Present

Mixed media, 2026

Low Sok Hui
Eunoia Junior College

Present reflects on value not as a fixed quality, but as something that emerges through everyday presence and interaction. It considers how attention, care, and time shape what is regarded as meaningful, and how value can be quietly accumulated through ordinary acts. By slowing down the act of looking, the work invites reflection on what it means to attend to something that is often overlooked.

Working with newspaper — a material of daily consumption and disposal — the artist repositions it on a white ground to shift attention from information toward material encounter. Guided by intuition, the process unfolds through folding, tearing, and positioning. These gestures allow the newspaper’s malleability and responsiveness to guide the work, with abstraction creating space for meaning to emerge through contact rather than representation.

Present invites an awareness of value through presence and interaction. Meaning is not prescribed but emerges through attentive looking, encouraging reflection on how everyday materials — and the moments they inhabit — come to hold significance.

What surprised you when you allowed yourself to start with play?

When I started with play, I discovered that I respond intuitively to the newspaper’s texture and flexibility, allowing folding, tearing, rolling, positioning, etc. to guide the look. This playful handling which is seemingly casual allows me to contemplate its interaction with the base layer. Through play, the newspaper shifts from something simply read and discarded into one becomes alive.

What is one play hack you would like to share to help fellow teacher-artists experiment and create without expectations?

One play hack I would like to share is rather than limiting the idea to a fixed pairing of text and image, I allowed gut feeling to guide my process. Responding to the material qualities of the newspaper, I moved away from literal representation and worked through touch and arrangement.

Click here to view the artists’ process!

Read more about ►EDGE 2026 and the existing artworks.