Unrealized Project by Jesvin Yeo
The initial intention of this project was to design and create a series of dolls to illustrate the dark period of Singapore in 1950s. When there had been more than 30 secret societies and almost everyday, there were gang fights among these secret societies. All secret societies had their own matching tattoos to brands its members. These secret societies were also loan sharks (unethical moneylender) who lend money at excessively high rates of interest. If the debtors were unable to pay up on time, the load sharks would spray, splash, or write threats in red paint on the walls of their house or property, as a threat of violence and to shame the borrower into repaying the loan. The common use of painting includes the characters "O$P$" meaning "owe money, pay money". It is also a tradition for the gangster to hang a pig’s head outside the borrower's house, as a type of intimidation as well as a way of 'marking' the person as a loan 'defaulter'. Hence, I had illustrated a series of gangsters with pig’s head (see CVCdoll_01), barung (a common weapon used by gangster) and tattoos etc.
This idea was rejected because it is a past that Singapore does not want to remind of. Especially during that period, Singapore was still searching for her identity and developing roots in the political aspect. At the end, still holding on to the ideas of designing dolls, I had changed the concept to a series of occupation dolls from the 1950s. (see CVCdoll_02).
Unrealized Project by Jesvin Yeo
The initial intention of this project was to design and create a series of dolls to illustrate the dark period of Singapore in 1950s. When there had been more than 30 secret societies and almost everyday, there were gang fights among these secret societies. All secret societies had their own matching tattoos to brands its members. These secret societies were also loan sharks (unethical moneylender) who lend money at excessively high rates of interest. If the debtors were unable to pay up on time, the load sharks would spray, splash, or write threats in red paint on the walls of their house or property, as a threat of violence and to shame the borrower into repaying the loan. The common use of painting includes the characters "O$P$" meaning "owe money, pay money". It is also a tradition for the gangster to hang a pig’s head outside the borrower's house, as a type of intimidation as well as a way of 'marking' the person as a loan 'defaulter'. Hence, I had illustrated a series of gangsters with pig’s head (see CVCdoll_01), barung (a common weapon used by gangster) and tattoos etc.
This idea was rejected because it is a past that Singapore does not want to remind of. Especially during that period, Singapore was still searching for her identity and developing roots in the political aspect. At the end, still holding on to the ideas of designing dolls, I had changed the concept to a series of occupation dolls from the 1950s. (see CVCdoll_02).