Cover of racy Jawi novel published by Kalam Press Singapore as shown by Faris Joraimi. Courtesy of Shubigi Rao.
“...AND YET THE MARGINS ARE WHERE THE UNDERCLASS CAN THRIVE”
A glorious tribute and haunting elegy to shared humanity and communities of print, Pulp III: A Short Biography of the Banished Book marks the midpoint of Shubigi Rao’s evocative 10-year project, Pulp, which explores the history of book destruction and its impact on the futures of knowledge.
Taking the form of a book, film and paper maze, this milestone exhibition is curated by Ute Meta Bauer and commissioned by the National Arts Council, Singapore for the Singapore Pavilion at the Biennale Arte 2022: The Milk of Dreams. Pulp III explores the precarity and persistence of endangered languages, the futures of public and alternative libraries, and the cosmopolitanism of regional print communities that have blossomed and waned in historic centres of print, including Venice and Singapore.
Rooted in the literary movements raised and rewritten by humankind through legendary libraries, half-truths, hearsay, and contested narratives, the presentation is a valuable lyrical manuscript that charts the breadth of human cultural endeavour.