Step into Tracing Presence, an immersive maze of fabric panels where you can trace your features and leave your mark. Watch as portraits overlap into a vibrant tapestry, with live artist drawings added at select times.
Tracing Presence is a contemplative, participatory installation that honours the quiet power of care. Layers of sheer fabric flutter gently in the breeze, each adorned with hand-drawn portraits of those who shape and support the community. The translucent fabrics create a delicate, immersive environment, inviting visitors to move among the portraits and sense the connections between them.
Visitors are encouraged to contribute their own drawings directly onto the fabric or at a live sketch station by our disabled artists, Si Xing and Hwee Hong, adding to an ever-growing archive of care. Every gesture leaves a mark, and every portrait becomes part of this evolving, shared installation. Tracing Presence offers a reflective, sensory space to witness, celebrate, and engage with the unseen threads that bind us together as a community.
About the Artist:
Syamil Daisuki (Lead Artist)
Syamil Dasuki is a sculptor based in Singapore whose practice explores repair, imperfection, and transformation.
He holds a Diploma in Fine Arts (2013) from the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (NAFA), where he specialised in figurative sculpture and casting. His early training at NAFA informed his continuing interest in labour, care, and the human form — themes that quietly underpin his later works.
After three years as a teacher’s assistant working with students on the autism spectrum, Syamil left education in 2019 to pursue sculpture full-time. His practice has since expanded through experiments with kintsugi, the Japanese art of repairing ceramics with precious metals and natural adhesives, combining found objects and discarded ceramics into assemblages that reflect resilience and renewal.
In 2023, he joined ARTDIS (Arts & Disability Singapore) as an instructor and job coach, supporting artists with disabilities in developing creative and vocational skills.
Si Xing (Portrait Artist)
Si Xing’s passion for drawing began in childhood, tracing cartoon characters at a community centre he visited with his grandfather. Inspired by Marvel and DC comics, he continues to draw superheroes and action scenes, often creating caricatures of his favourite characters. He studied Digital Animation and Games Art & Design, and was active in his school’s Art Club, taking part in competitions such as the Anti-Drug Art Competition and ‘Trees for Life’. He hopes to further develop his drawing skills and gain insights into the creative industry.
Hwee Hong (Portrait Artist)
A caricaturist with nearly a decade of experience, Hwee Hong has drawn hundreds of faces, capturing personalities with humour and charm. Trained in Fine Art in China and later in Singapore, he combines a strong foundation in portraiture and human anatomy with his passion for expressive drawing. Since 2018, he has performed at caricature gigs for audiences of all ages, and now explores digital mediums to experiment with style and expand the possibilities of his art.
