Ho Seok Kee is a Singaporean artist and NAFA alumna. She graduated with Diploma in Fine Art with Distinction in 2016 and a Bachelor’s in Fine Art (First Class) from NAFA-University of Loughborough in 2018. She was named Best Graduate, Killiney Art Prize Top Achiever and won the Silver Award (Established Artist) in the 37th UOB Painting of the Year Competition in 2018. Ho is an interdisciplinary artist who experiments with ideas and materials in her work. 

Thousands of Words plays with a muted palette, and dense composition of tightly packed dots interrupted with layers of colour. The work conveys the artist’s struggle at a time when artmaking was disrupted during the pandemic. Acknowledging the unpredictability of life and its turning points, she synthesised traditional Chinese ink techniques with Western perspectives. She channelled her newfound knowledge in working with computer algorithms to produce creative outcomes. The work is complex and layered like the Chinese idiom 千言万语 to mean having many things to say; it is about the unspoken, the multitude of emotions that can be understood, where a picture is worth a thousand words.

This work complements her other work, All Flowers Blooms, which is currently in NAFA’s collection. Both feature Ho’s dotting technique inspired by Song dynasty painter-poet Mi Fu using the motif of the rice grains often associated with Chinese culture and Southeast Asia. These artworks document Ho’s evolving practice as an artist.