Clement Space – a new iteration.

I am excited to announce my commission by the National Gallery Singapore, to install a new iteration of Clement Space. Opening on 11 January 2020 as part of the larger Light to Night Festival, my installation will run on until 1 March 2020.

**Clement Space**
**by Dawn-joy Leong**
The city is filled with constant noise, crowds, smells and bright lights. Everyone is affected in some way by the cacophony, and stress levels rise with each shove, push and crunch. For the autistic person with hypersensitivity, the city can be a merciless and savage force against mental and physical well-being. There is an increasing awareness of access to inclusion for Autistic people in public spaces and growing in popularity is the ‘calm room’. However, these are usually designed by non-autistic persons based on medical models and there is little to no detailed consultation with actual autistic end-users.
Instead of the clinically prescriptive, therapy-focused ‘calm room’, *Clement Space* is an immersive experience offering intimate reflections from the rich tapestry of the artist’s own autistic senses, welcoming all into a personal sensory wonderland where curious engagement, safe respite and peaceful restoration co-exist in delicate, tranquil balance. *Clement Space* is a concept and term coined by the artist in her 2016 PhD dissertation, inspired by her psychiatric assistance dog, Lucy Like-a-Charm, a rescued former racing Greyhound from Australia.

Clement Space at the National Gallery Singapore, 2020

“Clement Space” was inspired by Lucy Like-a-Charm, and based on my research in autistic sensory idiosyncrasy and the environment, material / elemental empathy. It highlights the need for spaces of respite, and that these ought to be created in a way that directly speak to intrinsic autistic sensory modalities.

Welcoming the global trend towards ‘inclusive space’, more and more public spaces are offering the “Quiet Room”, a nod to a fundamental, human need, not merely the autistic but all who want a break from the noisome world. However, at the moment, most of these offerings are either designed by non-autistic professional observers along clinical, prescribed frames, or haphazardly put together by well-meaning non-autistics. My immersive installations provide a counterpoint to the two, they are based on years of personal and professional research, as well as the lived experience of many autistic individuals, including my own.

Here are some visual images of work-in-progress, small glimpses of the details that were put together to make up a whole.