Living Legacies is a new digital collaboration between the National Heritage Board and Plural Art Mag for the Singapore HeritageFest 2021, that explores the intersection between Singapore’s history, heritage and contemporary visual arts.
This year’s inaugural edition of Living Legacies: In Sickness and In Health, turns the focus onto health, wellness and healing. Part of Singapore’s inventory of Intangible Cultural Heritage, traditional healing practices across different cultures have long been passed down and inherited from our ancestors. Today, amidst the burgeoning wellness industry and despite the dominance of Western medicine, traditional healing is still practiced and, in fact, gaining popularity for its holistic approach towards wellness.
Responding to aspects of health and wellness across different ethnicities and cultures, three contemporary artists present newly commissioned digital artworks.
Adeline Kueh’s Roadside Beauties and other tales of healing explores homemade herbal remedies shared amongst family and friends, that boost immunity, relieve “heatiness” and cleanse the body.
Drawing from modern wellness and image culture, Divaagar’s soft salves follows fictional influencer and model Vita, who shares her encounters with Ayurveda and undergoes a journey of learning about holistic wellness.
ila explores the practice of dispelling or expelling ‘wind’ (or angin) from the body and mediates our personal and collective relationships with wind.
Step into the world of Singapore’s Living Legacies, as viewed through the eyes of her cutting-edge contemporary artists.
About Plural
Plural Art Mag is a dynamic online art magazine with a focus on Southeast Asian modern and contemporary art, run by (Plu)ral Art LLP. Plural Art Mag is the only Southeast Asian art platform that marries art historical perspectives with entertaining content on art-related food, fashion and travel.
In addition to its editorial work, (Plu)ral Art LLP owns and operates Shop Plural, an online store featuring original art and art objects by local and regional artists.
About the Singapore HeritageFest
A festival by the people, for the people, Singapore HeritageFest (SHF) has played an important role in highlighting our rich national heritage and culture over the past 18 years. SHF goes beyond celebrating our community once a year, to also playing a more active role in inspiring all to keep heritage alive.
All of us at SHF firmly believe that heritage holds the timeless power to connect us all. Come join us and our amazing heritage heroes on this wonderful journey to keep our heritage alive together. To find out more about the SHF, visit us here.
Our thanks to Marcia Ong for videography work and Michelle JN Lim and Seet Yun Teng for research and writing work for this project.
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Brought to you by
Plural Art Mag
In collaboration with the
National Heritage Board
Part of the
Singapore HeritageFest
