Records of a disruptive era

ARTIST Heman Chong has always been a man of his time, parsing and dissecting the contemporary issues of a rapidly changing world. He daydreams in real time, letting his artistic visions be shaped and skewed by the here and now, unencumbered by either nostalgia or future anxiety.

When the Singapore government ordered everyone to stay indoors at the start of the 2020 circuit breaker, Chong responded instantly by taking a finished painting and willfully "destroying" it by painting an "X" across the image. The "X" is similar to the "X" found on benches, bus stops and other public objects, serving as social distancing markers.

Chong photographed the new painting and posted it on Instagram that very day, as proof of the destruction (or renewal) of the artwork. He then did this every day for the remaining 55 days of Phase One - that's 56 paintings destroyed! The paintings, simply called Circuit Breaker Paintings, now hang on the gallery walls of STPI in his solo show.