Adeline Kueh b. 1971
"The focus of the works made during the [r]esidency is about the transformative acts against forgetting. Ideas around intimate/invisible labour within the home were used as departure points."
– Adeline Kueh
Artist Biography
Adeline Kueh (b. 1971, Sarawak, Malaysia, based in Singapore) creates works that explore intimate labour and the politics of care. With a practice that spans installation, photography, performance and crafting techniques, she invites viewers to reconsider their relationship with everyday rituals and objects—especially within domestic spaces—that hold cultural narratives and emotional value.
Kueh’s personal history and matrilineal practices are key elements in her work. From cut fruits to sewing techniques and healing remedies, her works survey acts of care centred on communal and intergenerational engagement. Works such as The Sun, the Moon and the Earth (2023) and Soft is the roof of my houses (I, II) (2024) feature patchwork quilts and fabric rosettes handcrafted from cloth scraps commonly found in homes across Southeast Asia. Integral to Kueh's practice is the participation of her audience. For example, visitors are frequently invited to make rosettes with her, and stories of kinship and the knowledge of a vanishing trade are shared during these sessions.
Kueh obtained her BA in Critical Studies in Fine and Performing Arts from Simon Fraser University, Burnaby and her MA in Literature and Communications from Murdoch University, Perth.
Notable exhibitions include The Fabulous Stories to Save the Green Planet (2024), Daegwallyeong Training Center, Gyeongpo; threads (2023), Institute of Contemporary Arts Singapore; Serumpun (2022), Borneo Cultures Museum, Kuching; The senses (2022), Gangneung Art Centre; Love in the time of COVID-19 (2020), Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide; 2219: Futures Imagined (2019), ArtScience Museum, Singapore; and The Senses (2019), Total Museum of Contemporary Art, Seoul. The artist has also participated in major international festivals including SunShip (2021), CityXVenice Italian Virtual Pavilion, 17th Biennale Architettura, Venice; and Word of Mouth (2019), pop-up exhibition at the 58th Venice Biennale.
The artist had her residency at the STPI Workshop in 2021, resulting in the group exhibition On Time: Adeline Kueh, Jason Lim, Ian Woo and Zul Mahmod (2021), curated by Marc Gloede.