DO NOT ____________
2022, photo series
Do Not is a series of images that examines and reimagines signs found on the Instagram account PublicNoticesSG – a repository of citizen-generated signage in Singapore started by photographer Kevin Lee as part of his project, Singapore On Public Notice. These signs, often found in undisclosed public locations or HDB estates, document complaints about perceived public nuisances. Unable to discern the offenders and left solely to react to the tracks of these ‘crimes’, these notices often express blank frustration targeted at non-specific audiences, usually with sarcastic or antagonistic language.
Drawing purely from each sign’s semantics, each frame recreates the sign’s accused offense as absurd, crimescene-like snapshots, parodying their confrontational tone. Visually referencing its mentioned elements (e.g. Singaporean anti-theft advisories), these scenes superficially document the unseen drama speculated in HDB estates. However, written from the perspective of the offended, these unreliable messages charge them with collective public imagination. When these signs are viewed online – branded as a study of ‘Singaporean aesthetics’ – viewers are detached from their original contexts, instead largely indulging in these signs’ entertainment value asaccusations of mischief. These images – staged and aestheticised as channeled through an imagined delinquent – create micro-narratives that reflect imagined assumptions viewing the signs online, although in reality overshadowing the actual concerns to residents that spawned these signs in the first place, or them as vessels of comfort.
Questioning the degree of events that warrant a public sign, and the purpose and origins behind these complaints – whether they result from genuine mischief, or actual frustration – this series examines the Singaporean spectacle of complaints as both documents and projections of comfort, altogether picturing power dynamics and agency in public spaces and communal living.
1. USE FOREHEAD
2. DEAR NEIGHBOURS…WAH! TEAR SOME MORE!
3. Hi To the one that vent his/her anger on the lift, I know you are angry. I know you are pissed. So am I. I am also affected by the renovations while WFH every weekday. But I hope you are mindful of your language and what you write in the lift. Drawing obstructive fingers is not helping the renovation stop. Neither does it help the already sombre mood while WFH. If you are unhappy tell the renovation company. Or write nicely. Doodling around, Solves nothing and made us more depressed. So, I kindly ask you to please stop. Thanks, your friendly neighbour.
4. Would You STOP clapping hands early in the morning?
5. Don’t Crush the Hershey’s! Will Call Police If Caught!
6. PLEASE STOP THROWING YOUR MILO PACKETS EVERYWHERE! Have some basic human decency to dispose your trash in the damn rubbish bins. Milo packets & whatever you consume. You are ruining the beautiful image of this neighbourhood. If you continue this behaviour, I will literally find out who you are and throw all your trash infront of your door. STOP YOUR NONSENSE / TOMORROW HORLICKS
7. TO THE PERSON DRINKING RED BULL AT THE STAIRCASE / EVERYONE IS TIRED BUT AFTER YOU FINISH YOUR RED BULL YOU SHOULD BE RECHARGED RIGHT? IF SO CAN YOU JUST WALK A FEW STEPS TO THE BIN & DISPOSE OF YOUR CAN? I ALMOST FELL FROM THE STEPS WHEN I CAME DOWN THIS MORNING BECAUSE IT WAS A SHORT CAN THE STEPS BLOCKED IT FROM BEING SEEN. I ALMOST SPRAINED MY WRIST WHILE TRYING TO HOLD MYSELF. PLS BE CONSIDERATE. THE NEXT TIME I SEE ANOTHER CAN IT WILL BE YOUR LITTERBUG FACE IN THE WALL FACADE OF THE ENTIRE BUILDING.
8. BLIND CORNER / MAKE SOME SOUND…
9. Don’t Steel Cloths
10. Stop Throwing Your Cigarette Ashes Down Every Fucking Day. This is My Last Warning. I Will Find You. (I WOULD LOVE TO SEE YOU TRY :P)
11. Dear Neighbours, Please Use Ashtrays instead of burning our laundry. We are smokers too.
12. In Loving Memory - Tim The Trolley 2018-2020. He was used, he was abused, left alone on Pasir Ris Drive Deuce. Please, please, please, let us not misuse.