Niceaunties Singapore

My work explores the intersection of cultural identity, speculative fiction, and digital innovation, centering on the evolving role of aunties—a social archetype deeply embedded in everyday life yet often overlooked or misrepresented. Through AI-generated visuals, digital storytelling, and physical installations, I construct alternate realities where aunties take center stage, navigating imagined economies, urban landscapes, and ecological futures. My practice challenges conventional perceptions of ageing, gender roles, consumerism, and environmental responsibility, reframing narratives through a lens of humour, surrealism, and critical reflection.

At the heart of my work is the Auntieverse, a continuously expanding speculative world where aunties exist beyond societal expectations. The project began as a way to question and reimagine ‘auntie culture’, a term often used pejoratively in my home country, Singapore, to describe older women with outdated tastes or overbearing tendencies. Niceaunties seeks to reclaim and celebrate the auntie identity, drawing from personal observations of the women in my life—my grandmother, mother, and aunties—who shaped my understanding of care, resilience, and community. The work critically engages with how aunties express love, authority, and defiance, translating these narratives into fantastical yet deeply familiar scenes.

Thematically, my work extends beyond gender and identity to larger societal and environmental concerns. In works like Auntlantis, I explore pollution and waste culture, envisioning a world where aunties collect and repurpose ocean plastics in a surreal, dystopian seascape. Along the River in Auntieverse, commissioned by Christie’s Art + Tech Summit in New York (2024), reinterprets the historic Chinese scroll Along the River During the Qingming Festival, transforming it into a commentary on water scarcity, urbanization, and environmental degradation. Other projects, such as Going Home, address deforestation and habitat destruction, while Niceburg and Snowman reflect on climate change and rising sea levels. Across these works, aunties are positioned as unexpected protagonists in global crises, turning care work into acts of rebellion and survival.

AI plays a critical role in my creative process, allowing me to construct impossible compositions, iterate ideas at the speed of thought, and bridge traditional world-building with new media storytelling. I do not see AI as a replacement for artistic labor but as a collaborative tool—one that enables me to visualize speculative futures that would otherwise be impossible through conventional means. AI’s capacity for rapid prototyping and complex visual generation has expanded my ability to engage with contemporary themes while maintaining the spontaneity and irreverence that defines my work.

As my practice evolves, I am particularly interested in the integration of digital art with physical installations and real-world interactions. In Aunties in Dis Place, developed during an artist residency in Pueblo Garzón, Uruguay (2024), I blended AI-generated characters into real environments, using large-scale projections on hanging laundry to create a layered, immersive experience. This approach highlights my ongoing interest in merging the digital and physical, making the speculative tangible.

Ultimately, my work serves as both a cultural archive and a site for reimagination—a space where aunties are no longer peripheral figures but central to the narrative, shaping and reshaping the worlds they inhabit.