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XX Personae II
September 1996
KK hospital, Singapore

“XX Personae II” was a site-specific art exhibition held at the former Kandang Kerbau hospital in 1996. The exhibition was lead by 7 female artists, who strategically chosen this site during this time for their work. In 1997, shortly after the exhibition, the hospital was relocated and renamed as “Kandung Kerbau Women’s and Children’s Hospital”.

“The Path” is one of the seven piece of artwork shown. It was located in a long corridor connctioning two major buildings. The work displayed 12 zodiac signs in their manipulated forms on the windows.

Concept brief

‘The path’ takes on the notion of ‘birth’ (may be ‘death’ as well) and in reference with the site, i.e. a maternity hospital associates with the life of new born babies. During this period of time, I have developed a strong curiosity towards Astrology, particularly the South Indian one. I find its philosophy peculiar.

“Everyone’s life undergoes changes. Astrology often analyses it as the influence of various planetary positions in one’s life. The influence comes in two ways:
1. at the time of birth - the body chemitry is affected by the magnetic influence of the planets. 2. as the planets transit their orbit around the earth during one’s life time. Hence, the position of the planets affect, deter and facilitate one’s past, present and future on three planes of human existence: physical characteristic, mental peculiarities and spiritual aspirations…”

However, ‘The path’ didn’t go as far as the astrological philosophy. With all this different ways of calculating our past and future, our ups and downs, our failure or succeed, I picked up only these, ‘The changable facet of life’ and ‘it is painful.’

‘The path’ was installed along a long corridor which connects two main buildings. They are 12 modified zodiac signs printed on acetate and pasted on the glass windows. During the period of exhibition, the signs caught sunray in sunny days and casted strong shadows on the corridor. The day goes, the sun rotates and so do the shadows. In cloudy or rainy days, light shadows or no shadows were casted.

It symbolises the changable facet of life. I wish all new born babies best of luck.

In response to my exhibition in ‘XX Personae II’, my work ‘The path’ was associated with the KK Hospital.

Updated: March 2004

Brief history

The Kandang Kerbau Women’s and Children’s Hospital in Singapore is currently the largest hospital specialising in healthcare for women and children in the country. Founded in 1924, the hospital has grown from a 30-bed maternity hospital and today it has an enormous scale providing various specialized services such as obstetric and gynaecology, neonatology and paediatric.

When the hospital moved to its present site, the old premises was marked as a historical site by the National Heritage Board, a tribute to an institution which has been the birthplace of over 1.2 million Singaporeans since its inception…

In 1966, the hospital entered the Guinness Book of Records for delivering the highest number of newborns within a single maternity facility for that year, and it continued to hold on to this record for a full decade, delivering 85% of the population year after year.

Along with the relocation of its premises, the hospital has also lenghten its name as well, “Kandang Kerbau Women’s and Children’s Hospital”. However, the locals are still affectionately referred as “KK”.

(Text excerpted from Wikipedia)