Artist Yip Yew Chong Paints His Story in History

Yip Yew Chong’s 60-metre-long work, “I Paint my Singapore”, drew crowds when it went on display at the Raffles City Convention Centre. Comprising 27 scenes of 1970s–1980s Singapore, the painting merges history, memory and nostalgia. In this episode of BiblioAsia+, Yew Chong explains how he created this work and reveals what he would love to paint but has not.

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What Yew Chong Talked About

01:53 – What “I Paint my Singapore” is about
04:14 – What inspired Yew Chong to paint this 60-metre canvas
08:31 – Yew Chong’s favourite scene in the painting, and his childhood in Kreta Ayer
14:32 – His research process for the painting
21:18 – Balancing historical research with creative licence
23:56 – What he finds hard to paint
24:49 – Painting alone in studio versus in public, and indoors versus outdoors
26:54 – Recent books about Yew Chong and his work: The Art of Joy and I Paint my Singapore
31:12 – What he is working on now
34:11 – What he wants to paint but hasn’t
34:58 – How he overcomes artist’s block
35:24 – What he thinks about Banksy

About the Guest

Yip Yew Chong was an accountant till he became a full-time artist in 2018. His practice includes different visual mediums: murals, canvas, sketches, installations, videography and photography. His public murals may be seen in the streets of Singapore and other regional cities, including Kuala Lumpur, Ipoh and Phnom Penh, while his canvases have been shown in art galleries.

Resources

Woon Tai Ho, The Art of Joy: The Journey of Yip Yew Chong (Singapore: World Scientific Publishing, 2023).

Yip Yew Chong, I Paint my Singapore: Familiar Scenes of Home (Singapore: Landmark Books, 2023).

Credits

This episode of BiblioAsia+ was hosted by Jimmy Yap. Sound engineering was done by One Dash. The background music "Di Tanjong Katong" was composed by Osman Ahmad and performed by Chords Haven. Special thanks to Yew Chong for coming on the show.

BiblioAsia+ is a podcast about Singapore history by the National Library of Singapore.