ORCHID-WALK, 2024
A Public Intervention in Singapore

In Singapore, where the hybrid orchid Papilionanthe Miss Joaquim is designated as the national flower, the rhetoric of cultural diversity and ethnic harmony has long shaped the nation’s identity. Orchids permeate the urban landscape, functioning not only as ornamental elements but also as symbols of the state’s cultural narrative and ecological imagination. 

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Orchid-Walk documents a performative intervention by the artist in Singapore’s public space. Wearing an orchid costume, I walked through Merlion Park, encountering national cultural symbols, the urban landscape, local residents, and multi-ethnic tourists. These encounters produce fleeting and heterogeneous moments of contact and mutual gaze, through which tensions between identity, symbolism, and everyday life are revealed. Interwoven into the film are scenes shot in Singapore’s Orchid VIP Lounge, featuring hybrid orchids named after national political leaders. These orchids render visible state cultural symbols that are otherwise absent from the urban landscape, allowing them to enter into dialogue with the embodied actions unfolding in public space.

I will return to Singapore in late 2026 to continue this line of inquiry through a residency at DECK Photography Art Center, further developing cross-cultural dialogue around the ongoing research.