Conversations@Studio-ID chanced to connect with Joan Marie Kelly, a senior art lecturer at the Nanyang Technological University and we were touched by her focus on making art more meaningful than ever before. In recent days, when Singapore is dealing with measures for safeguarding the foreign migrant workers, we found this piece of video, created during the years of 2018 and 2019 so much more relevant in present times. Through this video, we got an opportunity to connect with the invisible lives around us, that add colour and style to our lifestyle. We hope during these social distancing times, the viewers can relate with the stories of migrants workers, not just in Singapore, but world over.

Change: One Portrait at a Time: The film takes place in Singapore where senior lecturer Joan Marie Kelly at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore has conducted her painting class inside a dormitory where 7000 Indian, Bangladesh Myanmar and Chinese foreign workers live. The students and workers engage for the first time through the act of portrait painting, a slow process that puts sight as the central means of engagement between the students and the workers. In an intimate exchange, the artist and sitter stare into each other’s eyes for hours during the painting process.