Making Art for Children: ‘When Art Meets Nature’

EXHIBITION

21 Aug

Chen Po-I, Soh Ee Shaun, Tan Zi Xi, Yenting Hsu, and Zul Mahmod

Installation view of Tan Zi Xi, The Invisible Forests, 2025, wood installation, digital print, dimensions variable. Image courtesy of Taoyuan Museum of Fine Arts. — Installation view of Tan Zi Xi, *The Invisible Forests*, 2025, wood installation, digital print, dimensions variable. Image courtesy of Taoyuan Museum of Fine Arts.

When Art Meets Nature was unveiled at the Taoyuan Children’s Art Center on 2 July 2025. The exhibition is a collaboration between Taoyuan Museum of Fine Arts (TMoFA) and National Gallery Singapore (NGS), with five artists drawn from both Taiwan and Singapore respectively. In this article, we hear from the exhibiting artists on their motivations, hopes for the exhibition, and key takeaways so far.

Chen Po-I

Taiwanese artist Chen Po-I presents River Lab, an interactive installation that encourages children and parents to develop a greater understanding of their local hydrological environments. The work stems from Monument, a longer running landscape photography series that he has been working on, which takes from field research conducted on the water environment of the Tseng-Wen River. In River Lab, Chen focuses on the Dahan River instead, while drawing on his experiences from Monument. Here, he recreates stream tables that can be found in hydrological labs. Visitors can interact with the stream tables packed with mud and water, to create imaginary streams and observe how the natural flow of water can transform an imaginary terrain into a scientifically plausible one.

This process of human intervention on water flows is also reflected in photographs installed around the tables, depicting the Dahan River. Their juxtaposition offers viewers an insightful way to think about how water resource policies, governance, and check dams have influenced the topology of the Dahan River. “Water nurtures everything in nature, and it follows the rules of nature,” says the artist. “Should human beings go against the rules of nature? Or should we, to some degree, follow nature? The Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu speaks of this similarly, ‘The highest excellence is like (that of) water. The excellence of water appears in its benefitting all things.’ How water affects everything is something worth reflecting about.” The relationship between humans and nature through water is for Chen, a philosophical point in which he hopes visitors can further ruminate on even after the show ends.

Zul Mahmod

Singaporean artist Zul Mahmod also looked to Taoyuan’s waterways as a source of inspiration, guided by a similar philosophical impulse. His work, Beneath the Silence, a Pulse imagines a submerged soundscape pulsing with the reverberations of water. The result is a large, immersive installation that envelops viewers in a tranquil sonic environment. “The intended takeaway for visitors is a heightened awareness of the subtle, often overlooked forces that shape our environment,” says the artist. “The work reminds us that beneath every silence lies a vital, persistent pulse that connects all living things.” Mahmod’s motivation for creating the work is a desire that their encounter with the sound of water becomes an encounter with the sound of life.

Beyond inspiring a deeper appreciation for the natural world, Mahmod also hopes that his work allows visitors to take pause from an otherwise fast-paced world. “The work is a space for mindfulness, curiosity, and emotional reflection,” says Mahmod. He notes that children were especially receptive to the work, naturally moving in rhythm with the sounds of the space. He surmises, “Through stillness, children can slow down, listen deeply, and reconnect with the quiet rhythms of nature.”

Yenting Hsu

The last work revolving around water comes from Taiwanese artist Yenting Hsu, whose practice has long engaged with themes of nature. Where the River Runs, Hsu’s auditory and narrative-led work in this exhibition, is the latest evolution from her project, Tune to Goddesses, which centres around female mythologies. Her research on mythologies and stories connected to the water led to her foregrounding Taiwan’s second largest indigenous population in Taoyuan, and their cultures around the Dahan River. She points out that Where the River Runs spotlights two specific indigenous communities: the Atayal (泰雅族), who have inhabited the Taoyuan region for hundreds of years, and the Amis (阿美族), who settled later in the lower reaches of the Dahan River.

