In her installation "The Moon is Wet," Charmaine Poh weaves together stories of time, tides, female desire, and divine energy. Her films move between Singapore’s gleaming financial district, a center of global trade, the endangered mangrove forests, and the outskirts of the city, among other places. The intertidal zone, with its fragile ecosystem, is undergoing significant transformation due to Singapore’s ever-growing water demands and ongoing land reclamation.
Clean water is a precious and politically sensitive resource: to this day, millions of liters of river water—about half of Singapore's total supply, are pumped daily through pipelines from Malaysia. Singapore’s economic rise is thus closely tied not only to the inflow of water but also to the influx of labor. Poh’s video installation tells the story of water alongside the histories of migrant women who came to Singapore as domestic workers and nannies. Among them were the Majie, unmarried women from southeastern China, who, unless living with their employers, formed tight-knit communities that lasted until the 1970s. These women supported one another and formed sisterhoods, and at times, same-sex relationships.
The video "The Moon is Wet" revives these nearly forgotten stories. Three projection screens form a triangle around the audience, who sit at the center, able to see only part of the three filmic narratives at any given time. Each story is told by a different protagonist, in one of the different languages spoken in Singapore. Though the women never meet, their stories reach across time and space, forming a shared narrative in which they question themselves, mourn, and reflect on what Singapore means to them. The first story centers on the sea goddess Mazu, originally from the Hokkien-speaking province of Fujian in southern China. Worshiped by sailors and migrants, Mazu grieves over the destruction of the environment and the exploitation of nature. Poh presents scenes from contemporary Singapore: a Mazu temple in the heart of the financial district, tidal zones and mangroves damaged by land reclamation, data centers that require water as a coolant, and undersea Internet cables. The second protagonist is a Majie, who prays to Mazu and, in the style of a Cantopop music video, reflects wistfully on her life and unfulfilled love. The third is a queer domestic worker who talks about her love for a woman in Singapore.
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In her installation "The Moon is Wet," Charmaine Poh weaves together stories of time, tides, female desire, and divine energy. Her films move between Singapore’s gleaming financial district, a center of global trade, the endangered mangrove forests, and the outskirts of the city, among other places. The intertidal zone, with its fragile ecosystem, is undergoing significant transformation due to Singapore’s ever-growing water demands and ongoing land reclamation.
Clean water is a precious and politically sensitive resource: to this day, millions of liters of river water—about half of Singapore's total supply, are pumped daily through pipelines from Malaysia. Singapore’s economic rise is thus closely tied not only to the inflow of water but also to the influx of labor. Poh’s video installation tells the story of water alongside the histories of migrant women who came to Singapore as domestic workers and nannies. Among them were the Majie, unmarried women from southeastern China, who, unless living with their employers, formed tight-knit communities that lasted until the 1970s. These women supported one another and formed sisterhoods, and at times, same-sex relationships.
The video "The Moon is Wet" revives these nearly forgotten stories. Three projection screens form a triangle around the audience, who sit at the center, able to see only part of the three filmic narratives at any given time. Each story is told by a different protagonist, in one of the different languages spoken in Singapore. Though the women never meet, their stories reach across time and space, forming a shared narrative in which they question themselves, mourn, and reflect on what Singapore means to them. The first story centers on the sea goddess Mazu, originally from the Hokkien-speaking province of Fujian in southern China. Worshiped by sailors and migrants, Mazu grieves over the destruction of the environment and the exploitation of nature. Poh presents scenes from contemporary Singapore: a Mazu temple in the heart of the financial district, tidal zones and mangroves damaged by land reclamation, data centers that require water as a coolant, and undersea Internet cables. The second protagonist is a Majie, who prays to Mazu and, in the style of a Cantopop music video, reflects wistfully on her life and unfulfilled love. The third is a queer domestic worker who talks about her love for a woman in Singapore.
Charmaine Poh, The Moon is Wet, 2025
Three-channel digital video installation
24’29’’
© Charmaine Poh
Further artworks from this exhibition
Introduction of the exhibition
300
GOOD MORNING YOUNG BODY, 2021-23
301
public solitude, 2022
302
Majie, 2016
303
What’s softest in the world rushes and runs over what’s hardest in the world, 2024
305