WORK | Ezekiel Wong Kel Win

Inspired by Chua Mia Tee’s Epic Poem of Malaya (1955), I wanted to stage a different kind of scene: restrained patriotism.

The men sing in unison, though it’s unclear if it’s conviction, fatigue, or ritual. The bench of rice, water, and canned food is not abundance but a reminder of how survival is measured. Beside it, the Weiqi (围棋) board speaks of vigilance and endless strategy.

Sometimes singing the same tune is belief. Sometimes it’s just easier. But when conformity becomes survival, what happens to questioning, to identity, to imagination?
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In the Lion’s Den draws on the imagery of a majestic yet contained power: a body under watch,
a state under pressure. Across three panels, men rehearse roles—donning hats, aligning their
voices, mending nets. Each act suggests a quiet choreography of duty, performance, and national
imagination.

The lion, Singapore’s emblem, is not depicted mid-roar but held in poised stillness. Alert,
contained, ever-vigilant. Like the nation it represents, it cannot aﬀord to rest or move too boldly.
Caught between aspiration and anxiety, assertion and diplomacy, these figures occupy that
delicate tension. The lion’s den becomes both sanctuary and snare.

IN THE LION’S DEN (Triptych, Left Panel)

2025
Charcoal on canvas
171.5 × 186.5 cm each

Inspired by Chua Mia Tee’s Epic Poem of Malaya (1955), I wanted to stage a different kind of scene: restrained patriotism.

The men sing in unison, though it’s unclear if it’s conviction, fatigue, or ritual. The bench of rice, water, and canned food is not abundance but a reminder of how survival is measured. Beside it, the Weiqi (围棋) board speaks of vigilance and endless strategy.

Sometimes singing the same tune is belief. Sometimes it’s just easier. But when conformity becomes survival, what happens to questioning, to identity, to imagination?

-⌘-⌘-⌘-⌘-⌘-⌘-⌘-⌘-⌘-⌘-

In the Lion’s Den draws on the imagery of a majestic yet contained power: a body under watch, a state under pressure. Across three panels, men rehearse roles—donning hats, aligning their voices, mending nets. Each act suggests a quiet choreography of duty, performance, and national imagination.

The lion, Singapore’s emblem, is not depicted mid-roar but held in poised stillness. Alert, contained, ever-vigilant. Like the nation it represents, it cannot aﬀord to rest or move too boldly. Caught between aspiration and anxiety, assertion and diplomacy, these figures occupy that delicate tension. The lion’s den becomes both sanctuary and snare.

Life here is fast. Too many hats. We’ve learned to wear them all — to work faster, produce more, keep going.

Sometimes I wonder who gave us these hats. Who checks if we wear them right. Who we are doing this for.

Maybe this is just survival. Maybe this is what it means to live here. If we take the hats off, what is left of us?

-⌘-⌘-⌘-⌘-⌘-⌘-⌘-⌘-⌘-⌘-

In the Lion’s Den draws on the imagery of a majestic yet contained power: a body under watch, a state under pressure. Across three panels, men rehearse roles—donning hats, aligning their voices, mending nets. Each act suggests a quiet choreography of duty, performance, and national imagination.

The lion, Singapore’s emblem, is not depicted mid-roar but held in poised stillness. Alert, contained, ever-vigilant. Like the nation it represents, it cannot aﬀord to rest or move too boldly. Caught between aspiration and anxiety, assertion and diplomacy, these figures occupy that delicate tension. The lion’s den becomes both sanctuary and snare.

IN THE LION’S DEN (Triptych, Middle panel)

2025
Charcoal on canvas
171.5 × 186.5 cm each

Life here is fast. Too many hats. We’ve learned to wear them all — to work faster, produce more, keep going.

Sometimes I wonder who gave us these hats. Who checks if we wear them right. Who we are doing this for.

Maybe this is just survival. Maybe this is what it means to live here. If we take the hats off, what is left of us?

-⌘-⌘-⌘-⌘-⌘-⌘-⌘-⌘-⌘-⌘-

In the Lion’s Den draws on the imagery of a majestic yet contained power: a body under watch, a state under pressure. Across three panels, men rehearse roles—donning hats, aligning their voices, mending nets. Each act suggests a quiet choreography of duty, performance, and national imagination.

