Yip Yew Chong’s 60-metre-long work, “I Paint my Singapore”, drew huge 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.

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.

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 art: 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

Transcript and Resources

• Read the transcript: https://biblioasia.nlb.gov.sg/podcast/yip-yew-chong/transcript/
• Read the BiblioAsia article: https://biblioasia.nlb.gov.sg/vol-20/issue-1/apr-jun-2024/yip-yew-chong-i-paint-my-singapore/

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This episode of BiblioAsia+ was hosted by Jimmy Yap and produced by Soh Gek Han. 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.