Her Family (娘家)

JULIANA CHAN

61 cm x 76 cm

Oil on Canvas

2014

This piece was one of the artworks exhibited at the Artists Society of Singapore Grand Art Exhibition 2015 in conjunction with Singapore’s 50th anniversary. It depicts how the artist feels as a married woman who has left her parents’ home.

“I was inspired to paint this scene one day when I visited my mother and looked out of the window of my family’s home. After marriage, a woman in Singapore often leaves her home to move into a new marital home with her spouse. She would often visit her parents (and siblings) on weekends as she is occupied with work during the weekdays. On each of these weekend visits to my parents’ place, I often found myself looking out of the kitchen windows. I would enjoy watching the clothes flapping with the wind, and the smell of the freshly washed laundry that I dearly missed.

This painting conveys a sense of poignance mixed with happiness. My clothes no longer hang on the bamboo poles since I have moved out but I feel very fortunate to have a complete family. For this painting, I inserted a piece of my own clothing to hang on the bamboo pole, a reminder that I am still a member of this family. These domestic scenes are powerful markers of ‘home’, traces of the spaces inhabited by our loved ones. Every piece of clothing represents each one of us.”