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Short abstract:

Multimedia installation

Abstract:

In the Shadow of Ashes is an immersive, multi-media installation that sheds light on a dark chapter of British colonial rule. Engaging experimental modes of knowledge production, this counter-narrative aims to generate new reflections of the Batang Kali massacre, its subsequent concealment by successive British governments, and the amnesiac consequences of these injustices. The project presents newly found archival materials and weaves them alongside first-hand testimony by a victim of the massacre. Automated lights and projectors are activated as the narrative unfolds.The installation is set into motion by an audio composition introducing a dialogue with Lim Kok, whose father was massacred by British colonial officers in Malaya, 1948. This conversation makes reference to the arrangement of materials presented on three overhead projectors that activate in succession during the exchange, highlighting various elements. Once the medium of choice for disseminating colonial propaganda, projection is employed subversively in the installation as an ‘anti-redaction’.The exchange proceeds to reveal a shocking discovery: a cover-up by the British Colonial Office known as Operation Legacy. Abruptly, all lights go dark, replaced by the soft glow of an old monitor screen in the corner of the room. Discovered in the private collection of a diplomat stationed in British-colonised Aden, the video depicts people throwing classified documents on the ground, before setting them alight. “I never heard about this,” responds Lim in the audio piece, seeing the footage, “with that extra evidence… we may have won the [court] case.”