Amanda Heng is a pioneering contemporary artist, one of the first in Singapore to explore feminist issues in her work and to use performance art to express her ideas. She is well-known locally and internationally for her multi-disciplinary approach to creating art and using it as a tool to bring about social awareness and change. She was awarded the Cultural Medallion for Visual Arts in 2010.

Amanda rose to prominence in the 1990s with her performances and installation works that drew attention to aspects of the lives of women. She was a proponent of performance art when few in Singapore understood it, using everyday activities – walking or drinking coffee or peeling bean sprouts – to get people to reflect on issues such as gender inequality, family relationships, and communication in the contemporary world.

One of her best-known works, which has been staged in several other countries, is Let’s Walk. The performance sees members of the public joining Amanda in walking backwards, using handheld mirrors to guide themselves while holding high-heeled shoes in their mouths. First staged in 1999 as a commentary on the Asian financial crisis of 1997 that saw women being the first to lose their jobs as companies tightened operations, Let’s Walk draws attention to the challenges women face as they navigate gender roles.

Amanda grew up in a traditional patriarchal Chinese family with five sisters and three brothers. She saw how the boys were treated differently from the girls and she began to ponder questions such as: What does it mean to be a woman? What role does a woman play in society and who decides?

‘Feminism’ was not a term she had heard of then, nor did it occur to her that art might be an avenue for her to explore such questions. She once said: “I always knew that I wanted to say something about what was happening around me… I just did not know that it was art that I wanted to do.”

When she left school, Amanda had to get a job because her parents could not afford to send her to university. She found work as a tax officer and kept at it for a decade or so. Then, when she was in her mid-30s, she realised working in an office was not what she wanted to do for the rest of her life.

She quit work and went backpacking around the world. “I was pondering at that time what I was supposed to do with my life. I did not want to take the programmed path, the path that my mother, my sister took.”

She then enrolled in a printmaking course at the Lasalle College of the Arts, graduating in 1988 with a Diploma in Fine Arts. Later that year she co-founded the Artist’s Village – Singapore’s first artist-run space. She then left Singapore to pursue further studies in art in the UK and Australia. She obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree and embarked on the next stage of life as a fulltime artist.

In 1999, Amanda formed the Women in The Arts (WITA) collective, the first artists-run women’s collective in Singapore. She had noticed that while there were many other women artists in Singapore, they were mostly not getting any recognition. They had no platforms for exhibiting their works and sharing their thoughts. There was no sense of being part of a community of women artists, of having a collective voice.

WITA was formed as a platform for women artists who had genuine interest in working together. Amanda explained: “There was no leader as everyone had their own specialties. I refused to get the organisation registered because I wanted to avoid having a traditional patriarchal structure which tends to be hierarchical.”

Amanda invited women artists to take their own initiative and work together. Exhibitions such as Women and Their Arts (1991), Women About Women (1997), and HouseWORK (2003) were held in Singapore to foster the exchange of ideas among local as well as international women artists.

Amanda’s artworks have been exhibited in many countries, including the United States, Australia, UK, Japan, Cuba, Germany, China, Indonesia, Philippines, Poland, Sweden, and Canada.

She has also been involved in art education by organising and speaking at many public forums, workshops, and art events. She has supervised students in the MA programme in LASALLE College of the Arts, lectured at Nanyang Technology University and the National Institute of Education, and SOTA.

In 2020, she was the first Singaporean to win the Benesse Prize, which came with an award of cash and the chance for her work to be exhibited at Japan’s famous Benesse Art Site Naoshima.

In recent years, Amanda has focused on issues such as the ageing process and the reality of death. She has been taking care of her ailing mother and adjusting to the fact that “my body cannot continue like the old days, and I have to find ways to deal with this in my practice”.

“The whole practice of making art is about an individual struggling with her inner thoughts and trying to make sense of this conflict. It is about finding that real and true you, and this process is still ongoing for me. That is why being an artist is a lifelong job, and there is no such thing as retiring.”

