The Academy Awards

To paraphrase george orwell, if there’s hope for the future, it probably lies with the next generation. Cynics may dismiss this as the rosy idealism of youth but, hey, that can invigorate the imagination like nothing else – does greta thunberg ring a bell? Keng yang shuen spotlights seven up-and-coming singapore students from different artistic disciplines whose works make us dream once more.

- Keng Yang Shuen

JAYA KHIDIR

24, PHOTOGRAPHER, BA IN FASHION MEDIA AND INDUSTRIES, LASALLE COLLEGE OF THE ARTS

Who or what inspires and informs your work?

“In my formative years in polytechnic (he studied film), I looked up to many filmmakers and artists such as Yasmin Ahmad, Jean-Michel Basquiat, David Lynch, Yasujiro Ozu, Johannes Vermeer, Jean-Luc Godard, Stanley Kubrick and many more. The manner in which they present their work inspired me a lot and learning “the why” gives a lot of insight as to how they, coupled with their own perspectives, arrived at a certain aesthetic and narrative. In that sense, there is some form of classicism in the way that they present their work, with the emphasis on form, simplicity, proportion, clarity of message, restrained emotion, as well as explicit appeal to the intellect, that informs my own work. I feel that the works of the late Yasmin Ahmad in particular, have shaped my identity as a creative as of recent years, because of how she manages to intersect social issues such as race, religion, economic inequality and sexuality in her works. To tackle multiple issues in a single medium is a feat in itself.”

Favourite work to date: “

A hypothetical fashion brand named Sopan (modest in the Malay language) that my classmates – Wahidah Sofia, Jane Chong, Nafhah Noor Tijany – and I worked on. I think it is my favourite work because of the themes that hit close to home and how they intersect with one another. The visual language of the work is an intersection of modesty, queerness and ethnic tradition – these are three issues minority communities face, as to how they should present themselves through dress and fashion, especially here in Singapore.”