Sandra Lee | Forever and A Day

Courtesy of the artist and Ode to Art 

For Singaporean artist Sandra Lee, Forever and A Day is a pivotal work in which two phases of her practice intersect. This is marked by the meeting of two recurring characters: the Seeker, a figure from Lee’s earlier body of work sitting under the arched doorway, and Bicycle Bunny, who is seen riding on a red Forever bicycle in the foreground. The two figures represent the exterior and interior selves, one in motion and one left behind. Above them are nine suspended birdcages, each holding a goldfish. Their doors are open, yet none have left their confines. The visual metaphor is a meditation on psychological freedom and the dissonance of living in spaces one is not meant to. Taken together, the painting speaks to broader themes of longing, dislocation and the fragile beauty of being “in-between.” Lee’s practice is rooted in the emotional territory of transience, marked by experiences of travel, personal transformation and of being between places, identities and states of healing.