The exhibition reimagines Singapore’s post-independence art history through the figure of the durian—a recurring symbol of identity, value, and transformation. Drawing from Cheong Soo Pieng’s 1981 painting The Durian Seller, Chun U Bi’s laser-cut wood series introduces the mythic “durian boy,” a street vendor turned magician who channels the legacy of Singaporean performance art into a contemporary self-portrait. Balancing humor and critique, his journey from fruit to enlightenment mirrors the artist’s mediation between the everyday and the extraordinary. Brandon Tay’s INSULA extends this symbolism into a fevered visual poem, dissolving the boundary between disgust and desire. Tay conjures a hallucinatory tropical landscape where ripening and rotting become indistinguishable—an allegory for the seductions and contradictions of the Southeast Asian imaginary.
Other artists extend this dialogue through reflection and play. Jimmy Ong’s Musang Kings captures the intimacy of communal gatherings amid isolation, while Teng Jee Hum’s Hence in 50 Years transforms national symbols into meditations on endurance and mortality. In Cracking Godalisation (2025), Teng and Chun U Bi collaborate to reframe the artist-collector dynamic through a capsule vending machine dispensing fortune cookies inscribed with Teng’s musings on taste and value. Meanwhile, emerging artist Tisya Wong’s Economy of Scales rethinks systems of measurement and worth, revealing how perception itself can be a form of currency. Together, these works form a layered inquiry into how myth, memory, and market intertwine within Singapore’s evolving cultural imagination.
A special thank you to our Venue Sponsor: Alkas Realty Pte. Ltd.
