Ivan Heng
Theatre Practitioner
It was touch and go trying to get Ivan Heng into my studio for Drama Mama. He had been following the series and liked it, but running his theatre company Wild Rice during a pandemic had been a huge task. We scheduled to shoot a couple of times and had to postpone. And finally, he was the last sitter for the project, my coup de grâce, the cherry on top of a sundae of wonderful portraits. I last photographed him in the studio in 2001, when I was first starting out. In that 20-year gap, we have both done many things. I documented some of his theatre exploits. His impact on the theatre scene is well known. What I did not know, until this shoot, is that he is a prima ballerina as well! He learnt ballet with Mohamed Noor and Jamaludin Jalil. He is a consummate performer and was giving me so many different aspects of his personality. Shortlisting his photos was extremely difficult. I am grateful to Ivan for being so generous. I hope that it won’t be another 20 years before our next collaboration.
I’ve long admired Tan Ngiap Heng’s Drama Mama series for capturing the spirit and passion of our arts community. His intimate portraits, taken over years, evince his deep engagement with both his art and his subjects.
We tried getting together, but I had to postpone twice due to the vagaries of running a theatre company during a pandemic.
When I finally arrived at our shoot, Ngiap Heng shared that he would be closing his photo studio to explore new horizons of art-making. I was honoured to be his last subject, and a little sad. But I was also excited because I sensed he was already on to new ways to express himself and expand his practice.
The session took all of 20 minutes, I think. The conversation flowed easily. It was as if we were picking up where we left off, when I sat for him more than 20 years ago. It naturally veered to our shared passion of dance.
Thinking back on the moment, it was like a past-life regression, remembering the years I trained as a ballet dancer, my Chinese opera training, and M Butterfly (1990).
I’ve often said that theatre takes a snapshot of life—so that we can observe what we see and understand what we know. Thank you for your Drama Mama series and the precious time we stole to be together, Ngiap Heng.