Amanda Heng Liang Ngim (Chinese: 王良吟; pinyin: Wáng Liáng Yín; born 1951) is a contemporary artist, curator, and lecturer from Singapore, with a significant international presence.
She was awareded the Cultural Medallion[8] in 2010 and held her first solo retrospective at the Singapore Art Museum (SAM) in 2011, titled "Amanda Heng: Speak To Me, Walk With Me".
[10] Heng introduced feminist discourse to the local art scene through provocative performance works addressing gender inequality and social identity.
[11][12] Heng's work sought to instigate conversations about women's artistic practices at a time when a feminist framework was virtually non-existent in Singapore.
In this work, Heng explores the interplay between the words "dishcover" and "discover," while examining the preconceived roles of women in the domestic sphere.
This work serves as a commemoration of nameless female infants who fall victim to this practice, while also examining gender issues within the Asian context, where baby girls are often devalued and wives are pressured to produce male heirs.
In this performance, the artist makes symbolic marks on her face while speaking questions and Confucian sayings in front of a mirror, deconstructing language to its simplest phonemes and strokes.
Heng incorporates domestic objects, such as baking dough, washing detergent, and toy alphabets, while the audience is seated and standing around the performance space.
S/HE was performed again in 1995 and 1996, evolving with the artist's appropriation of language, text, symbols, images, memories, Chinese classical music, and Western choral singing.
Tang's work depicted the practice of Chinese men consuming tiger penises as an aphrodisiac, which led to the comment attributing the issue to women's expectations.
The work highlights the sense of displacement experienced by dialect-speaking, kampong-bred women, like her mother, as a consequence of "nation-building," reflecting on the erosion of their social identity as "another woman."
Developed during her residency in Sri Lanka, this work serves as a commentary on the ongoing tensions between Singapore and Malaysia regarding water supply.