SB 2011 Young Arts Writers Workshop Programme by Lai Si Ying

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You probably thought it is the same person on the poster of the Singapore Biennale 2011. But here’s a spoiler: it’s not. You’ll discover this at the Singapore Art Museum 8Q, which is one of the four venues for this year’s Singapore Biennale.

In Candice Breitz’s video installation exhibit housed at this venue, it identifies and inspects the similarities and differences between identical twins and triplets. Through interviews done with these twins and triplets done separately at the exact same location, it feels like you’re virtually seeing double.

Just listening to the interviews astounded me. Twins were talking about being twins. Their similarities and differences stood out so stark, it was not surprising to find that my jaw had dropped a few times watching the videos.

Which brings me back to the event poster I mentioned earlier. It dawned on me that the three girls on the poster were triplets, and not the same person. This made me think about how I was wondering why “three pictures of the same person with different facial expressions” was used for the poster, and what it meant. I finally understood why.

It was a pity, though, that I did not manage to watch all the interview twins. However, I managed to watch the interview with Miguel and Marco Jacob. One thing that really struck me was that they both said as twins, they might sometimes have friction between themselves.

People compare and generalize twins, they said. One is always smarter. Skinnier. More sociable. You get the point. This is the difficulty they face as twins, and they have to overcome these stereotypes as they strive to be individuals. They too, have the need to feel a belonging to a community.

Candice Breitz, born 1972 in Johannesburg, South Africa, did this video installation. She currently lives and works in Berlin. Her inspiration for this exhibit? American artist Robert Rauschenberg, who did twin paintings Factum I and Factum II in 1957.

My takeaway from this exhibit: that twins may look identical, but they are individuals too.

We look identical.
Standing side by side,
it’s like we came out of a printer
printing not one,
but two copies.
But
I’m shy. She’s sociable.
I’m slow. She’s sporty.
I’m smart. She’s stupid.
I’m simple. She’s sexy.
I’m Sarah. She’s Serene.
We may be twins, but we are individuals too.