Red + White = Pink

Year

2022

Series

Girls

Medium

Acrylic, Canvas

About

A piece for Words of Change — an exhibition of 40 messages of love from Pink Dot 2022, interpreted by artists & illustrators into works of art.

Girls

Not a series so much as a persistent subject. Girls keeps returning: faces, moods, colour, character. It is the thread that runs through everything else, the default mode, the place the work comes back to when it isn't going anywhere in particular.

I'm proud to be an ally of the LGBTQ+ movement by contributing this piece for Words of Change, an art exhibition featuring 40 messages of love from Pink Dot 2022 interpreted by artists & illustrators into works of art.

RED + WHITE = PINK was the message I chose to depict in my work. The girl in the painting represents Singapore 🇸🇬 with her red & white hair, crescent moon & stars glitter eye makeup. Her face is half concealed behind a pink mask, perhaps she is hiding.

Even though Singapore had just repealed the law that bans gay sex (effectively making it legal to be homosexual in the city-state), the reality is that many gay Singaporeans are very much still 'in the closet'. The balaclava symbolises a form of censorship, that we still have a ways to go before discrimination among LGBTQ+ people can be truly erased.

Words of Change is a collaboration with Pink Dot for a first post-Pride Month campaign organised by VIRTUE, a creative agency under Vice Media Group.

Pink Dot SG is a non-profit movement started by a group of individuals who care deeply about the place that LGBTQ+ Singaporeans call home. It is a group for everyone, straight and gay, who support the belief that everyone deserves the freedom to love.

This year, Pink Dot 14 attendees expressed their hopes for change by penning down messages on placards at Pink Dot 14. Inspired by these messages, Words of Change aims to carry forward the energy from Pink Dot 14, to keep encouraging meaningful conversations, and inspire change locally.

Artists were invited to create a visual representation that inspires progress in the local community to show that pride extends beyond Pink Dot and Pride Month. Artworks will be displayed all over Singapore at various premises in partnership with local allied businesses in the month of September.

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