Charmaine Poh
Charmaine Poh | |
|---|---|
傅秀璇  | |
| Born | 1990 |
| Alma mater | |
| Occupation | Artist, actor |
| Awards |
|
| Website | charmainepoh |
Charmaine Poh (Chinese: 傅秀璇; pinyin: Fù Xiùxuán; born 1990) is a Singaporean photographer and multimedia artist.
Early life and education
[edit]Poh was born in 1990 in Singapore.[1]
Poh was a child actress and starred on Singaporean television as E-Ching on We Are R. E. M. (2003), a show featuring three children who solve mysteries.[2][3][4] She earned a BA in international relations with a minor in communications and media studies from Tufts University in 2013 and an MA in visual and media anthropology in 2019 from the Free University of Berlin.[5]
Career
[edit]In her film Good Morning Young Body (2021-2022), Poh recreated E-Ching, her character in We Are R. E. M. , as a deepfake to explore issues of identity, sexuality, online harassment.[2][3][4] Much of her work concerns queer identity in Singapore, where marriage is legally defined as a heterosexual instruction. Her photography series How They Love (2018 - 2019) captures the intimacy of queer couples.[4] Her film Kin (2021) explores queer domestic life while What’s softest in the world rushes and runs over what’s hardest in the world (2024) documents queer parents in Singapore.[6] The latter film was shown during the 2025 Singapore Art Week, but Singapore authorities assigned it an R21 rating, restricting it to people over 21 years old.[7] The film was screened privately and the public exhibition was replaced with a grey wall in protest.[8]
In 2024, her work was featured in the Nucleo Contemporaneo section of the 60th Venice Biennale, her Venice Biennale debut.[6] In 2025, she was named Deutsche Bank’s “Artist of the Year,” the first artist from Singapore to receive the honor.[9] She was one of four winners of the 2026 Villa Romana Prize, the oldest art prize in Germany.[10]
She is a co-founder of Jom, a weekly digital magazine about Singapore.[11]
References
[edit]- ^ "Charmaine Poh". Singapore International Photography Festival. Retrieved 9 July 2024.
- ^ a b Lye, Jesslyn (19 October 2023). "With deepfakes and chatbots, 'Proof of Personhood' examines what it means to be human in the age of AI | Vogue Singapore | Culture, Lifestyle". Vogue Singapore. Retrieved 9 July 2024.
- ^ a b Hoo, Shawn (22 September 2023). "Singapore Art Museum opens new gallery with show on deep fakes and personal identity in AI age". The Straits Times. ISSN 0585-3923. Retrieved 9 July 2024.
- ^ a b c Peh, Clara Che Wei (17 April 2024). "Former Child Star Charmaine Poh Uses AI To Confront the Tension Between Visibility and Privacy". ARTnews.com. Retrieved 10 July 2024.
- ^ "CV — psxcharmaine". charmainepoh.com. Retrieved 10 July 2024.
- ^ a b "Biennale Arte 2024 | Charmaine Poh". La Biennale di Venezia. 11 March 2024. Retrieved 16 August 2025.
- ^ Yong, Clement (18 June 2025). "Singapore artist Charmaine Poh wins Villa Romana Prize, Germany's oldest art award". The Straits Times. ISSN 0585-3923. Retrieved 7 September 2025.
- ^ "Adeline Chia on Singapore Art Week - Criticism". e-flux. Retrieved 5 September 2025.
- ^ "Charmaine Poh named "Artist of the Year" 2025 - Announcements". e-flux. Retrieved 16 August 2025.
- ^ "Singapore artist Charmaine Poh wins Villa Romana Prize, Germany's oldest art award". The Straits Times. 18 June 2025. ISSN 0585-3923. Retrieved 16 August 2025.
- ^ "Our team". Jom. 4 July 2022. Retrieved 9 July 2024.