Rubber Dreams of Its Lifetime is an ongoing research-based art project by Bart Seng Wen Long and Kaisa Saarinen, funded by Kone Foundation, exploring rubber as a commodity fetish and a fetish commodity. Grounded in the present that is an accumulation of the past, Rubber Dreams focuses on people across the rubber value chain in Southeast Asia, from smallholders to tire shop employees, factory workers to latex fetishists. It turns rubber into a prism of human experiences that have been shaped by the material since its introduction to Southeast Asia as a colonial plantation crop. The artistic outputs of this project synthesise empirical & archival research with poetic approaches, seeking a path beyond binaristic assumptions. This multi-disciplinary constellation of works will include moving image films, photographic objects, creative non-fiction, performances and the documentary-fantasy film ‘Heveaphilia’.
If you are interested in Rubber Dreams and its creative outputs, please drop an email to bartseng@gmail.com ~~~