In Hence in 50 Years, Teng Jee Hum presents a haunting meditation on endurance, mortality, and national identity. A great white shark looms in the dim, murky waters — its recent kill betrayed only by a faint trace of red in its mouth. Nearby, half-submerged and ghostlike, stands the Merlion, Singapore’s iconic monument and symbol of pride.The painting evokes two intertwined episodes from Singapore’s recent cultural and political memory. One recalls an ambitious plan to transport the Merlion to the Venice Biennale — a concept that ultimately remained unrealized, reduced to its barest form as a set of instructions.The other references a moment when a young politician asked his senior colleagues to raise their hands in belief that Singapore would endure another fifty years.Teng fuses these fragments into a powerful allegory of uncertainty and reflection. Beneath its quiet surface, Hence in 50 Years poses a question that lingers beyond the canvas: what will survive the next half century — and at what cost?