Witty yet deeply contemplative, Manners Manners by Quek See Yee transforms the overlooked into the extraordinary. See Yee’s practice, rooted in architectural precision and a playful sensitivity to nature, breathes new life into fallen fronds and found plant forms.

With a touch of humour and a keen sense of materiality, she reconfigures these objects, allowing them to speak in ways both unexpected and familiar. Weaving together research, sketches, and installations, the exhibition gently balances structure and spontaneity—where urbanity meets the tropics, and where fleeting musings become moments of quiet wonder. 

In conversation with the artist

In this interview, Esplanade – Theatres on the Bay's Head of Visual Arts Tamares Goh sits down with artist Quek See Yee in conversation about Manners Manners, her exhibition at Esplanade Tunnel.

Tamares Goh (TG): What first drew you to working with discarded plant material, and how did that initial curiosity develop into an artistic practice?

Quek See Yee (QS): I think I’ve always been drawn to picking things up—branches, seeds, shells, oddly shaped objects and even unusual bits from hardware stores. But working at a florist became a key moment. I would play with the offcuts—leaves, stems and flowers that had been trimmed away—and noticed how certain forms stood out more when removed from their original context. Some leaves felt strangely animated; others carried a kind of awkwardness.  

That opened up a way of seeing—especially how abstraction can bring certain qualities forward. I became more curious about the logic behind how things grow, the way a stem bends, or how a leaf holds tension.  

In the past couple of years, I’ve also been thinking more about what these larger tropical ecologies mean in relation to myself and the urban landscapes I move through. Abstraction has become a way to uncover those relationships—not to define them too precisely, but to stay with the questions they raise.  

TG: How did your background in architecture and design influence the way you approach and compose your artworks?

QS: Design offers parameters—such as context, culture, and intent—that continue to shape my research and how I engage with materials and subjects. My training gave me a way to understand form not just in isolation, but in relation to larger systems and environments. 

These practices feed into each other, and perhaps there’s no need to draw strict lines between them. Maybe the boundaries blur. I still find myself thinking in terms of placement, proportion, rhythm, and how something occupies space or meets the viewer. That way of thinking hasn’t gone away—it’s simply evolved, taking on new materials and questions. 

TG: You describe your work as “musings”. Tell us more.

QS: I think a single form can do a lot—it might suggest structure, carry traces of culture, or simply offer a small observation that opens up into something broader. Often, when I’m researching or working with materials, things don’t resolve into a clear conclusion. And I’ve come to be okay with that.  

In that way, I see my practice as a kind of musing—more about conversation or imagination than making definitive statements. I’m interested in holding space for multiple ways of seeing or understanding a thing. My work tends to stay in that open, questioning place. At least for now, that feels more honest to where I am. 

TG: The exhibition is presented along a long, continuous wall. How did that spatial context shape the composition and flow of your work?

QS: Because the wall runs along a tunnel, the flow of viewers could come from either direction—and often at quite a fast pace. With that in mind, the space was designed to be legible from both ends, with a sense of rhythm in how the work unfolds.  

At one end, the large leaf takes on a more naïve, direct tone—an encounter that’s perhaps simpler, more immediate, almost childlike in its openness. On the other end, the orange section was imagined with a more domestic sensibility—reflecting our everyday habits and familiarities.  

The central section, where the works sit against a deep brown, felt like a place to slow down. The pieces there are more artefact-like and hold some of the larger, more open-ended questions in the work. 

This flow is guided by a soundscape designed by Lynette Quek, whose practice explores sound as a spatial and sensory material—often using found recordings, field sounds, and playful disruptions of the everyday. In this work, the sounds are intentionally ambiguous and respond in a way that mirrors my process—open to shifting meanings. 

At the large leaf, for example, a layer of white noise might be read as waves, rustling leaves, or road sounds—or, with slight modification, it begins to resemble the subtle buzz of electricity: those hidden signals that surround us all the time.  

Clattering, sweeping, and cracking sounds—along with frog croaking, chicken clucking, and toilets flushing—emerge as you move through. These sounds respond not only to the visual works, but also to fragments of personal memory, narrating both familiarity and oddness. They give rhythm to the linearity of the tunnel—sometimes fading into the background, other times jolting you to attention. 

The soundscape eventually carries you to the domestic section, where things settle into a slightly warped, almost commercial format—still recognisable, but slightly off. 

TG: What do you hope viewers will carry with them after experiencing your exhibition?

QS: That there’s life in both very big things and very small things. That there are many lines of connection, many ways of seeing. 

Manners Manners is on view at Esplanade Tunnel from 23 May – 7 Sep 2025.