Chun U Bi’s series of cnc-cut wood artworks reimagines the legacy of Singapore’s post-independence art history through the figure of a durian boy. Drawing inspiration from Cheong Soo Pieng’s painting, the humble street vendor is transformed into a mythic magician-like character in Chun U Bi’s artworks. The durian boy, emerging from within the thorned fruit, becomes a symbolic self-portrait of the artist—an homage to Lee Wen’s iconic Yellow Man and his enduring vision as a performance artist. Various stages of the durian boy’s artistic journey is depicted in a tongue-and-cheek humour and he eventually arrives at ‘enlightenment’, balancing precariously on a durian with a goose perched atop his head. The latter is forever immortalised on the face of a one durian dollar coin, which serves as an allegory of the art market and art as commodity. Chun U Bi’s works are both a tribute and a renewal: the durian boy who channels the lineage of Singaporean performance art into a contemporary myth of creation—where the artist constantly mediates between the everyday and the extraordinary.

The gold leaf is reminiscent of traditional craft techniques of gilding buddha statues in gold in hindu temples around Asia.