I've Cot You (Sayang, Sarong Baby) is a heritage cum photo documentary project tracing personal Singaporean stories and memories revolving around the cloth cradle, also known as ‘yao lan’. This was a practice that was commonly adopted by Singaporean families to coax their babies to sleep in the 80s and 90s, but have since became obsolete as lifestyle trends and consumption patterns evolve.
The Photographer
'I've Cot You (Sayang, Sarong Baby)' is a personal project by Singaporean Photographer Zinkie Aw (www.ishoothabits.co) Other than producing quirky and hyperlocal conceptual stories, Singaporean photographer Zinkie Aw specialises in Events Photography for corporate entities. Her personal projects usually due relate to habits, obsessions, tendencies and trends. Her conceptualisation makes the familiar become unfamiliar via her slice-of-life photographs.
These photographs often incorporate the colourful and quirky manner.
Some series are flamboyant ways in which she thinks aloud, and these works are the precipitation of careful introspection she has day-to-day, some towards life’s ‘first-world-problems’, and reactions to the society that she lives in.
Previous projects that bear hyperlocal content include ‘Singaporelang — What the Singlish?’ and ‘Republic of Pulau Semakau‘.
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She mentors students on conceptual and personal work photography, and has also judged for various community-initiated contests organised by clubs and societies, and corporate agencies both locally and regionally. Zinkie was keynote speaker for the 6th Singapore Student Photography Conference (2017) and conducted an artist talk 'A Lighter Side of History: Saying More with Less: Interpretations of Singlish' for the National Museum of Singapore (2016).
In 2017, her latest conceptual work 'I've Cot You (Sayang, Sarong Baby)' – a heritage cum documentary photo exhibition – was launched at the new Our Tampines Hub with support of Our SG Fund (MCCY), Young ChangeMakers (NYC), and Noise Matchbox (NAC). The project then roved to Toa Payoh Public Library for the National Library Board. In the same year, she was also co-curator for ‘The Italian Connection’, an 89th Anniversary heritage exhibition showcase for The Fullerton Heritage at The Fullerton Hotel.
Zinkie's work 'Republic of Pulau Semakau (A Story About Trash and People)' was published in The Sunday Times (UK) (2013). In 2014, the work was exhibited as part of the Singapore International Photography Festival (SIPF) and subsequently exhibited in the Dali International Photography Exhibition (2015).
In 2015, Zinkie published 2 photo books, held a 8-month roving exhibition for her conceptual work ‘Singaporelang – What the Singlish?’ and founded the 'Singlish Mamashop' brand.
Aside, Zinkie's flavour of street photography takes on the banal with a quirky twist, often captured in vibrant colour palettes. Her street photography works have also exhibited in the Px3 Prix de la Photographie Paris exhibition (2013). ‘Meet the Candi-Dates’ was award the Honourable Mention in Px3 Prix De La Photographie Paris (2014). Her single photograph ‘Crow Feet and Misters’ was commended in the International Street Photography Awards (2014). ‘Eye’ was a finalist in the Kuala Lumpur Photo Awards (Portraits), which exhibited at Petronas Twin Towers. In the 5th ASEAN-Korea Multimedia Competition (ASEAN Lifestyle) category, ‘Meet the Candi-Dates’ was exhibited as Honourable Mention.
Zinkie's photos have also been published in The Sunday Times (UK), Kult Magazine, Catalog (Singapore), The Straits Times (Singapore), Weekend Weekly (HK), 《 L a V i e ． 漂 亮 》 (Taiwan) etc. and also featured in various online news like Invisible Photographer Asia, Designboom.com, PetaPixel, PSFK and other feature sites.