Haruka Hikita – Independence/Interdependence – http://www.stpi.com.sg/AH-wearetheworldtheseareourstories2017/haurka-leafwithaname.htm

STPI – Creative Workshop & Gallery

Haruka Hikita – Independence/Interdependence – http://www.stpi.com.sg/AH-wearetheworldtheseareourstories2017/haurka-leafwithaname.htm

About Artwork

Heng worked with the STPI Creative Workshop and twelve individuals of diverse backgrounds and communities to produce this truly collaborative piece that encompasses performance as well as visual elements. During her residency at STPI, Heng conducted her performance piece Let’s Chat with the collaborators. Using a treasured object or heirloom chosen by each individual as a starting point for sharing, Heng took a back seat and listened in order to build the mutual trust necessary for her participants to lower their personal barriers and perform their storytelling with the utmost honesty and vulnerability. Each individual then had the creative freedom, under Heng’s guidance and direction, to explore and reconstruct his or her memories using printing and papermaking.

The resulting prints are intensely private, personalised, yet undeniably relatable and universal, woven by the pathos of nostalgia into a tapestry of shared human experience. And for the first time in her practice, Heng pairs a QR code with each print to transport the work from the gallery space into the digital realm at the viewer’s wish. For Heng, the QR codes are an integral part of the viewer’s experience which transforms their passivity into active “participants,” as they enter and delve deeper into each storytelling experience beyond the boundaries of the physical space through short videos, interviews, and slide shows online.

Artist Profile

Known for her works in collaborative and multidisciplinary approach to art, Amanda Heng (b. 1951, Singapore) is a pioneer of contemporary art in Singapore. She is a founding member of artistic and feminist initiatives such as The Artists’ Village in 1988 and Women In The Arts in 1999. The artist is also the recipient of the 2010 Cultural Medallion for visual arts. Her works negotiate cultural values, traditions and gender roles within Singapore’s unique global positioning. Her study in identity politics further contemplates the intersectionalities of history, memory and communication, and how human relationships in the urban condition changes and impacts the body and life. She often collaborates with people of different cultural backgrounds from art as well as non-art fields to examine the roles of the audience and collaboration practices.

Artist:

Amanda Heng

Medium:

Screenprint on STPI handmade Kozo paper; c-type print with QR code for video (04:09 min)

Size:

153 x 138 cm, 167 x 136.5 x7 cm

Year:

2016