Hong Sek Chern: The World Turned Upside Down

Looking Across Edgeland Plains
Hong Sek Chern is a highly acclaimed third-generation artist with a highly unique pictorial style of painting. She was born in Singapore in 1967, where she received a Diploma in fine art from Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (NAFA) in 1995. She later went on to obtain an MFA from Goldsmiths Collage, University of London in 1998. 


In Memory- Landscape at Pending
Hong had previously painted both interior and exterior spaces of local architecture with Chinese ink for 9 years. This was an attempt to share her art and her perspective. She hoped to create something that allowed her to think about the world, its people and herself, all while trying to share these beautiful surfaces with others and instigate reflection within them. 


City Ramble Central HK
What makes Hong's art unique is her unique style and her play with perspective, especially considering her medium of Chinese ink. She uses sharp lines and angles, utilising architectural blocks and lines and applying them to fine art. This strict structure, however, is undercut by the organised chaos of her work, as she uses linear, non-linear or multi-point perspective, making it all seem as if they're collapsing into one another. This makes them seem almost psychedelic, playing with our own sense of perception. 


From Place de la République to Place de la Nation Paris - Nou Sommes Charlie
This art style reflects an exploration of the tensions between the old and the new, as old landmarks and iconic architectural structures melt into each other. It shows the changing of our times in a world where the old and new are consistently in conflict. Space and time are destabilised through the merging and juxtaposition of urban structures that belong to different times and places. 


Housing Estates
A recurring motif in Hong's paintings are Singapore's residential developments or HDBs. The flats are grouped into housing estates meant to operate as self-contained satellite towns - in the sense that they have clinics, supermarkets, schools and hawker centres within close proximity to the houses. About 90% of Singaporean households own their own HDB flat - a statistic that is often cited as testament to progressive planning. They are a common sight all across Singapore. Hong Sek Chern represents these iconic structures, the pride of a nation, in gradients of brown and black. She partitions the structures and segments them into layers - symbolic of the different lives and harmonious coexistence of a vibrant, multi-racial community that resides in the various blocks. 


Edgeland Plains to Punggol Centre
Hong Sek Chern is one of Singapore's most promising and prominent artists, melding together classical techniques and mediums with her own unique form of experimentation. She has received the National Arts Council Yong Artist Award in 2000, the prestigious President's Young Talent Award 2001, as well as many other top prizes and notable mentions in regional art competitions, such as the Philip Morris Arts Awards. As one of Singapore's leading artists, she was also named Singapore's representative in the 25th Sao Paulo Biennale held in Brazil.