Amanda Heng is a pioneering Singaporean performance artist whose work since the late 1980s has explored gender, identity, and women’s lived experiences. Entering the art world in her late thirties, she helped establish The Artists Village and later the Women in the Arts collective, fostering a supportive environment for experimental practices during a period when performance art was discouraged by state policy. Her participatory works—such as S/HE (1994) and Let’s Chat (1996)—invite audiences into intimate, often domestic acts that foreground overlooked narratives of womanhood in patriarchal societies.

Beyond performance, Heng uses installation, photography, and public engagement to address personal and collective histories. Through works like Missing (1994), Another Woman (1996–1997), and long-running walking performances such as Let’s Walk (1999) and Every Step Counts (2019), she reflects on themes ranging from labour and crisis to ageing and intergenerational relationships. Her sustained contributions earned her the Cultural Medallion in 2010 and a major retrospective at the Singapore Art Museum in 2011, affirming her central role in shaping contemporary art in Singapore.

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Information adapted from Art World Database.
Photo credit: Courtesy Singapore Art Museum.