The lion, Singapore’s emblem, is not depicted mid-roar but held in poised stillness. Alert, contained, ever-vigilant. Like the nation it represents, it cannot aﬀord to rest or move too boldly. Caught between aspiration and anxiety, assertion and diplomacy, these figures occupy that delicate tension. The lion’s den becomes both sanctuary and snare.

This panel is about the idea of a safety net. I drew the figures weaving together, knot by knot, as a way of thinking about protection, duty, and the unseen labour that holds things in place. It’s careful work, but also endless work, and I wanted that tension to remain visible in the piece.

When you think about a safety net today, do you see it as protection or entrapment?

-⌘-⌘-⌘-⌘-⌘-⌘-⌘-⌘-⌘-⌘-

In the Lion’s Den draws on the imagery of a majestic yet contained power: a body under watch, a state under pressure. Across three panels, men rehearse roles—donning hats, aligning their voices, mending nets. Each act suggests a quiet choreography of duty, performance, and national imagination.

The lion, Singapore’s emblem, is not depicted mid-roar but held in poised stillness. Alert, contained, ever-vigilant. Like the nation it represents, it cannot aﬀord to rest or move too boldly. Caught between aspiration and anxiety, assertion and diplomacy, these figures occupy that delicate tension. The lion’s den becomes both sanctuary and snare.

IN THE LION’S DEN (Triptych - Right panel)

2025
Charcoal on canvas
171.5 × 186.5 cm each

This panel is about the idea of a safety net. I drew the figures weaving together, knot by knot, as a way of thinking about protection, duty, and the unseen labour that holds things in place. It’s careful work, but also endless work, and I wanted that tension to remain visible in the piece.

When you think about a safety net today, do you see it as protection or entrapment?

-⌘-⌘-⌘-⌘-⌘-⌘-⌘-⌘-⌘-⌘-

In the Lion’s Den draws on the imagery of a majestic yet contained power: a body under watch, a state under pressure. Across three panels, men rehearse roles—donning hats, aligning their voices, mending nets. Each act suggests a quiet choreography of duty, performance, and national imagination.

The lion, Singapore’s emblem, is not depicted mid-roar but held in poised stillness. Alert, contained, ever-vigilant. Like the nation it represents, it cannot aﬀord to rest or move too boldly. Caught between aspiration and anxiety, assertion and diplomacy, these figures occupy that delicate tension. The lion’s den becomes both sanctuary and snare.

GRIDLOCKED

2025
Archival Pigment Print
29.7 x 42.0 cm

✨□⌘▦⌘□✨

▦𓉛ℾⅈⅆǁ☉⋐Ԟⅇⅆ▦
⌘GRIDLOCKED⌘
▦𓉛ℾⅈⅆǁ☉⋐Ԟⅇⅆ▦

Two figures stand still,
as if they have been standing for a long time.
Their faces are not fully there.
Perhaps it is the light,
or the dust.

This work began with a question
about what remains
when meaning has worn thin.
When all the rules are still in place,
but nothing is held together.

Grid, greet, greed.
That was the rhythm that surfaced.
Not as accusation,
but as a quiet noticing —
how easily connection folds into control.

Each layer was made slowly.
Each mark an attempt to remember,
and then to forget.
A map was drawn,
then blurred.
A hand was raised,
but met with a fence.

Sometimes we call this progress.
Sometimes we call it peace.

What I wanted was to hold
the moment just before collapse.
The breath suspended,
not yet knowing
if it will be released.

This is not a protest.
Nor a lament.
It is a record of a feeling
that has no name.
Not yet.

⌘⸻⌘⸻⌘

CUL-DE-SAC

2021
Archival Pigment Print
29.7 x 42.0 cm

•~•~•~

In fixation's dance, ensnared by threads we wreathe (一团糟),
Obsessed with minutiae, life's panorama sieved.

Within this struggle, for light, we grope and yearn,
A battle with darkness, our sight to discern.

A spiral into void, a struggle to break free,
Unraveling life's tapestry, to find what could be. What we could be.

But in this journey's heart, not solitary we roam, Faith, Hope, and Love (信望爱) guide us, a strength that's shone.

•~•~•~

𝘗.𝘚. 𝘛𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘭𝘦𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘪𝘯 2021, 𝘢 𝘺𝘦𝘢𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘣𝘰𝘵𝘩 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘯𝘨𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘴𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘮𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘦 ♡

WORK: Selected Work

EZEKIEL WONG KEL WIN