Living Legacies is a project that explores the intersection between Singapore’s history, heritage and contemporary visual arts. This year’s edition of Living Legacies: Of Roots and Leaves focuses on our natural heritage. Singapore is endowed with a wide variety of tropical habitats, which support a rich diversity of flora and fauna.
The three selected artists will take audiences on a journey to discover both the historical and the contemporary significance of the country’s natural heritage. Spanning visual images, text, videos and short films as well as tours, trails, and workshops, these experiences will provide various touchpoints for audience engagement and participation, both digitally and in person.
Alysha Rahmat Shah’s work tumbuhan penyembuhan responds to the colonial tradition of illustrating plants and seeks to counter the perception that the discovery of local plants and their various uses originated in colonial times. Knowledge of such plants and their utility, in fact, pre-dates colonialism and has always been central to indigenous wisdom.
Isabelle Desjeux’s work Did Ali See What Wallace Saw? interrogates the role of botanical gardens in containing and controlling nature in order to exploit plants deemed important.
Shubigi Rao’s video work, Waysides, speaks to the deep sense of loss as a result of our disconnect from the natural world. Examining tropical tropes and representations of nature, she unravels contemporary desires that reflect human-centric interpretations of the natural world.
Join us for Of Roots and Leaves to learn more about Singapore’s rich natural heritage, with her contemporary artists as guides to lead the way.
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 Stephanie Yeap and Seet Yun Teng for research and writing work for this project.
Please read our privacy policy and terms of use.
A programme of
Presented by
Supported by
In collaboration with
