Alvin Ong
‘In Search of Tanah Airku’ (In Search of My Homeland), 2015
‘Fresh Takes is an opportunity to engage with the art of our past – a time to recall what artists have articulated in the process of nation-building, and find our own voice against this body of work. “In Search of Tanah Airku” is a response to Chua Mia Tee’s 1955 painting, “Epic Poem of Malaya”. His work belonged to that grand tradition of history painting, capturing people caught in the throes of political awakening. Sixty years on, we live in very different times. My work is a point of departure, a farewell to an older Singapore.'