Things and Tingling

Film

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Short Form

A screening programme tracing material fetishism back through the hidden histories, labour and systems that produce the objects of desire, revealing how sensuality is entangled with industry, colonialism and power.

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Programme History

Part of Queer East Festival 2025

Runtime: 77 Mins

The desire of material fetishism rarely includes a fetishisation of its production. For example, the rubber catsuit, potent with visceral sensualities, hides the conditions of the agrarian class, the biological miracle of the laticifer cell, or the blood of tumultuous histories. But a real fetishist leaves no stones unturned in their obsession. For them, desire does not exist without a rubber suit which does not exist without the rubber plantation which does not exist without colonial projects in Southeast Asia which does not exist without—

Taking the transformative potential of the material fetish as a starting point, this programme intrudes into the typically veiled processes of fetishisation and opens up the political, historical, industrial and emotional conditions of a fetish’s construction. The (moving image, porn, music video) works in this programme point towards the fluxes of material desires, and the interconnectedness of things. This programme will feature a live performance with Shibari artist Hua Hua and DroneLarvae.

Curated by Bart Seng Wen Long.