GOFY 2023 ART FOR ARTS’ SAKE
A Cai Png Store at Amoy Street Food Centre
Inspired by Édouard Manet’s A Bar at the Folies-Bergère, A Cai Png Store at Amoy Food Centre reflects the perspective of a typical Singaporean ordering a humble plate of economic rice. The Cai Png ("vegetable rice") shop’s auntie is the hero figure of the piece, intense yet unbothered.
A Sunday Afternoon at Fort Canning Park
Taking inspiration from Georges Seurat’s A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, A Sunday Afternoon at Fort Canning Park reimagines the iconic tableau through the lens of contemporary Singapore. By 2019, one in five families had welcomed a domestic helper into their homes—a number that rose in the wake of the pandemic. On rare, cherished days off, these women gather beneath the open sky, their traditional garments bright against the green, their laughter mingling with the rustle of leaves. They share dishes from faraway homes, stories, and solace. This piece draws a gentle parallel between Seurat’s bourgeoisie and these migrant workers—not in wealth, but in the quiet luxury of community, cultural pride, and the defiant joy of celebration. In their rituals of rest and remembrance, they reclaim the park as their own Sunday idyll.