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About the artwork
Balancing with representations, Hong Sek Chern uses ink to display Singapore’s most notorious shopping and entertainment hub- Bugis. In a spinning array of angles and composition, the buildings take on a geometrical 3d dominance of the rice paper, with the seeping ink that leaves the buildings structural and yet, antiquated. Seen on one side of the image are the unique spiral staircases of Bugis’ backpacker area, but depicted as devoid of their colorful markings and instead, in an almost calligraphic rendering of their details. The artist’s characteristic method of bringing together archaic and modern, especially seen in the juxtaposition of her buildings, as well as her use of muted colors completely transmutes the prevalent loudness and notoriety of the area into a silent entity, displaying the it in a completely new perspective, and generating intrigue and contemplation.
About the artist
Hong Sek Chern (b.1967) graduated from the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, followed by an MA in Fine Art from Goldsmiths College, University of London. Sek Chern’s Chinese ink interpretations of the Singapore urban landscape have won her several awards, including the 26th UOB Painting of the Year Grand Prize. She was recipient of the Young Artist Award from the National Arts Council and was selected to represent Singapore at the 25th Sao Paolo Biennale. Her works are part of several institutions and prestigious collections, including Singapore Art Museum, Taipei Fine Art Museum, and the National Arts Council (Singapore)