Insomniac
Jurong Fishery Port 2017
Laser Ink on Art Card/Photopaper
Variable Dimensions
Crispin Tan
Artist Statement
In a bid to make my weekends more exciting during my stint in National Service (NS), I ventured out to Jurong Fishery Port after learning of its existence. Jurong Fishery Port is...a port...in Jurong. It operates from 2am to 6am for the catch to be unloaded. While everybody else was sleeping at 3am in the morning, the place was charged with energy from scrambling mongers. I was completely mesmerised by how the site was like a little world of its own— machines and forklifts whirring away, uncles and aunties screaming back and forth at one another, uncles and aunties screaming at you to get out of the way lest be drowned in heaps of raw fish.
But when i thought about it—i realised how lonely the work was. The workers had one another but their families didn’t have them. The port operates daily (except Mondays) in the wee hours from 2am to 6am in the morning—contrary to conventional working hours. Insomniac: Jurong Fishery Port is a collection of photographs that attempts to capture the busy loneliness and collective isolation of the mongers.
Artist Biography
Crispin Tan uses photography as an excuse to talk to pretty girls. Crispin Tan (b. 1997, Singapore), is an avid and passionate photographer. He dabbles in both film and digital mediums, but will always regard film as closest to his heart. In his spare time, Crispin also enjoys writing and filming short videos and stories, drawing inspiration from filmmakers such as Christopher Nolan and Wes Anderson. Beyond camera work, Crispin enjoys experimenting in the world of post- processing, often exploring Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Premiere Pro to figure out new ways to capture and tell stories from a refreshing and personal point-of-view. He can be found at https://krispinkreme.exposure.co/, on Instagram @krispinkreme and krispinkreme@gmail.com.