Let's Walk
Project Institute of Contemporary Arts Singapore, LASALLE College of the Arts, Singapore

Artists: Amanda HENG Liang Ngim 王良吟 | 

Amanda Heng first presented Let’s Walk outside the campus of LASALLE-SIA College of Arts at Goodman Road on 9 December 1999 as part of the exhibition Ambulations at the campus’ Earl Lu Gallery. It was a street performance series involving Heng and members of the public walking backwards with high-heeled shoes in their mouths and using handheld mirrors to guide them along. Five female audience-participants joined Amanda in the walk.

The performance piece was Heng’s response to the 1997 Asian financial crisis, when female employees were the first to be fired when companies had to downsize. Many Singapore women had to resort to going to beauty salons and getting plastic surgery to keep their jobs. As a result, the beauty industry made a lot of money while most other businesses went on a decline during the crisis. Heng wanted to make a statement through Let’s Walk on Singapore women’s pre-occupation with “improving outer beauty and relying on the external rather than the internal to make them feel and look better”.

The performance was staged locally as well as overseas in countries like Japan, France, Poland, Indonesia, Sweden and Spain. The concept would later evolve into the Let’s Walk Some More series.

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