Part of “A Home Away From Home”, Framing Tomorrow: DECK Fundraiser Weekend 2025
About The Artist
Woong Soak Teng (b. 1994, Singapore) practices in the intersections of art making, producing, and project managing. Her work examines human tendencies to control natural phenomena and nature at large. Woong has participated in festivals and exhibitions internationally in Auckland, Copenhagen, Daegu, Dali, Thessaloniki, Tokyo, Shanghai and Singapore. Her accolades include the Steidl Book Award Asia, Objectifs Documentary Award 2021, Kwek Leng Joo Prize of Excellence in Photography 2018 and Singapore Young Photographer Award 2018.
re-rust #22, #38 | 2025
By Woong Soak Teng
Archival Inkjet Print on Photo Cotton Rag Pearl | Edition of 1/2 + 1AP | 35.6 × 25.2cm (image), 47cm × 63cm (framed)
Re-rust (2016) documents the process of a metal plate rusting, attempts to undo the rusting, and the subsequent, inevitable re-rusting. A cyclical struggle between humanity and the natural environment, these images may be read more broadly as metaphors for metamorphosis, and simultaneous processes of becoming and un-becoming. First re-presented in conversation with the dining experience at Nouri, these photographic pairs capture states of flux, inviting considerations of how we choose to engage with notions of maturation and decay, in art, food, our lived environment, and in our own bodies.
A Home Away From Home
Curated by: John Z.W. Tung
In the heart of Singapore's heritage shophouses, generosity takes architectural form. A Home Away From Home emerges from an act of patronage: these storied walls opened as sanctuary while DECK's permanent photography centre takes shape, transforming family dwelling into cultural commons.
Here, photography finds itself arranged not as institutional display but as domestic inhabitant. Works hang as one might place family portraits — intimate and accessible, woven into the rhythms of daily life. Living room walls become galleries, kitchens house photobook libraries, and dining spaces foster the gatherings that sustain artistic community.
This exhibition serves as DECK’s housewarming, a celebration that launches our residence within these gifted walls while Singapore’s first purpose-built photography centre takes shape elsewhere.
What binds these works is not curatorial distance but the warmth of proximity. The home becomes method and meaning: a space where art encounters audience as guest meets host, where photography learns to inhabit the world as neighbour rather than artifact.
By Woong Soak Teng
Archival Inkjet Print on Photo Cotton Rag Pearl | Edition of 1/2 + 1AP | 35.6 × 25.2cm (image), 47cm × 63cm (framed)
Re-rust (2016) documents the process of a metal plate rusting, attempts to undo the rusting, and the subsequent, inevitable re-rusting. A cyclical struggle between humanity and the natural environment, these images may be read more broadly as metaphors for metamorphosis, and simultaneous processes of becoming and un-becoming. First re-presented in conversation with the dining experience at Nouri, these photographic pairs capture states of flux, inviting considerations of how we choose to engage with notions of maturation and decay, in art, food, our lived environment, and in our own bodies.
A Home Away From Home
Curated by: John Z.W. Tung
In the heart of Singapore's heritage shophouses, generosity takes architectural form. A Home Away From Home emerges from an act of patronage: these storied walls opened as sanctuary while DECK's permanent photography centre takes shape, transforming family dwelling into cultural commons.
Here, photography finds itself arranged not as institutional display but as domestic inhabitant. Works hang as one might place family portraits — intimate and accessible, woven into the rhythms of daily life. Living room walls become galleries, kitchens house photobook libraries, and dining spaces foster the gatherings that sustain artistic community.
This exhibition serves as DECK’s housewarming, a celebration that launches our residence within these gifted walls while Singapore’s first purpose-built photography centre takes shape elsewhere.
What binds these works is not curatorial distance but the warmth of proximity. The home becomes method and meaning: a space where art encounters audience as guest meets host, where photography learns to inhabit the world as neighbour rather than artifact.
#22 #38