SINGAPORE – At 77, Madam Lim Soh Joo wastes no time in pondering the existential questions in life: Why do people have to die? Do they have souls? And – what appears to be her main preoccupation – do aliens exist?

The Mandarin-speaking Yishun resident, who says she has yet to find a conclusive answer to any of life’s mysteries, wants to continue the conversation with members of the public in a new community art exhibition on end-of-life matters. It runs at Wellness Kampung @ 765 Nee Soon Central from March 9 to 20.

The retiree, who will be aptly draped in larger-than-life sartorial choices and make-up in her role as cosmic philosopher at her installation Who Can Tell Me?, is looking forward to speaking to strangers in Mandarin at her booth on March 9 and 16 from 4 to 5pm. Slots are limited.

She says: “I never imagined I would become a philosopher. I have a lot of questions and am curious about whether people have the answers.”

Both Sides, Now: Tides marks the 10th edition of non-profit community-based arts organisation ArtsWok Collaborative’s flagship programme, which has used the arts to reach out to Singaporeans on topics such as dying with dignity, end-of-life planning and other taboos around death.

Madam Lim, along with seven other senior collaborators from Yishun, have been working with Singaporean artist Salty Xi Jie Ng, 36, who practises social forms of art. They have been working since before June 2023 to create works that meaningfully engage with each participant’s ideas about what it means to live and leave well.

Other works on show include a short film about how three seniors overcome their fear of wanting to learn swimming at an older age, a peer support group for single seniors and a work which addresses the feelings of a dementia caregiver.

Ng got to know the seniors through one-on-one phone conversations and group sessions.

She says: “We delve into the art-making process, which is like entering eight different universes – they are all very different and unique. It’s very important to note that there are no formulas to building relationships, and a lot of this work is quite fluid.”

Ng, who has a Master of Fine Arts in art and social practice from Portland State University, adds: “Having worked in the field for 13 years, I think it’s about chemistry and having an authentic connection. It’s like a kind of magic and alchemy and fate. I see everyone I work with as a fated connection.”

On working with Madam Lim, Ng says: “I think it’s just an innate curiosity that lives within her and, perhaps, before this, she never found someone she could really share these questions with. There is a really wonderful sense of curiosity that is present in her at this age where she is still seeking answers to these questions.”

For Float Free, the film about seniors learning to swim, Ng had found it fateful that the three of them are part of Tune Up, a community singing programme for people who experience breathlessness. Ng then decided to work with their teacher – who is also a sound artist and musician – to create the score for the film with the seniors.

Ng says: “It was like a whole chorus of them making sounds with this teacher whom they have trusted and loved for some time. And it was beautiful to see that from that class they had, they could translate (it) into this film. How wonderful that they get to score a part of their own film.”

Co-founder and executive director of ArtsWok Collaborative Ngiam Su-Lin, 50, says end-of-life conversations are still taboo in Singapore, citing a 2019 study by the Singapore Management University that only 53 per cent of Singaporeans are comfortable with such conversations.

On the occasion of ArtsWok celebrating events in its 10th year since its founding in 2013, Ms Ngiam says the organisation has evolved to introduce more co-creation elements, which saw the group visiting different communities in Chong Pang and Telok Blangah and working with different artists and members of the community who went through workshops.

She says that “over time, there are more artists who want to work with the community”. However, she adds that one challenge is the lack of formal training pathways for artists working with socially engaged practices at the higher education level.

“There are modules scattered across different programmes, but there is no dedicated programme to train community-engaged artists. Often, we are left trying to find opportunities and looking for mentorships on our own, and it can be daunting.”

For that reason and in conjunction with ArtsWok Collaborative’s 10th anniversary, the group is organising the ArtsWok Learning Forum 2024 at Goodman Arts Centre on March 29 and 30, where participants can discover the range of arts-based community development in panels, workshops and group activities.

Ms Ngiam emphasises that while its work now is focused on end-of-life conversations, the organisation has been and is open to working with communities on other social issues.

“We were exploring doing a project on race in Singapore that’s on the back burner for now, but it may come back again.”

She adds: “It’s exciting because for us as a country, there is more attention on the importance of engaging from the ground up. I think the space is ripe for different ways of doing engagement, of having conversations around difficult topics and, at the same time, learning how to be more culturally competent at doing that.

“Arts and cultural practitioners can bring a lot to this process. The forms and mediums of the arts also lend to that way of creative expression and finding new ways to communicate and connect across our differences.”

Book It/Both Sides, Now: Tides

Where: Wellness Kampung @ 765 Nee Soon Central, 01-366 Yishun Street 72
When: March 9 to 20; weekdays, 10am to 6pm; weekends, 10am to 8pm
Admission: Free
Info: bothsidesnow.sg