Deduka

My grandfather grew up in a small Russian village, before moving to Moscow to become a linguist and journalist. He was posted to Singapore in 1971 as a Chinese-speaking journalist to help establish Soviet-Singapore relations. Coming as an expatriate, but leaving as a local through humble explorations of the young nation-state, my grandfather truly fell in love with Singapore. Two generations later, I grow up between Russia and Singapore, living a parallel life to the one of my grandfather’s. I write about my own experiences as the mirror image I am of him, despite the years apart. Deduka is a photo essay narrating a friendship between my grandfather and me as we oscillate between our two homes. Separated by forty years of urban development, yet connected by our artistic dispositions, we witness this life through art and poetry.