Crossing

In the work on the left, Crossing, three figures sit together in a boat, held close within the frame. No one looks at each other. They share the same space, but each figure faces a different direction. The scene gives no clear sense of destination or direction. It feels suspended as if the crossing here is less about travel than a state of being.

Lai Foong Moi first showed this work in 1965, when Singapore and Malaysia were separating. Curiously, that same year, she painted and exhibited a different work bearing the same title. At a time when ideas of belonging and home were changing across the region, Lai could have been thinking through these very questions. She herself had lived and worked between both places, exhibiting in Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and Penang.

The painting does not depict the political changes directly. Instead, Lai injects the scene with a shared sense of uncertainty. What does it mean to experience change collectively but also individually?