Definition of transmogrify
transitive verb : to change or alter greatly and often with grotesque or humorous effect
Credit: Charmaine Poh Why an invitation? To invite someone is to provide someone a choice to participate or not. To invite provides the space for rejection. To invite allows one to willingly partake in an action without coercion. I choose "invite" to offer someone or anyone the opportunity to decide for themselves what their bodies are willing to go through. I choose invite to give an other access to something which I was deprived of learning about my form and curious about its potentialities. I choose invite to give a sense of welcome and acceptance for alternative expression.
I provide the definition for transmogrify to also give the word some context and even a spectrum of its weightedness and degree of activity.
To change or to alter. These are two different activities! To change suggests a total overhaul. To alter is to retain some of its original content but to change other components. However, this is not always a clear cut activity.
With grotesque or humorous effect These are two different effects, two different outcomes. One suggests reactions of disgust and cringe whereas the other produces laughter. However these too are not always straightforward, definitely more of a spectrum, not a simply either or.
Some other questions then remain:
What needs to change or to alter?
Why does it need to be changed or to be altered?
Being grounded in history is important to me. I feel that it caters to my own activism to remember which is an act of resistance as a minority citizen in Singapore. This is especially since Singapore has a tendency to cultivate a cultural amnesia of our past and the histories of distinct communities.
It is only with a sound understanding of my own histories that I felt compel
led to invite myself and others to transmogrify. To allow the space to create the grotesque or the humorous
. However the transition from form to the formless, the distinct into a transmogrified thing is not always a direct and progressive one. In fact, it is encouraged for detours, revisiting and abandonment when necessary.
Credit: Bhumi Collective
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