2005 UOB Painting Of the Year - Singapore

Artist: Alvin Ong Liang Jie, (b.1989, Singapore)
Title: The Window
Medium: Acrylic on Canvas
Size (cm): 109.0 x 122.0 cm

Shaped by surrealist influences and the dystopian vision of George Orwell, The Window is a visual articulation of the surveillance society. A window opens out to a cityscape bathed in a peculiar turquoise light. The colour accents the familiar forms of local public housing yet the scene remains curiously foreign in atmosphere. An air of paranoia and hyper-vigilance fills the air. The artist is cleverly ambivalent about the imaginary figure looking out of this window. We should not assume we are being surveyed because it is equally possible that we are playing the role of accomplice to Big Brother.

The youngest person to win the UOB Painting of the Year award at the age of 16, Mr Ong was regarded as something of an art prodigy with this painting. He is pursuing a Fine Arts degree at the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom and continues to practise painting.

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