There are many ways that one might feel they “made it” as an artist or a designer. I think SG Art Book Fair was one of these as well. Participating at Art Book Fair was truly a mark I never expected to reach, and I am thankful for the opportunity we had to participate in.
To start things off, we were rejected. I had rushed the publication of a few things, and sorted things together, and we just didn’t get through the first round of things. I understood there were many people, and we could only hope to be half as good as someone like Holy Crap or Temporary Press. It was humbling to come to terms about the rejection, and I was ready to just wait for the next year to start applying again.
But then an email came in, asking if we were keen to participate in the Artist Support Table, and it would be a smaller table, but at a lower rate from the other tables. The team thought through and thought, okay let’s just try for that. But the work didn’t really get in, and I was ready again to just throw the towel in for next year. I already did after all.
As another month went on, I had one more email come in. Someone had dropped out, and I was asked by the Art Book Fair Team if we wanted to take the spot still. Another team meeting, and we went for it. We transferred the money, and by the next day, the confirmation email came in.
Through the months, Through The Roof acquired a RISO duplicator, through the means of well meaning supporters who knew about our work with creative youth. I started to work on RISO prints, but still, there was quite some work we had to finish before the start of Art Book Fair.
In the month of September, other than celebrating my birthday, I spent the rest of the time finishing up production work, and also fulfilling my duties to my head organisation, Singapore Youth for Christ. It was a gruelling season of extremely long work days, but as October rolled in, the work pace lightened up a project at a time.
Then the weekend of Art Book Fair came. Suddenly.
I needed to rush my social media, I needed to make sure people even knew I was going for Art Book Fair because I barely said anything. My Instagram was still just used for me to meme away. I churned out some content just a week or two before the actual weekend, and there we were, rolling into Singapore Art Museum with our stacks of prints and zines.
It was surreal; the feeling of always being the participant there, overwhelmed by the mass of people and booths. But the set up took away a little bit of the magic. Perhaps the better framing would be, the set up made me realise the boothers were humans too. I’ve always placed the creatives on a high pedestal, and it was a great experience to see the creatives in a state of uncertainty, as they panicked about their own set ups.
During the fair, there were uncountable moments of synergy, and just creative connections firing off like new synapses of a brain. I did not realise many of my friends were actually well established within the creative fields, and representing their creative organizations. I was able to have casual conversations with creative leaders I semi-idolised growing up. I don’t think anything really prepares you for that, but I stole the opportunity to ask about parenting, and about regular everyday life. What if I never get the chance to again, right?
During the fair, I was sharing over and over again the origin stories of how each zine was made, and how we creatively approached the limitations we had set. People listened, and they bought. They saw the posters I had made for fun, and they laughed at it, as how I had hoped for. It was such a trip, being there and being able to share my creative self somewhere, somehow.
But through this whole thing, I still never assumed I got there because I was That Good. I never assumed that I was the most creative, or anything along that means. I just wanted to be a contributor to the creativity in Singapore, and I think the rejection letter helped me understand my role the best. In many ways, if I had gotten accepted the first time through, perhaps I would have assumed I had “made it”. But I know thankfully, it’s a journey I’m going through. The humility to accept that is key for me, knowing who I am, and how easily I could puff myself up.
But, in my Christian experience, it’s God’s hand in this, to teach me so much more in life.
I am extremely thankful to the SGABF team for giving Through The Roof and myself the opportunity to participate. I am sure there were other creative outfits with much more swag and style, and they took a chance with us. I hope I contributed, and I hope I brought some hope to the creatives in Singapore.
Hopefully, we could bring everyone through the roof!