Alya Hatta, Paradise I, 2026, Oil, acrylic, pastel, colour pencil, graphite and image transfer on canvas, 150 x 100 cm. Photo courtesy of RKFA and artist.
In Slow Paradise, Alya Hatta examines the passage of time through the quiet rhythms of everyday life, considering how meaning is gradually formed through repetition, routine, and sustained attention rather than singular defining events. Moving away from the notion of a single anchored moment, the exhibition unfolds as an ongoing and durational reflection on image-making, memory, and lived experience.
Developed through a diaristic process spanning over a year, the exhibition draws from an extensive accumulation of daily drawings, writings, observations, and casually captured photographs. These materials, often taken without staging or deliberate intention, originate from the artist’s personal surroundings, including family, friends, and fleeting encounters encountered in ordinary life. Fragments from these records are subsequently transferred onto canvas, where they become layered foundations that continue to shift and evolve through the act of painting.
At the core of the exhibition is the repeated gesture of observing, recording, and returning. Through this cyclical process, Alya Hatta reflects on how seemingly ordinary moments change in significance over time, not simply through distance or nostalgia, but through continual revisiting and accumulation. Layering functions both visually and conceptually within the works, mirroring the ways memory and experience are constructed gradually through repeated encounters.
The exhibition further considers the relationship between documentation and lived experience, questioning how the act of recording daily life may itself alter perception and understanding. Here, the diary becomes both a method and a structure, embedding duration directly into the works while collapsing distinctions between archive, memory, and image.
Rather than presenting fixed narratives or monumental moments, Slow Paradise invites viewers into a quieter space of attentiveness. Through intimate gestures and recurring imagery, the exhibition proposes that meaning is not always found in extraordinary events, but can emerge slowly through the ongoing act of noticing.
Venue: Richard Koh Fine Art, Blk 47 Malan Road, #01-26 Gillman Barracks, Singapore 109444
When: 25 Jul - 22 Aug 2026,
