"It has to do with my intention of examining the body, which is an important element in live performances. The body is actually a live organic element that grows and gets old. This aged body – how should I look for the continuity of practising, of using it?"
– Amanda Heng
Amanda Heng (1951, born and based in Singapore) adopts an interdisciplinary approach to explore memory, identity, social relationships and urban transition in post-war Singapore. Gaining recognition in the 1980s for her performance-based works, Heng was involved in the founding of the artist initiatives The Artists’ Village and Women In The Arts in 1988 and 1999 respectively, and is widely regarded as a pioneering figure in Singapore’s contemporary art landscape.
Emphasising everyday gestures over grand statements, Heng's practice stems from a desire to facilitate human connection, often involving visitor participation to engage diverse perspectives. Let’s Chat (1996–ongoing) is a performance that invites the audience to converse while drinking tea and cleaning raw bean sprouts, recalling a communal spirit that characterised pre-modern Singapore. Another Woman (1996–1997), a photographic series portraying Heng and her mother in intimate poses. Growing up in a traditional patriarchal household, Heng’s relationship with her mother was marked by a sense of estrangement due to generational, ideological and linguistic differences. The desire for reconciliation in middle age led the artist to conceive this work. These portraits were restaged several times until her mother’s passing in 2023, documenting a gradual process of healing and reconnection over a thirty-year period.
Heng obtained her Diploma in Printmaking from LASALLE College of the Arts, Singapore in 1988 and her BFA from Curtin University of Technology, Perth in 1993. Her work is found in various collections, including the Fukuoka Asian Art Museum and Singapore Art Museum. For her contributions to the local art landscape in Singapore, Heng was conferred the prestigious Cultural Medallion for Visual Arts in 2010.
Notable exhibitions include Presentation of Works by Benesse Prize Artists in collaboration with Singapore Art Museum (2024), Benesse House Museum, Naoshima; The Part In The Story Where Our Accumulating Dust Becomes A Mountain (2023), Seoul Museum of Art; Ask Myself First (2023), Fukuoka Asian Art Museum; Wikicliki (2021), National Gallery Singapore; 2219: Futures Imagined (2019), ArtScience Museum, Singapore; and Speak To Me, Walk With Me (2011), Singapore Art Museum. The artist has also participated in major international festivals including Nurture Gaia (2024), 4th Bangkok Art Biennale; Every Step in the Right Direction (2019), 6th Singapore Biennale; Belief (2006), 1st Singapore Biennale; One Closer to the Other (2000), 7th Havana Biennial; real[work] (2000), 4th Werkleitz Biennale; APT3 (1999), 3rd Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art, Brisbane; and 4th Asian Art Show (1997), Fukuoka.
Heng has had two residencies at the STPI Workshop in 2006 and 2016, with the former resulting in Asia Society Portfolio (2006), a set of ten prints by leading Asian artists to mark both a decade of the Asian Society’s exhibition and artist commission programme, and the fiftieth anniversary of the Society’s founding. The latter residency culminated in the exhibition We Are The World – These Are Our Stories (2017).
