but if they do, they may be appropriating something that was once designed to be a chair. They need not even be sat on and could be used to hold items. This fourth study in the Street Report series looks at ways people invent chairs or even the act of sitting itself in the streets. Some of them reinforce common notions of a seat but many challenge or question it.

Forming Cityscapes is a project where designers Jamie Yeo and Gideon Kong obsessively observe and photograph minor urban occurrences in the city of Singapore. These can be seen as forms of appropriation, resistance, improvisation, or critique within spaces or structures implemented at a larger scale. In this seventh collection, they look at the different seatings that occur in Singapore's streets, with or without chairs.

This work is a handmade copy of a semi-ubiquitous notebook from Singapore mainly used by primary school students. The first edition, self-published by the artist was originally tediously hand drawn copy by copy. This second edition is now slightly less tediously reproduced with the Risograph, with every page still based on a hand drawn original. In the artist's words, “this exercise book is fully functional if you do not mind someone else’s hands with you while you write”.