A Letter to Love : a zine on display in the 25x25 exhibition at SMU de Suantio Gallery during the 2025 Arts Fest
This is a pdf capture of the zine created by Tanmayee Mhapankar for the 2025 Arts Fest 25x25 exhibition which contains a poetry inspired by Chua Ek Kay’s artwork "In Abeyance (Circular Road)" (2002).
"The artwork that inspired this poem, In Abeyance (Circular Road) (2002) by Chua Ek Kay, depicts the loss of identity that can follow urbanisation, through the lens of architecture. I tried to apply that process to the human psyche as one grows over the years. My poem talks about how maybe our identity is never truly ours, as so much of it is embedded within bits of the past and it tends to blur over the years, much like the painting. We do our best to hold on to the nostalgia connecting us to who we used to be, but these memories often clash with who we are, leaving us a culmination of shells of our past selves.
Though the poem depicts my personal experience with this struggle, readers are encouraged to think about habits or memories that cemented who they were, and how those experiences vary and shaped who they are today." - Tanmayee Mhapankar, Year 4, School of Social Sciences
"The artwork that inspired this poem, In Abeyance (Circular Road) (2002) by Chua Ek Kay, depicts the loss of identity that can follow urbanisation, through the lens of architecture. I tried to apply that process to the human psyche as one grows over the years. My poem talks about how maybe our identity is never truly ours, as so much of it is embedded within bits of the past and it tends to blur over the years, much like the painting. We do our best to hold on to the nostalgia connecting us to who we used to be, but these memories often clash with who we are, leaving us a culmination of shells of our past selves.
Though the poem depicts my personal experience with this struggle, readers are encouraged to think about habits or memories that cemented who they were, and how those experiences vary and shaped who they are today." - Tanmayee Mhapankar, Year 4, School of Social Sciences