Life By The Sea

Life By The Sea
Chinese ink on rice paper
72.5cm x 35cm
Ho Seok Kee (Silver, Established Artist Category, 2018 UOB Painting of the Year competition)
Hassanah Binte Kazali (17 years old, Rainbow Centre Talent Art Programme)
Nuralysya Binte Abdul Hamid (17 years old, Rainbow Centre Talent Art Programme)

Amid the march of urbanisation and economic development, it helps to remember from where we came. Singapore used to be dotted with fishing villages. Fishermen and their families lived and worked on these offshore platforms, known in Malay as kelong. Wooden poles were used to construct a funnel-like structure to guide fishes into the net at the centre of the kelong. This fusion of architecture from Singapore’s early history with Chinese painting techniques breathes new life into a scene long forgotten.