Artworks in order of appearance:

_1.

Bouquet of Disappointment
2021
Metallic polyurethane vinyl, polyester stuffing, and grosgrain straps
Dimensions vary


_2.

Cunt Be Bothered
2021
Quilted and ruffled pieces, synthetic metallic lamé, synthetic tinsel knit, Swarovski crystal elements, and polyster wadding
90 x 210 x 35 cm

_3.

Bouquet of Disappointment (Reinterpreted)
2021
Metallic polyurethane vinyl, polyester stuffing, grosgrain straps, and duchess satin
Dimensions vary

Part of “only losers left alive (love songs for the end of the world)” at Yeo Workshop
Curated by Louis Ho
Excerpt by Louis Ho

Part of “赏花” at Supper House
Curated by Ashley Chiam

only losers left alive (love songs for the end of the world) is a project with a central proposition: if our world were to come to a screeching halt tomorrow, what would we be left with? This project is a curatorial experiment - in curating by mood. The aestheticsof the presentation are directed towards particular atmospherics.

Bouquet of Disappointment attempts to work through Xun’s personal feelings about non-normative experience in Singapore. The amalgamation of soft sculpture and fashion-derived sensibilities is owed to Euro-American lineages of camp and kitsch, and its relation to formulations of queer identity. Inspired by a canon of camp films such as The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (1994), Pink Flamingoes (1972) and Paris is Burning (1990), and informed by the writings of Eng-Beng Lim and Audrey Yue, the piece deploys the aesthetics of camp and kitsch to suggest how non-heteronormative experience in Singapore may be coded in the visual register - through textures and colours, as well as titular and other visual cues.

This abstractly-shaped piece, titled Cunt Be Bothered, is a visual representation of the artist’s personal dating history. As a series of modular quilts, the piece are strung together to form a sculptural tapestry of sorts, each representing a past encounter. The texture of the soft sculpture takes reference from films such as Gentlemen Prefer Blonds (1953) and Gone with the Wind (1939), in which hedonism is used as a coping mechanism for failure in romance. The quilts are individualistic in character, with the scale and extravagance of each drawing ironic parallels to the quality of the person they represent. Xun likens the curatorial proposition here - the end of the world - to the demise of a relationship or dating situation, which would prompt a period of questioning and self-doubt in him.