Collection Online
Search the Collection 搜索M+藏品
M+, Hong Kong. Gift of Bas Princen, 2018, © Bas Princen
Bas Princen 巴斯．普林森
Hinterland Series—Straits (Sand Trade) 腹地系列──海峽（海沙貿易）
2013
This photograph portrays the transportation of sand as an imported resource involved in Singapore’s land-reclamation efforts. Sand barges, shown here in the Singapore Strait, arrive from nearby sites such as the Johor River and more remote locations such as Myanmar and China. Varying in size, each barge carries between 1,500 and 15,000 tons of sand to Singapore to enable urban expansion. Following a succession of bans on sand trade by Singapore’s neighbours, sand increasingly travels long distances, while illegal sand trafficking continues.
The photograph is part of Bas Princen’s Hinterland series, which depicts landscapes and infrastructure on Singapore’s periphery. Trained as a designer, Princen uses the camera as a tool to investigate spatial phenomena. His work blends elements together in images that collapse objects and contexts or create ambiguity between the natural and the artificial. He focuses primarily on buildings, landscapes, and infrastructure, often depicting humans’ impact on territories, whether through construction, demolition, or appropriation.
Loading