ChildISH

Inspired by the Learning Gallery at Singapore Art Museum

What does it mean to be a child? ChildISH draws inspiration from ‘childhood’ and responds to the artworks from Learning Gallery – an all-ages exhibition that is sited at the Singapore Art Museum at Tanjong Pagar Distripark.

Look back on your childhood through new lenses as you read evocative poems by local poets Amanda Chong, Hamid Roslan, Pooja Nansi, Charlene Shepherdson and Daryl Qilin Yam. Each poem responds to an artwork featured in the Learning Gallery, which will be located at Singapore Art Museum from July 2024. The poems are complemented with an artwork by local illustrator Tan Zi Xi, featuring drawings by pupils from Ang Mo Kio Primary.

By inviting viewers to explore a rich tapestry of emotions and experiences, ChildISH reminds us of the profound impact that childhood has on our lives. 

Banner image: An illustration by local illustrator, Tan Zi Xi, featuring drawings done by pupils from Ang Mo Kio Primary School.

about the poets and artist

Amanda Chong
Amanda Chong is a lawyer trained in Cambridge and Harvard who explores themes of gender and power in her work as a writer. Her poetry collection, Professions was shortlisted for the Singapore Literature Prize in 2018. Her poetry has been engraved on the Marina Bay Helix Bridge and included in the Cambridge International GCSE syllabus. Her plays include the one woman show Psychobitch which sold out its extended run (Wild Rice, 2023), the musical The Feelings Farm (Esplanade, 2021) and the award-winning #WomenSupportingWomen (T:>Works, 2022) which was also staged in Cambridge, UK. 

Amanda specialises in public international law and has served on the United Nations Expert Group on Trafficking in Persons. Amanda co-founded a literacy charity, served as an adviser to the Youth Court, and received the Commonwealth Points of Light Award in 2022 from Her Majesty The Queen Elizabeth II.

Hamid Roslan
Hamid Roslan is the co-editor of The Second Link: An Anthology of Malaysian & Singaporean Writing (Marshall Cavendish Editions, 2023), author of in all the places I could not find you (self-published, 2022) and parsetreeforestfire (Ethos Books, 2019), a finalist for the Singapore Literature Prize 2020.

Pooja Nansi
Pooja Nansi is the author of three collections of poetry. Her key performance work includes her one-woman show, You Are Here which explores issues of migration through personal family histories. She also wrote and performed Thick Beats for Good Girls with Checkpoint Theatre which opened in April 2018 and explored the intersections between feminism, identity and Hip Hop.

She was a recipient of the Young Artist Award in 2016. She is also the co-founder of Other Tongues, a literary festival of minority voice. She was the festival director of the Singapore Writers Festival from 2019 to 2023. She currently teaches creative writing at Nanyang Technological University.

Charlene Shepherdson
Charlene Shepherdson is an interdisciplinary writer based in Singapore who creates experiences using visual text, interactive narratives and historical archives. The breadth of their practice spans poetry, creative nonfiction, visual art installations and social sculptures with a deep focus on the ideas that exist in the in-betweens. In this nebulous space, they facilitate communities and hold space for them to share their stories—to reclaim, reframe and reimagine their realities. Play is the heart of their practice.

They are currently the Business Development Manager of Difference Engine, an independent comics publisher based in Singapore. They were the Station Control (General Manager) of Sing Lit Station from 2019 - 2022. They co-founded destination:ink—an interdisciplinary open open-mic—under the spacer.gif collective and hosted 50 editions from 2012 - 2017.

Tan Zi Xi
Tan Zi Xi, is a Singapore-based, London-trained Artist. Zi Xi constantly seeks new ways to express herself, exploring media and forms out of her comfort zone. Always striving for meaning in her work; she pushes beyond the decorative into the narrative, be it a personal view of a subject close to her heart or an acute commentary on larger social issues. Apart from her commercial work, Tan has been featured in iLight festival and exhibited with Singapore Art Museum.

Daryl Qilin Yam
Daryl Qilin Yam (b. 1991) made his debut as a novelist with Kappa Quartet (2016), described by QLRS as "[breaking] new ground in Singaporean writing… an immensely sympathetic and humane exploration of our existential condition.” Since then he's been known as the award-nominated author of the novel Lovelier, Lonelier (2021), the National Library Board's nominee for the 2023 International Dublin Literary Award, and the novella Shantih Shantih Shantih (2021), shortlisted for the 2022 Singapore Literature Prize.

He is the co-founder of the literary charity Sing Lit Station, where he presently serves as its Managing Editor. His latest title is the short story collection Be Your Own Bae, forthcoming from Epigram Books in Sep 2024.