RECONSIDERING THE ESSENCE OF TIME WITH GUA PUNYA SUKA (GPS)

THANK YOU, BANI HaYKAL

By Carolyn Oei, 27 March 2023

A note about the cover image: This is a vegan rigatoni I had for a last dinner in Seoul on 15 July 2022. It was divine. I replicated the dish when I got home and, while not difficult, the process was laborious and time-consuming. Taking the time to cook is something I deeply enjoy and appreciate because I don’t abide by zapping my food. Photo: Carolyn Oei.

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I recently hopped off a moving train that was an exhibition at the Esplanade in Singapore. It rained heavily every day before the exhibition opened and threatened to storm every day as we scrunched up the little yellow accordion gates to let people in. We were out in the open with minimal shelter. When it didn’t rain, we were thankful, even as we fried in the searing heat. Does your hair curl, too, in 90 percent humidity? Mid to late March is meant to be the drier phase of the Northeast monsoon, but the weather’s been wonky for a while now. For you, too, I’m sure, wherever you are.

I’m exhausted – the project was about eight months in the making – but also very chuffed because it was, to me, a success. My role in the project was that of producer, which is quite nebulous because a producer produces, ie: does what needs to be done to make the project happen. On the ground, I was front and centre at the entrance.

“Hi! Welcome to our art exhibition!”

“Oh. Art exhibition…?”

“Yes! This is a participatory art exhibition…these mutant dolls were made by the children at our centre…That’s the Studio where you can…and over there is a drawing tent…and here’s a ticket for the claw machine…Enjoy!”

 

I moderated my spiel depending on time of day, person/s being addressed and the length of the queue forming behind said person/s being addressed, but I needed an average of 60 seconds to introduce the exhibition. I was conflicted between getting into the complexities of what looked like a carnival with prizes and fun and satisfaction for free and letting people in to find out for themselves, which often resulted in (a) no deeper appreciation for the message of the exhibition and (b) disappointment because the only prizes to be won were stickers.

These mutant dolls were an integral part of the Kiap Kiap Revolution exhibition. Photo: Carolyn Oei

 

“No, you can’t take them home. The dolls are part of the exhibition.” I do my best to smile as sweat floods into my eyes and down my back.

 

Those 60 seconds got me thinking about “elevator pitches” that have become a de rigueur component of entrepreneurship courses. You’re in a lift with someone you recognise to be important and vital to your success as a person and you have 30 seconds to sear a memory of you in their brains; reducing your worth to a sentence or string of buzz words; disregarding the layers of complexity that you’re made of.

Those 30 seconds got me thinking about the anxious rush that we’ve come to accept as how we must, should, ought to live. Needing more time is laziness, unproductiveness, inefficiency, a lack of commitment, failure.

The notion of needing more time got me thinking about my relationship with Time. I get angry with Time a lot. I get angry with Time because Time makes me shout at, scold and berate myself for needing more, more, more.  

Yet, we do need more if we continue to be enslaved by parameters of productivity that intentionally believe they can control, well, just about everything; time, the climate, people.

“It’s a project which responds to finding ways of building mutual respect, to small ways of reducing our reliance on motorised vehicles for those of us who are able bodied and to think through our collective rhythms in relation to climate crisis. ”

— Bani Haykal on GPS

GUA PUNYA SUKA // GPS

Translated from Malay to mean, “My preference” or “to my liking”, GUA PUNYA SUKA (or GPS, for short) is the latest experiment from the prolific multi-disciplinary artist, Bani Haykal. GPS is, as Haykal describes, a second chapter to Minimal Waste, which is a continuation of Haykal’s “thinking through our relationship and the kinds of intimacies [we have] with machines”. In this iteration, his focus is on the bicycle. GPS is long-form video documentation of Haykal’s cycling commutes, which to me, is so many things all at once. While a 30-second elevator pitch says practically nothing about a person other than their ability to titillate, Haykal’s sometimes-60-minute videos say loads about how Google Maps isn’t always accurate, how each of us could contribute to collective action to tackle climate change, how Singapore really could do with bicycle lanes, how there is value in experiencing the doing of an action versus merely obsessing about the time that that action takes.

Haykal calls each video an “episode”. Episodes of what? A burgeoning consciousness? Haykal replies:

 

“Yea, I still am thinking about this! Episodes of commuting life? Episodes of risks? Episodes of possibilities? A large part of this project is in wanting to develop ground up knowledge/ infrastructure when it comes to commuting by bike, wanting motorists to be far more sensitive and attentive to the different rhythms and range of commuting, that the roads aren’t just for motorists! Increasingly, they are episodes of dream sequences where the desire for safer, friendlier roads exists for everyone to immerse in!”

Haykal’s project, Minimal Waste, is also on Twitter: @minimalwaste

TIME MANAGEMENT? BAH HUMBUG.

Haykal might not agree with me, but I consider his video documentations to be art; more specifically, durational art. GPS has the quality of durational art “that invokes the flux of temporal experience”, which gives re-interpreted meaning to the old adage, “Time is of the essence.” Shifting our focus to giving an action the time that it needs – 10 minutes, two days, 30 years, forever – reminds us we can’t actually control Time.

 

I wonder if “We can’t control time” is how “time management” gurus open their lessons.

 

I wonder if people who’ve attended events like the Type-A Breakfast can actually get “a full day’s work” done in “two uninterrupted hours”.

 

I wonder if there’s a universally accepted definition of “work”: Drafting an email? Reading to children? Cleaning someone else’s toilet?

 

I wonder.

 

Over the years, so many of us have been harangued into believing that Time can be reined in and whipped into submission. Much to our detriment. So, ridding my being of that toxic notion will take a while.

 

As long as it needs.

BONUS

In addition to Haykal’s thoughtful work on time and consciousness, I recommend the On Being podcast episodes featuring biomimicry expert Janine Benyus and music producer Rick Rubin.

You’re welcome.

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The Cure got it very right. I spent hours staring at the sea in Jeju. Time very well spent. Photo: Carolyn Oei