Southeast Asia Queer Cultural Festival 2021: Featuring Khairullah Rahim

16 Feb 2021

Southeast Asia Queer Cultural Festival 2021: “Be/Longings” is a virtual festival that reclaims, reimagines, and insists on LGBTQIA belonging in the region. Featuring works, performances and events by queer activists and artists from all over Southeast Asia.

Showcasing “Twinkling Fortress”, an extension of the collaborative work between Khairullah Rahim and Lunar Lucah since they last presented ‘Intimate Apparitions (Sightings)’ at the 6th Singapore Biennale: Every Step in the Right Direction (2019) where Lunar Lucah was featured with head dresses created by Khairullah Rahim using ubiquitous everyday household objects.

“In this iteration, the implication of home and family as a central point of discussion is further quietened through the absence of site as setting, utilising the bare white wall instead. The viewer is now confronted with a loose string of words drawn over the image; phrases plucked out from conversational exchanges with members of the family sourced from Whatsapp. Twinkling Fortress foregrounds a thin slice of the reality for many queer folks here in Singapore, and probably in many other places too, in thinking about the precarious balance between conspicuity and safety. Our awareness of being present and visible has always been a crucial factor in strategising how we navigate our bodies within an undeniably hostile environment, even our homes.”

SEAQCF runs from 13 February – 13 March online.

Image courtesy of artist.