A Childhood Remembered

Best known for her stone sculptures, artist Han Sai Por experiments with new mediums as she looks back on memories of her childhood in rural Singapore.

- MICHELE KOH MOROLLO

Han Sai Por has spent more than four decades honing her craft and is undoubtedly one of Singapore's most eminent sculptors. Her works can be seen at the Istana, the Esplanade, the Singapore Revenue House, OUB Centre, Changi Airport Terminal 3, the National Gallery Singapore, and the Singapore Art Museum. Her creations are also displayed internationally at the National Museum in Beijing, Australian Parliament House, the Chancery of the Permanent Mission of the Republic of Singapore to the United Nations in New York, the Singapore Embassy in Washington D.C., as well as in public spaces and private collections.

A recipient of the Singapore Cultural Medallion Award in 1995, and founder and honorary president of the Sculpture Society Singapore, Han is best known for her striking, monolithic stone sculptures that feature sensual organic forms. Examples include Orchid Journey in Suzhou Park, China, the Seeds series at The Esplanade, and Tropical Leaf at One Raffles Quay.

Han sees sculpture as "an art of life experiences, an art of feeling through touching, observation and imagination, and an art of engineering and technology."