Still Life
What happens when an artist picks up her paintbrush after a long hiatus? Does the body still remember what has been lived? Or are the senses dulled by time, the joints fused with experience?
Still Life is an affecting look at life and art-making. In this deeply personal performance, Dana Lam rediscovers and reclaims her journey from the 1950s to the present, through her twin first loves: writing and painting. From journalist to activist, from daughter to grandmother, she confronts the choices and tensions that keep a life in balance. The result is an evocative portrait woven of lyrical prose and the unflinching gaze of an artist coming to terms with her own nakedness.
Directed and dramaturged with verve and sensitivity by Claire Wong, Still Life focuses on how we look at the world, at the past, and at ourselves. How do we see what we see? And how do we look at a life that’s never still in order to make meaning?
Creative Team
- Playwright-Performer
Dana Lam
- Director and Dramaturge
Claire Wong
- Performers
Dana Lam
Jean Ng- Set and Lighting Designer
Petrina Dawn Tan
- Sound Designer
Shah Tahir
- Production Stage Manager
Izz Sumono
- Producers
Claire Wong
Huzir Sulaiman
Reviews
- Press
A rich and deeply moving meditation on the art of life and a life in art. In an immersive set filled with Lam’s paintings, Wong and Lam seamlessly fuse writing, theatre-making and art-making, as Lam looks inward and turns her artist’s gaze back on herself.
Plural Art Mag, SG
[Jean] Ng’s gracefulness and confidence complemented [Dana] Lam’s passion and genuineness. The delivery of the story came across with clarity and resolution, definitely under the care and sensitivity of Claire Wong‘s direction and dramaturgy.
Popspoken, SG
STILL LIFE leaves the viewer wanting to know more about the artist… There is plenty of life left in the concept, which already invites repeat viewings just for the visual art.
The Straits Times, SG