9th Aug
9th August was a 2006 commission from the National Museum of Singapore, via GSM Projects, for its History of Singapore permanent exhibition. It served as the finale of this experiential exhibition. This video spliced together 41 years of National Day Parade (NDP) television broadcasts to produce a seven-minute film, which was played as an immersive video installation on a continuous loop. This was Pin Pin’s first found-footage film.
The television broadcast format of the annual Independence Day Parade (like Singapore's ruling party) has not changed over the past six decades. In kind, neither has the militaristic tone of the annual commemorative ceremony. As such, we were able to find 41 similar parades to splice together. The organising theme was the passing of time, as well as the unchanging nature of the parades.
For the structure of this work, we organised the parades into 5 movements: juxtaposing the press corp with fly pasts, presidents with salutes, cascade of MPs in white, down City Hall steps with Prime Ministers waving, mass displays with the audience. The last shot belongs to a Malay lady looking into camera, does she welcome the break with Malaysia?
The movements are separated by black frames. Each movement has its own theme music composed by Philip Tan.
The work is structured so that the viewer can enter the installation at any point and still have a sense of flow of the proceedings. The National Museum has undergone a revamp, and the work has been taken down.
2006, looped installation consisting of found footage, 7'12″, 4:3, stereo, colour and in black & white, no dialogue
-
(written in 2006)
I am a fan of National Day Parades (NDPs) and have attended it and filmed it for as long as I can remember. However, even as a fan, I have never watched through all the National Day Parade recordings back to back in 10 days. But for this project I did, and several impressions emerge.
I am struck by how similar save for cosmetic changes, one parade is from the next. Singapore may have moved from third world to the first, the style of this public display of Nationalism over 40 years (arrival of Members of Parliament in white, Prime Ministers, Guard of Honour, residential motorcade, inspection of guard, march past of civilians, armoury, military groups etc.) remains a constant. It is so consistent in fact that shot sizes, framing and camera positions of the TV recordings of the event remain unchanged.
I came to see the parade for what it is, an unchanging ritual. It’s filming and our viewing is ritualised too. It is a ritual for the civilians to honour and celebrate their country in a military manner. It is a ritual for the ruling party and its personalities to assert themselves when they make an appearance in their party uniforms. It is a ritual to fire the 21 gun salute to honour the president as he inspects the Guard. Mass displays extolling the values of Singapore (discipline, thrift, harmony, vigour etc) and Singapore’s special brand of multiculturalism are also a must for every NDP, not to mention the show of military might and capability through the armoury column and precision airshows.
The other aspect of NDP that struck me was that the qualities of the NDP also embody qualities of Singapore. The whole event is very organised, disciplined in a precise and militaristic way. Even civilian groups like the SIA girls in their kebayas walk in sync to the beat of military bands. Every parade has a commander (always a man) who shouts out commands to the participants. He tells them when to be rigid, when to be at ease. Where they are expressions of joyful chaos, it is controlled and confined to a portion of the parade, usually in the end when the lion dance troupes are released onto the field.
Watching the footage back to back, I also felt pride. Yes, there is a lot to celebrate about. I saw the nation prosper materially before my eyes. The cityscape became more verdant, built up and less decrepit. People looked less sallow, better fed. Even our armoury looked less forlorn, our first parade military column had all of six tanks. I knew this was the work of the dancing and marching masses, the onslaught before my eyes, and they in turn were shepherded, sometimes commandeered into place by their leaders, also before me.
Relatedly, I was struck by the passing of time. In the 10 days, I saw the same leaders age incrementally before my eyes. As years passed, they became more bent and grey, just as the parades became more flashy, colourful and better funded. Some passed on and were replaced by younger, more dynamic leaders. I even spotted my father, who led a civilian contingent in the 80's, marching past me on my little TV screen at the archives. How vigorous he was then.
I structured the montage so that the audience gets the passing of time theme immediately through the repetition of the same kind of shots, even as we tackle different themes. Very quickly, the viewer latches onto a rhythm. We edited to a beat using different images of photographers (1st movement), presidents (2nd movement), LKY (3rd movement), audience (5th movement) to create the rhythm.
Since this is the Finale of the Singapore History Gallery, I wanted to focus the fifth and last movement on the individual, the proverbial man in the street for whom this whole endeavour (nation building, communitarianism, even the idea of a history museum and the finale gallery) was undertaken. But this man in the street is a woman, a Malay woman, we see her across the decades as she looks forth towards us (her visage taken by the hordes of cameramen memorialising the NDPs in the first movement). As we look across the room at each other, her shyly at us, and we at her, what do we say to each other, what have we lost, what have we gained.
-
Singapore Biennale 2025 team
Curator: Selene Yap|
Production Support: Rachel Zuerte
Audio: Mish’aal Syed Nasar
3D Audio Design & Foley: Yong Rongzhao
Projector wrangling: Eddy & Ali
Fabrication: SpacelogicVideo production credits:
Inuka Video
Camera: Tan Pin Pin
Edit & Grade: Lim Yen80km/h (2004)
Conceived and shot by Tan Pin Pin
Titles by Mindwasabi, KK Ong
Support: Isaiah Lim, Thio Lay Hoon, Suryahti Abdul Latiff, Lo Mun Hou, Jacqueline Loh, Irina Aristarkhova, Singapore Film Commission -
National Museum of Singapore, Permanent Installation 2006-2015
2025 M+, 2nd Avant Garde Film Festival, Reactivating Histories
2025 NTU-NIE, Rippling Effect, Art of Teachers of Art
2024 Thailand Biennale Film Programme
2023 National Gallery of Singapore, See Me, See You
2022 Singapore IFF, Our Tampines Hub
2022 Dunman High School
2019 Dok Leipzig (Retrospective)
2017 Montreal International Documentary Festival (Retrospective)
2015 La Cinémathèque française, Singapour mon Amour, Homage to Tan Pin Pin
2014 ICAS, La Salle College of Arts
2011 Flaherty Seminar (Showcase)
2011 Singapore Biennale