Change Agents
MENTAL HEALTH
HUN MING KWANG, 28, AND QUINN LUM, 28, SOCIAL ARTIST DUO HUNNY AND LUMMY
“Art is a powerful tool to facilitate healing. We want to help people connect with their emotions” —QUINN LUM
Whether as a CEO, an office worker, or a student, we all wear different “masks” every day. “We see the world for who we are. We put on different identities based on the roles, responsibilities, social groups, expectations imposed in us, that we lose touch with the core of who we are inside,” says Hun Ming Kwang (pictured right), one-half of social artist duo Hunny and Lummy.
Since March, the pair have been running mask-making workshops as part of their Masks of Singapore Movement. Integrating the traditional cultural heritage craft of mask-making, each workshop engaged with participants to help them reconnect with their inner selves and boost mental health and emotional wellness.
Such participatory work is at the heart of their artistic practice, where the role of an artist is one of a social healer. “Art is a powerful tool to facilitate healing. We want to help people connect with their emotions—and that is the important part of what we do,” shares Quinn Lum, the other half of the artist duo.
Before Hunny and Lummy formed in 2018, Lum was a participant in Hun’s social artwork called Connection Without Sight. Two strangers, sitting back to back, would attempt to paint the essence of the other person on canvas. That is after getting through a set of guiding questions, which was actually designed to help each individual get in touch with their own emotions and instincts. The work resonated with Lum, a photography and digital imaging major, whose artistic practice explored identity, trauma and healing.
“A lot of the mental health issues are due to the difficult emotions we’ve never dealt with over time. We’ve been taught how to use our brains, but no one taught us how to feel. When we don’t know how to deal with difficult emotions, we tend to avoid them until it gets too overwhelming,” shares Hun, who is also a life coach
