Rave

Per°Form CoThink Lab Fellow Bussy Temple presents SINEW: This rave explores individuality and fractures within queer communities, reflecting on how these dynamics can be both generative and destructive.

SINEW

:: a piece of tough fibrous tissue uniting muscle to bone; a tendon or ligament.

:: the parts of a structure, system, or organization that give it strength or bind it together.

i come to in a cacophony. patchwork of cries. some feel like a wail, others more like a growl. together, we form a chorus; raw and aching. my face feels numb. stretched beyond its state -- a certain kind of botoxed buoyancy -- an eerie airiness beyond the layer. exposed to the elements, a flap of skin. i can't move it out of a smile.

beyond me are kin, forced into the same fate: thin, delicate layer of skins, sewn together in a tapestry. where my face ends, yours begins. you frown; i laugh. you sneer, i cry. we sing in different pitches, dream in different colours. we await the one who held us here, the one who wanted to separate and examine us.

are you my enemy?

do we see each other writhing?

can you feel the trembles on the edges of your skin when i cry?

Graphic design credits: @eyelidmovie

Photos by Farzanah Hussein (@farzanahhussein)

A collective of creatives organising raves centred around queer, trans, nonbinary and femme individuals, Bussy Temple organically formed through the shared frustration over the lack of non-cis-men queer spaces in Singapore. Their parties serve as a social and political tool to activate the queer imagination and transformative potentials of gender and identity, as well as create safe spaces for the queer community to let go, glitch, and expand our ways of being.

From left to right, top to bottom: Nydia Shiang, Zenon, Minsoo Bae, Bruce Lim, Aki Hassan, Jo Ho