SINGAPORE: Fancy a quick workout? There’s a new gym that just opened at Aliwal Arts Centre.
But don’t expect your typical health and fitness haunt. As you enter its doors, you will notice something odd about the equipment. The weights for the lat pulldown machines are microwave ovens. The step board is a car tyre. The dumbbells are made of clear resin that reveal flowers. As for the leg press machine … is that a car seat?
The functional gym is actually a new exhibition-installation by the Singaporean art collective DXXXXD. It’s called No Regrets For Our Youth and it will be open to the public until next month. It’s also one of the highlights at one-day Aliwal Urban Arts Festival, which will take place on Saturday (Jan 14).
The title of the interactive work was taken from a 1946 film by Japanese director Akira Kurosawa, and the show itself looks at the idea of gym culture today, said Muhammad Izdi, a member of DXXXXD, along with Angie Seah, Gerald Leow, Razi Razak, Khairuddin Hori, and Speak Cryptic.
“The members have always worked on subcultures, and for the festival, we chose gym culture because it’s something that’s unexpected when one talks about street or urban culture. And because gym culture has been very popular in recent times, we thought it’d be very interesting to approach it.”
CREATING A DIY GYM
In true street culture fashion, their approach was very DIY. Aside from appropriating found objects to create Frankenstein-like versions of gym equipment, they’ve also built others from scratch – the two gym rigs, with their monkey bars, were welded together from scratch.
But while these may look comparatively flimsy compared to the shiny new gear at a proper gym, the collective actually did a lot of research before creating their own equipment. They went to fitness equipment stores and checked out online videos. “We studied how the mechanisms worked and then we built our structures based on these,” said Mr Izdi.
And if you’re still unsure about whether this equipment is safe, he said a personal trainer and nutrition coach, Eat Train Love’s Cheryl Lin, will be holding workout sessions on Jan 14 and Feb 11 at the gym.
“It’ll be very interesting to see how she’s going to use our equipment,” he said, pointing out that it’s exactly this disconnect between what people expect a gym to look like and what they see in reality that was the point of the whole show.
“Function-wise, it’s the same. The microwave (weights) are really heavy, and they really work your triceps. In terms of purpose and function, it’s the same (as conventional gym equipment). The only difference is aesthetics.”
Art collective DXXXXD (from left) Speak Cryptic, Gerald Leow, Razi Razak, Khairuddin Hori, Angie Seah and Muhammad Izdi. (Photo: DXXXXD)
FROM SPORT TO VANITY
And the DIY aesthetic is very much intentional. Because of the nature of fitness equipment, going to gyms has always involved a certain level of risk, he said. “It’s just that in here, the risk looks much more obvious. When the visitors come into the space, they’re confronted by this whole rustic and rugged look, which make them question whether the gym is actually working. So there’s a bit more effort involved here. They have to find out how the machines work, then they can try.”
No Regrets For Our Youth is, in part, a critique and parody of today’s gym culture. Amid the motivational posters and even merchandise, there’s a small screen showing a video that could very well be a nod to aerobics videos. And slyly positioned among the equipment are car and motorcycle rear-view mirrors – to see oneself flexing those muscles.
Small mirrors are everywhere as commentary on the vanity seen in today’s gym culture. (Photo: Mayo Martin)
“Before, people went to the gym for athletics and sports but now it’s become very mainstream – everyone does it. And because of social media, people spend more time taking pictures of themselves in the gym. It’s no longer about the sport but more about vanity, how good you look and how you present yourself to people.”
But the critical nature of the show shouldn’t stop visitors from working up a sweat. In fact, for those who are intimidated by conventional gyms, No Regrets For Our Youth might even be a starting point.
“Most of the equipment here is pretty much quite straightforward. You just have to be playful and interact a lot. You just have to be curious enough to try out.”
