Event ShanghART Singapore, Singapore
24 Jan 2026, 4:30–6:00 PM
ShanghART Singapore, 9 Lock Rd, #02-22, Singapore 108937
Boedi Widjaja and geneticist Dr. Eric Yap in conversation on DNA as medium, the body as archive, and memory as inheritance. Moderated by Lu Xiaohui, curator, NTU Museum.
What if a poem becomes DNA, and history is inheritable code? Since 2019, Boedi has collaborated with Dr. Yap, drawing on molecular biology to extend his investigations into language, lineage, and memory. Through this cross-disciplinary exchange, Boedi has developed DNA-encoded verses, molecular nanosculptures and shape-shifting DNA forms that speak to diaspora and displacement. Presented internationally, from Chiang Rai, Guangzhou, and Shanghai, to Paris, Liverpool, New York, and Monterrey, the projects embody a rare, long-running artist–scientist dialogue that foregrounds DNA as both material and metaphor. For Boedi, whose practice repeatedly returns to migration, estranged origins, and inherited histories, DNA becomes a medium for the diasporic condition: fragile, mutable, and endlessly recombined.
Moderated by Lu, this conversation explores language as biomolecules, the inheritance of memory through genetic processes, and Boedi’s NAC Creation Grant–supported works that use DNA as a medium for storytelling and history, featured at SAW 2026 across NTU Museum, ShanghART Annexe, and Digital Art Week Asia. Together, they will discuss the conceptual, poetic, and scientific negotiations behind their collaboration, opening a conversation at the intersection of art, biology, and diasporic imagination.
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Boedi Widjaja explores migration as a condition inscribed in the body, carried through memory, language, genealogy, and diasporic imagination. His practice probes the primordial pulls of house, home, and homeland—forces that shape migrant histories and imagine routes of return. Trained in architecture and design, he works across bio art, performance, experimental photography, and architectural installations, interweaving scientific phenomena with poetic gesture. His works are exhibited internationally across Asia, Europe, and the Americas, and he is represented by ShanghART Gallery.
Dr Eric Yap is a Clinician Scientist and Assoc. Prof. in Human and Microbial Genetics at NTU’s LKC School of Medicine and Principal Investigator at the Institute for Digital Molecular Analytics and Science. A former Rhodes Scholar with dual training in medicine and science, he was an early defence scientist and now leads research in molecular genetics and genomics with applications in diagnostics, biotechnology, and health. His work spans the development of rapid PCR methods and other genomic tools, reflecting a deep commitment to translational science and interdisciplinary inquiry.
Lu Xiaohui adopts a dialogic approach towards curating. Her practice is concerned with how artists engage with place and audience through site-specific interventions that open up readings of the social, spatial and historical contexts in which they unfold. She previously served as Visual Arts Producer at Esplanade – Theatres on the Bay, where she developed site-responsive exhibitions and artist commissions. She is currently Curator at the Nanyang Technological University Museum.
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