The work consists of four auditory pieces in total, which mixes the sounds of mountains, rivers, and voices of Indigenous community members. As each piece is about 10 minutes long, it has been moving for Hsu to witness visitors engaging with her time-demanding work attentively. “I have noticed that more visitors—both adults and children—were able to settle down and truly listen to the work than we had expected,” she comments. “For children, these stories might not be fully understood right away, but I hope the experience plants a seed—one that might grow into greater empathy and understanding toward people from different cultural backgrounds in the future.”

Tan Zi Xi

While Chen, Hsu, and Mahmod chose to devote their works to hydrological landscapes, Singaporean artist Tan Zi Xi’s work, The Invisible Forests, pivots towards greenscapes instead. The concept for the work emerged from her deep-seated sentiments and everyday observations of her local environment. Tan remarks, “Living in Singapore, I'm constantly surrounded by a bustling cityscape; a dense tapestry of buildings, roads, and high-rises.” She adds, “This visual reality often led me to ponder about the natural history that once thrived on this land. Singapore, in many ways, serves as a microcosm of global urbanisation, mirroring the rapid development happening worldwide.”

As such, she has channeled her contemplations into The Invisible Forests, which explores the broader themes of disappearing forests and climate change. A challenge she faced was to demystify these issues to create a tangible experience that could raise awareness and enable children to connect with and learn more deeply about critical environmental issues. “While doing my research which included watching documentaries and reading up on various studies, I recognised that this topic can often feel abstract or ‘out of sight, out of mind’ for many people,” she says. “This is probably especially true for distant forests that are far from our direct living environment.” She bridges the gap through a stark visual contrast in her work, which features two realities: one of a vibrant, rich, and colourful forest, against a pale, dying scenery of environmental degradation. She explains, “This visual comparison is designed to evoke both appreciation for what we have and a call to action regarding what we stand to lose.”

Soh Ee Shaun

Similar to Tan, Singapore artist Soh Ee Shaun looked to the forest for inspiration, specifically the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve in Singapore. He tells a story of how the seeds for his work, entitled Peace Forest, were first sown through a personal encounter with wildlife near his home. “One afternoon, my son spotted a Malayan Colugo in the mango tree right outside my balcony. It was our first time seeing a wild colugo so close, clinging onto a tree bark and sleeping peacefully amidst the leaves.” He elaborates that the reflective elements of the work take cues from his own meditative practice, saying, “I wanted to transform the children's gallery into a colourful, quiet forest environment that allows young ones to feel completely relaxed and at peace.” In this setting, they learn about endangered animals from both Taiwan and Singapore.

Soh’s forest comes alive through recorded sounds of resident birds found around his house, including a pair of endangered straw-headed bulbuls, as well as large animal cushions that visitors can sleep on and play with. He shares, “I hope Peace Forest will engage children to become curious about nature, and teach them to love and respect plants, trees and animals, while reminding them of the importance of preserving our forests to protect both wildlife and the environment.” In order to emphasise the importance of being mindful, quiet, and observant when approaching forests, his work also includes an activity for children to spot 32 critically endangered animals that are hiding within an illustrated forest mural.

This article is presented in partnership with Taoyuan Museum of Fine Arts. Click here to read another A&M article featuring input from curators Peng Hsiung and Annabelle Tan.

When Art Meets Nature is open from 2 July to 9 November 2025 at the Taoyuan Children’s Art Center. For more information on the exhibition, click here. To visit the Taoyuan Museum of Fine Arts official website, click here. The Taoyuan Museum of Fine Arts is scheduled to officially open in 2027.

Taoyuan Museum of Fine ArtsTaoyuan Children’s Art CenterNational Gallery SingaporeChen Po-ISoh Ee ShaunTan Zi XiYenting HsuZul Mahmod

Mary Ann Lim

Mary Ann Lim is Programme Manager at A&M. She conceptualises programmes and content for external projects, while contributing to writing and media assignments for the platform. With her practice rooted across programming, writing, and research, her interests lie in alternative knowledges, ecologies, and thinking through interdisciplinary practices. She writes short stories and poetry in her spare time.

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