Invisible life: Flip-Flops Journeys Perspectives

[Michael Tan, Chinese worker at Flip-flop Factory in Fuzhou, China]

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An Art-Sociology Investigation

Michael Tan in collaboration with Caroline Knowles

Date: 6 November 2009 to 21 March 2010

Venue: NUS Museum
Curators: Ahmad Mashadi & Shabbir Hussain Mustafa

Presenting the outcomes of a dialogue between artist, Michael Tan and sociologist, Caroline Knowles on the world's most popular and best selling foot ware – Flip-Flops, this exhibition presents an object biography of a single flip-flop as a vantage point in studying the landscapes, peoples and processes entangled with it. Made from plastic or rubber, flip-flops, commonly known as ‘slippers’, sandals, etc. are easily recognized by their signature Y-shape straps that are usually attached to the sole. Penetrating beyond everyday utilitarian facets of the flip-flop, Michael and Caroline navigate through China and Ethiopia to animate the life-worlds of a single pair of flip-flop that may otherwise become downplayed by the economics of matter. All the while, a larger question looms - what can we learn about the social world by studying its most taken-for-granted objects?