NITE FLITE (2019)
Exhibited at PURE EVER, Y2 Arts, Singapore

Nite Flite probes into the idea of ascension and flight through 3 different time frames and mythical stories – the story of the Islamic Prophet ascending into heaven on a mule-like winged beast, the suicides of members of the ‘Heavens Gate’ cult, and space probe Voyager 1. Drawing parallels from all 3 stories, the works presented here investigates belief, speculation, and hope as methods that drive understandings of ascension and flight, as well as the conception of air or space travel technologies.

In the year 631, the Islamic Prophet journeyed from Mecca to Jerusalem, and ascended to the heavens in just one night. The Prophet’s journey was described to be undertaken on the back of a white-winged, mule-like beast called Buraq. Buraq from the Arabic root b-r-q, which means to shine or sparkle, her name evokes the lightning speed. The Quran alludes to this journey in two cryptic verses but makes no mention of the vehicle. Because the Buraq is absent from scripture, theologians gave her a short shrift confining her to a cameo role in the night journey. Buraq is a creature not of scripture but of lore, and in these writings she is still vague, unfinished thing, uncertain of shape let alone sex.

​In 1992, the members of an American millenarian UFO cult ‘Heavens Gate’, collectively participated in a ritual sacrifice of what they believed to be a holy transition of their earthly bodies, to an extra terrestrial spaceship located at the tail of the comet Hale-Bopp in a heavenly realm.
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​Today, the Voyager 1 space probe continues to fly through deep space, with the hope of finding other alien civilisations. With little to faint communication, it is now the furthest man-made object from Earth, drifting further away from us as we speak.