OUT of TOUCH by HERVISIONS
Denise Yap: Second Hand Smoke

27 May, 2020
– 3 June, 2020

12pm (GMT + 1)
7pm (GMT + 8)
Twitter
A visual translation of auditory reaction.
Sipping On Some Quiet by Denise Yap

Inspired by the mechanism of birdsongs, Second Hand Smoke sends out “love letters” mellifluously told through tweets.
Love incites an auditory reaction in birds and an aesthetic reaction in humans. While human beings display an innate and involuntary emotional reaction such as blushing, birds biologically develop and refine their mating calls during maturation. Through an investigation into sonic communications and expressions of birds, Singapore-based artist Denise Yap imagines mating calls made by human beings signalling to their future lovers in Second Hand Smoke.
At the centre of the work are two queer adolescent characters, Zion and Cae, situated on Twitter. While Zion and Cae tweet out their delicate and reticent affections for each other in the form of texts and GIFs, Yap invites us to be a stealthy reader of love letters plotting a sensual narrative.
Second Hand Smoke will be performed by Zion(@zion_newgrowth) and Cae (@cae_newgrowth) on Twitter. For a week tweets will be sent out every day at 12pm (GMT + 1) / 7pm (GMT + 8) from either of them, which will be responded to by the other on the following day. Their twitter profile pictures are left as default images for the characters to build an image of themselves through conversation. The conversation between Zion and Cae has been taken from Yap’s upcoming publication New Growth.
Presented by HERVISIONS OUT of TOUCH probes ways in which screen-based dialogues remediate the lack of touching in the absence of physical connection. Second Hand Smoke responds to the theme of OUT of TOUCH through imagined intimacy in a virtual and fictional world.

OUT of TOUCH
Denise Yap: Second Hand Smoke

27 May 2020 @Zion_NewGrowth – I give in to the urge…

28 May 2020 @Cae_NewGrowth – Every late afternoon without fail…

29 May 2020 @Zion_NewGrowth – Usually‌ ‌by‌ ‌now,‌ ‌I‌ ‌make‌ ‌my‌ ‌way‌ ‌home‌ ‌but…

30 May 2020 @Cae_NewGrowth – Ta has stayed later than usual. By night fall,…

31 May 2020 @Zion_NewGrowth – The Moon was bald, which explains why…

1 June 2020 @Cae_NewGrowth – The Moon ta calls me. “My name is Cae,…

3 June 2020 @Zion_NewGrowth – “So you follow me everyday while I float?”…

Denise Yap (b.1998) is a re-packager, an inbetween of pre-writer and post-reader; They draws from different sources of information to build a plausible world. Their artworks explore the potentiality of sincere investments such as alternative kinships and entanglements (and all the embarrassments!) of the human condition.
Yap’s recent group exhibitions include The Open Workshop for Singapore Art Week at Supernormal (2020), Eaten: A Capsule Museum for Future Possible Past Beings for Art After Dark at Gillman Barracks, Repel Revel at Grey Projects and A Very Objective Video at Telok Ayer Arts Club (all 2019).
Website: deniseyapyx.com
Instagram: @deniseyap_

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