Born in 1962 in Singapore, multi-disciplinary artist Goh Ee Choo is a graduate of Singapore’s Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts and London’s Slade School of Fine Arts. Goh won First Prize (Representational Painting category) in the 1985 UOB Painting of the Year Competition, and came to prominence in 1988 with the seminal collaborative exhibition ‘Trimurti’.This large work was included in the 1994 exhibition ‘5 Directions: Recent Artworks of Five Young Singaporean Artists’. The concept behind the work was the transformation of consciousness and the awakening of the sleeping ‘serpent power’ – the vital energy that lies coiled at the base of the spine. Using the serpent-like form, Goh sought to depict this energy moving up the spine as it activated various chakras. For the first time Goh incorporated gold in his predominantly monochromatic work, an important colour in Asian culture and associated with spiritual awakening and enlightenment.
