Like cities, time is not static. It can stay still, advance, and disintegrate alongside its inhabitants. There are pockets that move slower, others that make speedy headways; some are stuck, as if caught in traffic or a crumbling façade left to weather time’s progression. On the main thoroughfare of Bukit Mertajam,  past the outmoded barbershops, watch sellers and sundry stores, was an inconspicuous clothing store. There hung a T-shirt with a perplexing jumble of alphabets, like a prompt asking, “What is the flipside of time?”

Stories are portals across temporalities. In an era where feeling chronologically unrooted becomes commonplace, the experience of time, as well as the memories and desires they carry can be deeply idiosyncratic and manifold. The poet Dionne Brand wrote, “All artists are involved in their time.” Assembled under the umbrella of ⏊IWE are narratives that probe into time as material and agents of change, and consequently undermine ideologies and values prevalent within our society. These works not only chronicle personal mementos, offer alternative histories and ways of living, but also function as brief pauses to dislocate from the present. In doing so, they open other ways of how one can relate to our own time.

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⏊IWE is the outcome of Christina Li’s three-week long curatorial residency at Blank Canvas in November 2023.