Fragment of Artwork

Ong Chan Hao, a 2021 alumnus of the Department of Architecture at NUS College of Design and Engineering, is a photographer, researcher, and designer. He shares more about his photo journal project, ‘Sorry for the Inconvenience’.

Sorry for the Inconvenience is a docu-fictional series that explores the relationship between a modern city and its construction process. The series emphasizes that the impact of architecture and infrastructure extends beyond the immediate context, affecting landscapes through material extraction, manufacturing, labour flows, logistics, and transportation. As a photographer, I find myself reflecting on the pervasive nature of construction in the city, becoming a mundane backdrop in daily life despite its global significance. The phrase “Sorry for the inconvenience caused” is interpreted as an apology to all tethered parties affected by the construction of cities, including locals, the environment, laborers, and their families.

Through re-evaluating past photographs and intentionally capturing areas of development, this series reinterprets the contemporary cityscape. Employing layered photographs in a picture-in-picture format, it creates fictional images that collapse temporal and geographical distances. This juxtaposition prompts viewers to reconsider their perception of architecture in relation to foreign landscapes, and draws attention to intense ongoing construction. Ultimately, it reflects on the overlooked role of construction in shaping contemporary cities and their global impact, presenting a representation of the invisible tethers driving and constructing these cities.

This open exhibition brings together individuals who use photography as a means of visual research that complements their respective disciplines, as well as those who employ it as a form of artistic research. For more information, visit: https://museum.nus.edu.sg/whats-on/pjoc/

Interview with Chan Hao for PJOC