Can you start by telling us a little bit about yourself?

A little bit about me is that I love music and sound culture – and it’s intentional that I list those two separately. Love for music is something that was apparent to me even as a pre-adolescent, having very immediate sensations to listening to some earworm on the radio or on cassette. Being conscious of an interest in a broader sound culture came later, when I realised how much I loved reading writings on all things music and sound, attending live performances, and how listening more broadly opened up new horizons.

 

Are there certain themes, formats, or visual styles in art books that you’re instinctively drawn to?

When I was younger I didn’t have a good appreciation of visuals. I thought text was more “important” and “informative”. I guess I was influenced by more rational ways of understanding knowledge and communication. In that way, I used to gloss over books of album art, flipping at a page per second and then rarely returning to them. I’d prioritise books with a substantial introductory essay or other pieces that provide some kind of thematic, visual style or historical analysis. To be honest I’d still prefer these, though I do find that I am today more able to appreciate books that come with good artwork and design without the need for too much text.

 

 

Some things I am drawn to: the visual culture of (black) metal, free jazz, improvised music, experimental music, German krautrock and kosmiche musik, 1990s minimal techno and glitch electronics, Fluxus/Dada/Vienna Aktionist and associated performance art, Japanese traditional tattoos, outsider and folk arts, ethnographic and historical photography of Asia, Africa and Latin America.

 

You've started some publishing projects in the past, could you share a little about them?

My music label co-published, with the UK publisher Minor Compositions, a risograph-printed artist book and CD. The project was titled Entry Points. Resonating Punk, Performance, and Art and explored resonances between punk and performance in the UK and Southeast Asia. It included an essay by Minor Compositions editor Stevphen Shukaitis, a dialogue between Shukaitis and musician, writer, philosopher, and activist Penny Rimbaud, and a recording of an improvised performance by Singapore musicians Dharma and Awk Wah.

 

If your bookshelf had a personality, what would it be like?

 

Anti-minimalist. I take inspiration from Umberto Eco whose vast, personal library was seen not as something in which every single item had to be read but as a realm of possibilities for reference and imagination.

 

Have you ever regretted buying or not buying a book/zine?

Maybe in the past, but I’ve learnt to let these things go. There will always be more and newer books to desire. What matters is that I make time to read what I have with focus and intent.

 

What’s a hidden gem in your collection? (It doesn’t necessarily have to be a rare or flashy one, but one you keep going back to.)

I really like Brooklyn artist Alexander Heir’s Death Is Not the End which reprints his illustrations for punk record sleeve artwork, gig flyers and other designs. It captures a lot of intriguing tensions within punk culture – fast, loud, throwaway, underground versus carefully crafted, deeply personal, and enduring. Heir’s graphic style embraces the ephemeral quality of gig posters and DIY zines, yet there’s a remarkable sense of intention and permanence behind each line. The artwork reverberates with the noisy, chaotic spirit of punk, but there’s also a palpable attention to earlier influences – a rootedness in the visual histories of DIY culture, independent comics, and protest art.

 

In this way, Heir’s collated work amplifies the tensions of a scene resistant to canonisation. They give fleeting subcultural expressions a second life without diluting their urgency. His illustrations oscillate between aggression and playfulness, rawness and refinement – mirroring the way punk is both a space of rebellion and community-building.

 

What is the earliest and latest publication you acquired?

Not really answering you, but I wanna share that in primary school we were making zines – short articles, drawings and comics – about school, computer games, football. It was as pure as it gets – having the impulse to share a thought, feeling, expression, passion, putting it to paper and then sharing it with others. Someone would compile a master copy which was then photocopied and stapled and sold amongst the neighbouring classes at something like 30 cents or 50 cents.

A recent thing I acquired was Matthew Worley’s Zerox Machine: Punk, Post-Punk and Fanzines in Britain, 1976-1988, which is a fantastic historical look at the early links between music, pop culture and zines.

 

 

What do you generally look for at an art book fair? Do you have tips for navigating the space/exhibitors/content?

To be honest I’ve only ever been to the Singapore Art Book Fair, so what do I know besides the fact that I usually spend 4 to 5 hours there and leave with too many bags.

My strategy is to apply for one-day leave from work.

 

Images of Zerox Machine by The University of Chicago Press | Images of Mark by Pixie Tan

—

I Am [ ] & These Are My Art Books is an interview series by Thing Books that explores what makes an art book matter through the shelves of those who collect, read, and live with them.