School of Creative
Industries
Lian Bee Ngo (Mei Er)
Mei Er is a practiced architectural consultant with 13 years of experience who found her passion for psychology through volunteer work with a community-based organisation and a traineeship in art psychotherapy.
LASALLE's MA Art Therapy programme offered her a platform to integrate her artistic practice with her psychotherapy training. During her clinical placements, she offered therapeutic services to adolescents in a residential environment, as well as to individuals in the adult service industry through a non-profit organisation.
Mei Er uses art as a tool for self-care and introspection, pushing her to grow both personally and professionally and allowing her to expand the potential of her artwork as a channel to advocate causes, facilitate dialogues and generate awareness.
Work
Lenses: Do You Really See Me?
Mural, found objects
Dimensions variable
2024
In an attempt to make sense, survive and connect, we piece together inherited and borrowed lenses to form perceptions of reality. The inability of any lens to fully capture the spectrum of existence suggests that the moment of seeing and being seen is precious, even if they only offer a glimpse of a fraction of one's self.
This also implies that when unchecked distortions are combined, skewed or narrowed, perceptions can escalate into discrimination and oppression, further reinforcing systems of injustice.
This work invites the audience to pause and check what's getting into their lenses by looking at/from the portrait, and through or between the lenses. In those moments, they may reflect if they are really seen, and vice versa.
