From today, 13 November 2026, visitors to National Gallery Singapore can step up to a microphone and talk to an AI (artificial intelligence) avatar of pioneering Singapore artist Amanda Heng. For anyone following the debate over AI clones and digital twins, this is a rare chance to meet one that the real person helped design and still owns.
The work is called Retired Singirl (2025–2030). It’s a commission for the Gallery’s Singapore Stories: Pathways and Detours in Art exhibition, and it sits in the Digital Immersive Space on Level 2 of the City Hall Wing. Admission to Retired Singirl costs nothing, though getting into Singapore Stories takes a General Admission pass, which is complimentary for Singaporeans and Permanent Residents.
Pick Up the Mic
According to the Gallery, the set-up is simple: you speak into a microphone interface, and the avatar replies in real time. You can ask it about Singapore art history, Heng’s artistic journey or the ideas that have shaped her work. Its answers draw on her extensive body of work, her archives and her thinking, which is why the Gallery describes the piece as a “living, interactive archive”.
The twist is that it learns. The Gallery says visitors’ contributions influence how the AI develops over time, so the Retired Singirl someone chats with in a few years won’t be quite the version meeting its first visitors this weekend. In other words, the audience gets a hand in shaping the artwork, which is a deeply Amanda Heng idea, as you’ll see in a moment.
The avatar was developed with AI technology partner Pantheon Lab. The Gallery calls Retired Singirl the culmination of more than four years of research, experimentation and collaboration with Heng, who it says has defined the commission’s conception, development and refinement since 2022.
Tea, Beansprouts and a Kebaya
If talking to an artwork sounds strange, it’s familiar ground for Heng. Born in 1951, she has been a full-time art practitioner since the late 1980s, and she was involved in founding two Singapore artist initiatives: The Artists’ Village in 1988 and WITA (Women In the Arts) in 1999. Her awards include the Cultural Medallion in 2010 and the 12th Benesse Prize in 2020, and she was inducted into the Singapore Women’s Hall of Fame in 2023.
The avatar draws on Let’s Chat (1996), which the Gallery calls a landmark participatory artwork. In it, Heng invited audiences to sit down and talk over tea while cleaning beansprouts. Art doesn’t get much more everyday than that, and the ordinariness is the point. Heng says she has always wanted to create “everyday encounters with art that democratise its access.”
The second source is her ongoing Singirl series (2000–), which references the “Singapore Girl” icon through the kebaya, the traditional fitted blouse, to examine identity, representation and gender. That makes the new title a quiet joke with real weight behind it, because the Singirl has now retired.
Heng is clear that the avatar isn’t meant to be a second her. “Retired Singirl is not an extension of me as much as it is an exploration of what a living archive of performance art can be,” she says. “It expands on my reflections on ageing, legacy, transgenerational human connection and the role of art in and as a reflection of my experience of Singapore society and the world.”
Whose Face Is It, Anyway?
For anyone uneasy about AI copies of real people, the detail that matters most here is ownership. The Gallery says the work is built on licensed materials, including Heng’s likeness and her archival material, and that both remain hers. It describes the commission as “a considered model for the ethical use of artificial intelligence in the arts,” with the museum acting as a mediator and a cultural steward that protects the artist’s intent.
Privacy gets a mention as well. According to the Gallery, visitor conversations are anonymised, and contributions to the AI’s development are guided so the experience stays rooted in Heng’s practice, ideas and artistic legacy. That guidance matters, since an avatar that learns from the public could otherwise drift a long way from the woman it’s modelled on.
Dr Seng Yu Jin, Project Director of Singapore Stories: Pathways and Detours in Art and the Gallery’s Director (Curatorial, Research and Exhibitions), says the aim is to explore new technology “while keeping artists’ voices and legacies at the centre of the experience.” A digital Amanda Heng that the real Amanda Heng shaped, and still owns, is the version of this future worth rooting for.
Plan Your Chat
The Gallery presents Retired Singirl exclusively as part of Singapore Stories, so treat it as one stop on a longer wander. If you’d like a head start on the rest of that exhibition, our 2025 guide to eight must-see artworks in Singapore Stories is a handy companion for the walk there.
🗓️ Date: From Friday, 13 November 2026
📍 Location: Digital Immersive Space, City Hall Wing, Level 2, National Gallery Singapore
🎟️ Admission: Free for Retired Singirl; entry to Singapore Stories requires a General Admission pass
🇸🇬 Singaporeans and Permanent Residents: General Admission is complimentary
🎙️ How It Works: Speak to the avatar through a microphone interface; it responds in real time
🔒 Privacy: Visitor conversations are anonymised, according to the Gallery
Retired Singirl opened today and is designed to keep changing with every conversation, so the earlier you visit, the earlier your questions become part of its story. Plan your trip through National Gallery Singapore’s official website, sort out your General Admission pass if you need one, and go ask the avatar the one thing you’ve always wanted to ask Amanda Heng herself!
Photos and Visuals courtesy of National Gallery Singapore (images credited to Amanda Heng, National Gallery Singapore, 2026).
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