Hélène Le Chatelier
Hélène Le Chatelier studied Art in Paris at l’Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts Appliqués et des Métiers d’Art, Olivier de Serres, where she graduated in Fine Art Fresco painting with honours. Since her first exhibition in Paris right after her graduation, Hélène embraced various modes of expression (painting, sculpture, photography, video, installation, writing). Hélène's work questions all aspects of memory, the passage of time and the traces it leaves on our bodies and in our lives, as well as the marks we leave behind us. Interrogating the secret parts of ourselves, she explores a way to attempt reconciliation of our collective histories with our individual memory. Best known for her ink bodyscapes and her works with paper engaging writing, Hélène studies the influence of memory and social context on our intimate and public spaces. Her polymorphic practice explores the influence of displacement on the way we construct / deconstruct our identity, forced that we are to engage and to re-negotiate continuously with our individual and collective memory. In this age of migration and globalization overwhelmed by a constant flow of data, where human relationships are caught between our irreconcilable needs for both security and freedom, Le Chatelier's work exposes the volatility and the fragility of human bonds, even with oneself. She questions the paradox between the incongruity of language and the need to label and define the untold, the unsaid, the not represented here or the not represented yet. She talks about transition, movement, transformation, highlighting the representation of our indeterminate and transitional state as a constant of our human condition.
After living in France and Ireland, Hélène lives and works in Singapore since 2010. Her work entered the MaGMA collection, the NPE collection, the Thaillywood / Taittinger Foundation collection as well as numerous private and corporate collections accross Europe and Asia. It has been showcased in Singapore, Bangkok, Paris, Seattle and New-York.
More info on www.helenelechatelier.com
Koon Seng Road
This neighbourhood’s most iconic road is famous for its distinctive Peranakan pre-war architecture. Every shophouse boasts ornate ceramic tiles, floral motifs, and pastel-coloured exteriors. The majority of these duplex terrace houses were built in the 1920’s, and some have even won awards for their well-designed spaces.
In the past, residents had to contend with flooding in their homes and schools whenever the nearby Geylang River brimmed over during high tide or the rainy season. Tanjong Katong flooded six to ten times a year, and this continued until 1993, when the river was deepened. Today, residents can no longer climb into the river to catch crabs during low tide nor sail paper boats in the flood, but the area still offers a pleasant walk to admire the colourful houses.