Renée Ting

Instagram: @reneetzj

Renée Ting is the founding director of the Singapore Art Book Fair, an annual multi-day festival specialising in contemporary art books and magazines. From 2010 to 2017, she was the Manager and Creative Director of independent bookstore BooksActually, where she helmed their publishing arm, as well as some of their major projects including Singapore’s inaugural Book Vending Machine and the 24-Hour Bookstore Event. She co-produced 2017 A Design Film Festival , and has shown at various exhibitions including The Deepest Blue (2018, D/SINI), and Fantasy Island (2018, I_S_L_A_N_D_S).

What is your idea of perfect happiness?: When every aspect of my life is in a weird balance - where nothing is going too well, and nothing is falling apart.

Which living person do you most admire?: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Joan Didion and Ruth Bader Ginsberg. Every other person I admire is dead, maybe that's why I admire them.

What is your greatest extravagance?: My first bookshelf.

What is your current state of mind?: I feel ready to move on from all the bullshit I've had to deal with, I feel ready to piece my life back together.

What do you consider the most overrated virtue?: Optimism.

Which words or phrases do you most overuse?: "Like."

Which talent would you most like to have?: A super memory, and the ability to speed read.

If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?: I would like to learn how to say No more often to things and people that aren't good for me.

What do you consider your greatest achievement?: Organising the Singapore Art Book Fair.

If you were to die and come back as a person or a thing, what would it be?: All 7 volumes of Marcel Proust's In Search of Lost Time, or a Rothko painting.

Where would you most like to live?: I’m pretty happy with my home right now, I don’t think I’d like to be anywhere else.

What is your most treasured possession?: My second bookshelf, I built it and named it Boris.

What is your favorite occupation?: I would like to be a lighthouse keeper.

What is your most marked characteristic?: I’m extremely tolerant.

What do you most value in your friends?: Reliability.

Who are your favorite writers?: Jeanette Winterson, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Tania De Rozario, Cyril Wong, Rainer Maria Rilke, Carl Sagan.

Who is your hero of fiction?: Ivan Karamazov.

Which historical figure do you most identify with?: I'm not sure if she counts as counts as a historical figure, but Nora Ephron and I seem to have gone through similar things in our personal lives.

Who are your heroes in real life?: My dad. He is tolerant, humble, patient, and tenacious.

What is it that you most dislike?: Passive-aggression, ego, and the colour orange.

What is your greatest regret?: I don't regret things, regret is a waste of time and headspace.

What is your motto?: Don't give bullshit, don't take bullshit.