Amanda Heng is a pioneering contemporary artist, one of the first in Singapore to explore feminist issues in her work and to use performance art to express her ideas. She is well-known locally and internationally for her multi-disciplinary approach to creating art and using it as a tool to bring about social awareness and change. She was awarded the Cultural Medallion for Visual Arts in 2010.

Amanda rose to prominence in the 1990s with her performances and installation works that drew attention to aspects of the lives of women. She was a proponent of performance art when few in Singapore understood it, using everyday activities – walking or drinking coffee or peeling bean sprouts – to get people to reflect on issues such as gender inequality, family relationships, and communication in the contemporary world.

One of her best-known works, which has been staged in several other countries, is Let’s Walk. The performance sees members of the public joining Amanda in walking backwards, using handheld mirrors to guide themselves while holding high-heeled shoes in their mouths. First staged in 1999 as a commentary on the Asian financial crisis of 1997 that saw women being the first to lose their jobs as companies tightened operations, Let’s Walk draws attention to the challenges women face as they navigate gender roles.

Amanda grew up in a traditional patriarchal Chinese family with five sisters and three brothers. She saw how the boys were treated differently from the girls and she began to ponder questions such as: What does it mean to be a woman? What role does a woman play in society and who decides?

‘Feminism’ was not a term she had heard of then, nor did it occur to her that art might be an avenue for her to explore such questions. She once said: “I always knew that I wanted to say something about what was happening around me… I just did not know that it was art that I wanted to do.”

When she left school, Amanda had to get a job because her parents could not afford to send her to university. She found work as a tax officer and kept at it for a decade or so. Then, when she was in her mid-30s, she realised working in an office was not what she wanted to do for the rest of her life.

She quit work and went backpacking around the world. “I was pondering at that time what I was supposed to do with my life. I did not want to take the programmed path, the path that my mother, my sister took.”

She then enrolled in a printmaking course at the Lasalle College of the Arts, graduating in 1988 with a Diploma in Fine Arts. Later that year she co-founded the Artist’s Village – Singapore’s first artist-run space. She then left Singapore to pursue further studies in art in the UK and Australia. She obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree and embarked on the next stage of life as a fulltime artist.

In 1999, Amanda formed the Women in The Arts (WITA) collective, the first artists-run women’s collective in Singapore. She had noticed that while there were many other women artists in Singapore, they were mostly not getting any recognition. They had no platforms for exhibiting their works and sharing their thoughts. There was no sense of being part of a community of women artists, of having a collective voice.

WITA was formed as a platform for women artists who had genuine interest in working together. Amanda explained: “There was no leader as everyone had their own specialties. I refused to get the organisation registered because I wanted to avoid having a traditional patriarchal structure which tends to be hierarchical.”

Amanda invited women artists to take their own initiative and work together. Exhibitions such as Women and Their Arts (1991), Women About Women (1997), and HouseWORK (2003) were held in Singapore to foster the exchange of ideas among local as well as international women artists.

Amanda’s artworks have been exhibited in many countries, including the United States, Australia, UK, Japan, Cuba, Germany, China, Indonesia, Philippines, Poland, Sweden, and Canada.

She has also been involved in art education by organising and speaking at many public forums, workshops, and art events. She has supervised students in the MA programme in LASALLE College of the Arts, lectured at Nanyang Technology University and the National Institute of Education, and SOTA.

In 2020, she was the first Singaporean to win the Benesse Prize, which came with an award of cash and the chance for her work to be exhibited at Japan’s famous Benesse Art Site Naoshima.

In recent years, Amanda has focused on issues such as the ageing process and the reality of death. She has been taking care of her ailing mother and adjusting to the fact that “my body cannot continue like the old days, and I have to find ways to deal with this in my practice”.

“The whole practice of making art is about an individual struggling with her inner thoughts and trying to make sense of this conflict. It is about finding that real and true you, and this process is still ongoing for me. That is why being an artist is a lifelong job, and there is no such thing as retiring.”